Advance VAT return from the Amazon VAT Transactions Report (AVTR)

Selling on Amazon and filing the advance VAT return (USt-VA)? From the AVTR you take the net amounts by tax case: box (Kennzahl) 81 (19%) or 86 (7%) for German VAT, box 41 for exempt EU supplies to businesses with a valid VAT ID, box 45 for OSS sales. Deadline: the 10th day after the month or quarter ends.

Last updated: 27 October 2026

In short

The report: Fulfilment by Amazon, Tax; ready from the 3rd of next month, covers at most 93 consecutive days.
Supply period counts, not Amazon's payout day (unless the tax office allowed tax on payments received).
Warehouse in another EU country: moving your own goods there is an intra-Community supply (box 41, recapitulative statement).

Where do I get the Amazon VAT Transactions Report (AVTR)?

According to Amazon's help page, the Amazon VAT Transactions Report (AVTR; in German “Amazon Umsatzsteuer-Transaktionsbericht”) is a monthly report with detailed data on all taxable transactions in Amazon's European marketplaces and logistics network. It covers sales, refunds, returns, cross-border inbound shipments, transfers between fulfilment centres, commingling transactions, liquidations, donations and Amazon service fees. Amazon points out that the page is not tax advice and that you are responsible for the accuracy of the data you use for reporting or tax purposes.

The report for a month is available on the 3rd day of the following month; the report for January 2026 is therefore ready from 3 February 2026. Each report contains the goods transactions (sales, refunds, goods returns, inbound shipments etc.) for the report month and the fee transactions of the previous month. You can create reports for any period from August 2016, with at most 93 consecutive days per report; if you need more, you create several reports for consecutive periods.

This is how you download the report (as of the Amazon help of 21 October 2026):

Sign in: Sign in to Seller Central.
Open the reports: Go to Reports (“Berichte”) and from there to Fulfilment by Amazon (“Versand durch Amazon”).
Choose Taxes: In the left-hand menu, scroll to the section Taxes (“Steuern”) and click Amazon VAT Transactions Report (“Amazon Umsatzsteuer-Transaktionsbericht”).
Set the period: Choose your date range, at most 93 consecutive days.
Download: Click “Request .csv Download” or “Request .txt Download”, wait until the report has been created and download it. For VAT GPT you upload the CSV file.

Which month does a transaction belong to?

Amazon lists each goods transaction in the report by its completion date, not by the order or payment date. The completion date is stored in the column TRANSACTION_COMPLETE_DATE. Which date applies depends on the transaction type:

Transaction type	Completion date according to Amazon
SALE (sale)	Shipping date
REFUND (refund)	Date on which the refund was completed
RETURN (goods return)	Date on which the returned goods arrive at the fulfilment centre
INBOUND (goods receipt)	Date on which the inventory was checked in at the fulfilment centre
FC_TRANSFER (transfer between fulfilment centres)	Date on which the inventory was checked in at the receiving fulfilment centre

Amazon assigns liquidation sales and donations by the shipment and liquidation refunds by the date the refund was completed. Goods receipts and stock transfers are in the same report; look at them if you move goods to warehouses in other EU countries (for the tax side see “Warehouses in other EU countries”).

An example from Amazon: An order placed on 31 January but shipped on 1 February appears in the February report, not in the January report. Other reports in Seller Central assign by other dates: the “All Orders” report (“Alle Bestellungen”) by the order date, the payment reports by the posting date of the event (GMT). According to Amazon these are differences in timing, not data errors. Which advance return period counts for a sale is explained under “Rules when transferring the figures”; the report month is Amazon's classification.

What you may notice in the report:

Transactions not yet completed are missing. According to Amazon, a transaction is included only after it has been completed; what is still in progress is reported only in the following month. So check the next month's report for transactions that were still in progress at the end of the month.
Fees come from the previous month. Fee data of a month appears in the report of the following month. The column ACTIVITY_PERIOD shows which month the fee belongs to. You find fee lines by filtering for SALES_CHANNEL = AMAZON_FEE; according to Amazon, individual fee invoices remain available in the tax documents (“Steuerdokumente”).
Empty VAT columns. Without the VAT Calculation Service (“Umsatzsteuer-Berechnungsservice”, VCS), Amazon shows only the price including VAT (the gross price of the item), and you are responsible for calculating the VAT separately. If you activate the service only later, it does not fill the tax fields for earlier data.
Departure country when you ship yourself. For orders that you ship yourself, Amazon has no insight into the origin and fills the departure country from your default shipping address in the tax settings. A changed address applies only to future transactions; earlier reports are not updated.

