With KDP you are the publisher of your own books, and publishing is a taxable activity in the Netherlands. So the 21% VAT on your Amazon ads is deductible, once you have a VAT number and are out of the small business scheme (KOR). Your royalties carry no Dutch VAT: they pay for a service to Amazon companies established abroad.
This page is for self-published authors living in the Netherlands who advertise their books with Amazon Ads. It is based on the Dutch VAT act (Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968), the Belastingdienst's own pages, Amazon's KDP terms and Amazon Ads help, read in October 2026. It is information, not tax advice.
Your own figures: Amazon Ads VAT calculator, Netherlands preselected.
What the 21% VAT costs you today
| Ads a month | VAT a month | VAT a year |
|---|---|---|
| 200 € | 42 € | 504 € |
| 500 € | 105 € | 1,260 € |
| 1,000 € | 210 € | 2,520 € |
| 3,000 € | 630 € | 7,560 € |
Amazon charges VAT on the advertising fees of an advertiser in a VAT country who has not given a VAT number. With a VAT number, the VAT is either on the invoice or accounted for by you (reverse charge), and you deduct it in your VAT return: the 21% then costs you nothing.
Why KDP is taxable publishing, not an exempt writer's service
The Belastingdienst puts publishing on the taxable side. Its page on writers lists, among their "belaste activiteiten", the "uitgeven van publicaties". What it exempts is the writing itself: the "schrijven van publicaties voor gedrukte of digitale media met daarin uw eigen gedachtegoed". The 2005 decision on writers says the same thing: "De meest kenmerkende dienst van een schrijver bestaat dan ook uit de productie van manuscripten."
With KDP, you do the publisher's work, and Amazon's contract says so. The KDP terms are made with "you" or "Publisher". Under them:
- you provide each book "at your own expense", files and metadata included;
- you set the price: "The list price you provide to us is referred to in this Agreement as your "List Price"";
- you obtain and pay for "any and all necessary clearances and licenses";
- you are paid a royalty on each copy sold, calculated on your List Price.
A KDP royalty does not pay for a manuscript. It pays a share of the sales of an edition you published and priced.
Why the deduction follows
- Being paid from abroad keeps the deduction. Your KDP royalties come from Amazon companies such as Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. in Luxembourg. VAT linked to a transaction outside the Netherlands is deductible when a right to deduct "zou ontstaan indien zij in Nederland zouden zijn verricht" (article 15, paragraph 2, letter a). Publishing in the Netherlands is taxable, so it does.
- No Dutch VAT on your royalties. A service to a business is taxed "waar die ondernemer de zetel van zijn bedrijfsuitoefening heeft gevestigd" (article 6, paragraph 1): in Luxembourg, not in the Netherlands.
How to do it
- Leave the KOR if you are in it. The entrepreneur who applies it "heeft geen recht op aftrek van belasting" (article 25a, paragraph 4).
- Give your VAT number (btw-id) to Amazon Ads, then declare the VAT on your ad invoices and deduct it in the same VAT return.
- Confirm it first with a vooroverleg. If the Belastingdienst sees your KDP royalties as an exempt writer's service, the deduction falls: ask for this « zekerheid vooraf » with the form « Verzoek vooroverleg » before you deduct.
Until then: waste less ad spend
As long as you do not deduct it, every euro wasted on a click that never sells costs you 1.21 €.
Example: you spend 1,000 € a month, and 25% of it goes on search terms that never sold a book. That is 250 € of ads plus 52.50 € of VAT, 302.50 € a month, 3,630 € a year, for nothing.
- Count the VAT in your break-even. If a sale earns you a 4 € royalty, you can spend at most 4 ÷ 1.21 = 3.31 € of ads per sale before losing money, not 4 €.
- Add negative keywords on the search terms that spend without selling: how negative keywords work.
- Move spend from automatic to manual targeting once you know which searches sell: automatic vs manual targeting.
- Know what a click costs before you raise a bid: what Sponsored Products cost.
Gloriads can do the first two for you every day, by rules you set: for example, add a negative on any search term that spent more than a set amount without a sale.
Check your own figures with the Amazon Ads VAT calculator for the Netherlands.
Sources
- Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968, articles 6 (place of a service), 9 (21% rate), 11 (exemptions), 15 (deduction) and 25a (KOR), wetten.overheid.nl
- Vrijstellingen componisten, schrijvers, cartoonisten en journalisten, Belastingdienst
- Omzetbelasting, vrijstelling diensten door componisten, schrijvers en journalisten (decision of 5 December 2005), wetten.overheid.nl
- Vooroverleg, Belastingdienst
- Directive 2006/112/EC, article 196 (reverse charge), EUR-Lex
- KDP Terms and Conditions, preamble and sections 5.1, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.7, Amazon KDP
- Value Added Tax (VAT) on Electronically Supplied Services, Amazon Ads
Gloriads is an Amazon Ads automation platform that creates, monitors and optimizes Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and Streaming TV campaigns for sellers, brands, authors and agencies, by rules you control. See how it works.