The law has recently changed in Germany and this will soon change for all of the European marketplaces.
Germany is clamping down on on Amazon.de sellers and is now enforcing much stricter compliance with its VAT rules. Amazon.de has sent out notice to all of its sellers that are required to comply to upload their VAT Tax Certificate to Seller Central or their selling privileges will be revoked.
This has created some complications for sellers with some receiving notice despite selling under €100,000 (the distance selling threshold) and not storing in Germany but there can be different reasons for this.
For example, sellers that sell under the threshold in Germany and not storing in Germany but have accepted returns are asked to register.
If you are not compliant and want to continue selling on Amazon.de, you can still write to them to ask for an extension so long as you can provide proof that you’re in the process of getting your VAT number and certificate. It will generally take 5-6 weeks to get your documents.
You can check whether you’re eligible for free registration here: https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gc/fulfilment-by-amazon/pan-european-fba/external-tax-services
To be eligible for Amazon’s Pan EU FBA program, you need to be selling in all of the designed countries (UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, PL and CZ) which means that if you’re no longer selling in Germany, you’ll automatically be withdrawn from the program.
If you’ve already gotten your VAT number, you can fil out the F22 Tax Certificate Application form.