Which three questions do I ask for every sale?

Before you transfer figures, answer for every sale in your report:

Where was the item shipped from? From Germany or from a warehouse in another EU country? In principle a supply is deemed to take place where the shipping begins; for distance sales to private customers in other EU countries the special rule with the €10,000 threshold applies.
Where did it go? To Germany, to another EU country or to a country outside the EU?
To whom? To a private customer or to a business that gave you a valid VAT ID number from another EU country?

Which sale belongs in which box

Transaction	Box in the advance VAT return
Sale to customers in Germany, shipped from Germany	81 (19%) or 86 (7%), each net
Sale to private customers in other EU countries, not above €10,000 EU-wide (previous year and current year)	81 or 86, with German VAT
Sale to private customers in other EU countries above the threshold, declared in the OSS	45, net only; you pay the tax through the OSS return
Sale to businesses in other EU countries with a valid VAT ID number	41 (VAT-exempt) and recapitulative statement
Sale to a country outside the EU (export)	43 (VAT-exempt)
Moving your own goods to a warehouse in another EU country	41 and recapitulative statement with your VAT ID number from the destination country
Invoice from a business in another EU country for a service, without German VAT	46 (amount) and 47 (tax); the same tax as input VAT in 67
Incoming invoice with German VAT (purchases, fees)	Input VAT in 66

Net and in whole euros: The advance return shows the taxable amounts (Bemessungsgrundlagen) without VAT and without cents. You convert amounts in a foreign currency into euros.
The right month: In the normal case (tax on the basis of agreed consideration, Besteuerung nach vereinbarten Entgelten) the tax arises at the end of the month or quarter in which you delivered – not when Amazon pays out the money. Only if the tax office has allowed you tax on the basis of payments received (Besteuerung nach vereinnahmten Entgelten) does the receipt of payment count. This is possible on application, among other cases where total turnover in the previous year was no more than €800,000.
Supplies to businesses in the EU: You declare these in the period in which you issue the invoice, at the latest in the period in which the month after the supply ends.
Returns and refunds: Refunds reduce the taxable amount. The correction belongs in the period in which the change occurred; negative amounts are entered with a minus sign.
No double counting of OSS sales: What you declare in the OSS belongs in the advance return only as a net amount in box 45 – not additionally in 81 or 86.

What applies to warehouses in other EU countries?

If you store goods in warehouses in other EU countries, you must keep two transactions apart:

Moving the goods to the warehouse. If you move your own goods from Germany to a warehouse in another EU country, this counts for VAT purposes as a supply to yourself (“Verbringen”) and as an intra-Community supply (exception: consignment stock under § 6b UStG). In the German advance return it appears in box 41. In the recapitulative statement you state your VAT ID number from the destination country for it – so you need a VAT registration there.
Selling from the warehouse. If you sell from this warehouse to customers in the same country, the shipping begins there: the supply takes place in that country. This is not a distance sale and does not belong in the OSS return; the VAT on it follows the law of that country. In your German advance return the turnover appears only as a net amount in box 45, because the place of supply is not in Germany. Sales from the warehouse to private customers in a third EU country, on the other hand, are distance sales and can go into the OSS.

How do I treat fees, reverse charge and the small-business case?

For invoices for services that you receive, the following applies:

With German VAT: You deduct the tax as input VAT in box 66 if a proper invoice is available.
From a business in another EU country, without German VAT: Then you owe the German VAT yourself (reverse charge – tax liability of the recipient of the service, § 13b UStG). You enter the net amount in box 46 and the tax in box 47. If the service is used for your business, you deduct the same tax again as input VAT in box 67.

So check on every fee invoice whether German VAT is shown or whether the invoice refers to the tax liability of the recipient of the service.

