When you sell through Amazon or eBay in the EU, the marketplace collects VAT as the deemed supplier. What that means for your own VAT registrations and filings.
Since July 2021, EU marketplaces are the deemed supplier for VAT on most B2C imports of goods valued at 150 euros or less, and on intra-EU sales by non-EU sellers. In plain terms: when a US brand sells through Amazon or eBay to an EU consumer, the marketplace, not the brand, is responsible for collecting and remitting the VAT. The marketplace charges the buyer VAT at checkout and reports it through its own Union One Stop Shop filing.
This was designed to fix a real problem. Before the rule, millions of low-value parcels entered the EU with VAT unpaid or underpaid, and enforcement against individual foreign sellers was hopeless. Making the platform liable concentrated responsibility where the data and the money already were.
The marketplace handles VAT on the qualifying transactions: the B2C sale itself, at the rate of the buyer's country. What it does not handle is everything around that sale. Your own direct-to-consumer store sales to the EU still need your IOSS registration and filings. Your B2B wholesale shipments are outside the deemed supplier rule entirely. And if you hold inventory in an EU fulfillment center, you likely still need local VAT registrations for the stock movements, regardless of who collects VAT at checkout.
The most common mistake US brands make is assuming the marketplace coverage extends to their whole EU operation. It does not. The deemed supplier rule covers specific transaction types on that platform. Your IOSS and local registrations must reflect your actual footprint, not the marketplace's.
Even though the marketplace remits the VAT, your records must cleanly separate deemed-supplier sales from your own-taxable sales. If your IOSS return includes marketplace transactions that the platform already reported, you will double-report and overpay. If you exclude sales you were actually responsible for, you underpay and create an audit trail problem.
The practical fix is transaction tagging at the order level. Every EU order should carry a flag: deemed-supplier transaction with the marketplace's VAT handling, or own-supply transaction requiring your IOSS filing. Your finance team needs the marketplace's VAT reports, usually available in seller central dashboards, to reconcile against your own filings each period. Build this reconciliation into your monthly close, not your year-end scramble.
If 100 percent of your EU B2C sales flow through marketplaces as deemed-supplier transactions, and you hold no EU inventory, you may not need your own IOSS registration at all. That is a genuine simplification many small brands can claim. But the moment you launch your own Shopify store for the EU, or place stock in a European warehouse, the analysis changes and registrations become necessary.
The rule of thumb: map your supply chain first, then decide on registrations. List every way goods reach EU customers, direct and marketplace, and assign the VAT responsibility for each path. Most brands discover they need a hybrid setup: marketplace coverage for platform sales plus their own IOSS for direct sales. That hybrid is normal, and it is far cheaper than the penalties for guessing wrong.
Only if every EU sale you make qualifies and you hold no EU inventory. The deemed supplier rule covers B2C marketplace transactions, generally under 150 euros for imports. Your own website sales, B2B shipments, and stock held in EU warehouses still create registration obligations. Most growing brands end up with a hybrid setup.
You get double taxation on that transaction: the marketplace remits VAT through its filing and you remit again through yours. The fix is order-level tagging that separates deemed-supplier sales from your own supplies before each filing period. Reconcile the marketplace's VAT reports against your IOSS return every month to catch overlaps early.
If all your EU B2C sales are deemed-supplier transactions on the marketplace and you store no inventory in the EU, you generally do not need your own IOSS registration. Amazon handles the VAT as deemed supplier. Keep documentation of this position, though, because the moment you add direct sales or EU warehousing, the answer changes.
Storing goods in an EU country typically creates a VAT registration requirement in that country, because moving your own stock across borders is a taxable event. This applies even when the final sale is a deemed-supplier marketplace transaction. Many US brands are surprised by this, so check your 3PL footprint before assuming marketplace coverage is enough.