Small business owners (Kleinunternehmer; total turnover in the previous year not above €25,000 and in the current year not above €100,000) generally do not submit an advance VAT return. But: if as a small business owner you owe VAT under § 13b UStG – for example for the service of a business from another EU country – you must still submit an advance return for those periods.

By when must the advance return reach the tax office?

The advance return must be with the tax office electronically by the 10th day after the end of the advance return period; the prepayment is due on the same day. The advance return period is the quarter, and the month if the tax in the previous year was more than €9,000. If the 10th falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the deadline ends on the next working day. With the permanent deadline extension (Dauerfristverlängerung) you get one month more. Everything about it: Submitting the advance VAT return online.

How VAT GPT helps

By hand this means: add up the report in Excel by country and tax rate and type the values into ELSTER. With VAT GPT:

Upload: You upload your Amazon VAT Transactions Report (AVTR) as a CSV file and your invoices. The AI reads amounts, countries and tax rates.
Check: VAT GPT breaks down the VAT for Germany and the EU (OSS) and prepares the advance return – monthly or quarterly – and the OSS return. You check and confirm.
Send: With VAT GPT Pro, the advance return goes via ELSTER to the tax office, the OSS return directly to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt).

There is Free (basic features, free of charge), Go (30 days free with all Pro features) and Pro (€49 per month or €444 per year, each including VAT). Try for Free Now

Which mistakes happen often?

Entering gross instead of net. The advance return wants the taxable amount without VAT.
Booking by payout date. With tax on the basis of agreed consideration, the period of the supply counts.
Taxing OSS sales twice. In the advance return only box 45, the tax in the OSS.
Treating business customers as VAT-exempt without a valid VAT ID number. The tax exemption requires a valid VAT ID number of the customer from another EU country. If the supply is missing from the recapitulative statement or wrong there, it is taxable.
Forgetting the transfer to the warehouse abroad. Even without a sale it is an intra-Community supply.
Overlooking reverse charge on fees. Invoices from other EU countries without German VAT belong in boxes 46/47 and 67.
Correcting returns in the wrong month. What counts is the period in which the refund changes the taxable amount.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find the Amazon transactions report for VAT? In Seller Central under Reports (“Berichte”) and Fulfilment by Amazon (“Versand durch Amazon”): in the left-hand menu you choose the Amazon VAT Transactions Report (“Amazon Umsatzsteuer-Transaktionsbericht”, AVTR) in the section Taxes (“Steuern”), set the date range (at most 93 consecutive days) and request the CSV or TXT file. The report for a month is available from the 3rd day of the following month.

Why is an order in the transactions report in a different month than in the “All Orders” report? The AVTR assigns a sale by the shipping date, the “All Orders” report by the order date. An order of 31 January that is shipped on 1 February is therefore in the “All Orders” report in January, but in the AVTR in February.

Why does the marketplace ask for my VAT ID number? Operators of online marketplaces are liable for unpaid VAT on the sales of their traders. The liability generally lapses if the trader has a valid VAT ID number issued by the BZSt at the time of the supply. The operator must also record this number.

Monthly or quarterly – which applies to me? In principle quarterly. If your VAT in the previous year was above €9,000, you file monthly. If it was no more than €2,000, the tax office can exempt you from advance returns.

Do my OSS sales also belong in the advance return? Yes, but only as a net amount in box 45. You declare and pay the foreign VAT in the OSS return to the BZSt.

What do I do with returns? A refund reduces the taxable amount of the original sale. You correct in the period in which the change occurred, if necessary with a negative amount.

I sent goods to a warehouse in Poland or the Czech Republic. What do I have to report? In Germany an intra-Community supply (box 41) and the recapitulative statement with your VAT ID number from the destination country. Sales from this warehouse to customers there are domestic sales in that country and do not belong in the OSS.

I am a small business owner. Do I need an advance return? As a rule, no. An exception are periods in which you owe VAT under § 13b UStG, for example for the service of a business from another EU country.

By when must the payment be with the tax office? The prepayment is due on the 10th day after the end of the advance return period. If you pay late, a late-payment penalty (Säumniszuschlag) of 1% of the arrears, rounded down, is due for every month begun.