Amazon Ads VAT calculator

Why do you pay VAT on Amazon ads?

Because Amazon Ads adds your country's VAT or GST to your ad spend when you have no VAT number. A registered business deducts that tax in its returns, so it costs it nothing; an author or a small seller who is not registered cannot, so it is a real cost on top of every click: 20% in France, 19% in Germany, 21% in Spain.

Amazon treats its advertising fees as electronically supplied services: sold to someone without a VAT number, they carry the tax of the advertiser's country. Amazon does not publish what each of its companies adds, country by country, so the tax line of your own Amazon Ads invoice is the figure to trust.

Tax lost per year = ad spend per month × 12 × tax rate

Can you get the VAT on Amazon ads back?

Only by registering for VAT (or leaving your country's small-business scheme), and only if your own income gives you the right to deduct. For KDP royalties, it does in France, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom, India, Japan, Australia, and Canada, and in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa once you pass a voluntary-registration threshold. Merch on Demand designers often get the same answer, not always: pick « Merch on Demand designer » in the calculator to see theirs.

In Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Singapore, New Zealand, and Mexico it should too, but that is a reading of the law that no tax office has written down for Amazon royalties.

Your royalties carry no VAT of their own: on the EU stores, Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. in Luxembourg pays them and accounts for the tax, and outside the EU they are usually a zero-rated export. What counts is that the same activity would give the right to deduct in your own country (article 169 of the EU VAT directive).

Registering commits you, often for years: 2 years in France (article 293 F of the tax code), 5 years in Germany (§ 19 UStG), at least 2 years in Japan and Singapore. You file returns for all that time, which can mean paying an accountant: weigh that against the tax you get back.

Who cannot get the VAT back?

Authors in Spain. Authors' rights are exempt from VAT there and the exemption cannot be waived, so a KDP author who registers still cannot deduct the VAT on his ads. Spain's tax office wrote it for an Amazon KDP author in binding ruling V0218-23 (13 February 2023): such an author makes only exempt operations that give no right to deduct, in any measure.

• : probably not either. Authors are exempt there, or outside the scope of VAT, and no tax office has said whether self-publishing through KDP counts.
• India: registering turns the GST into a credit, but royalties are a zero-rated export, so the credit piles up until you claim a refund. A cash advance, not a saving.
• Türkiye, Egypt, and Brazil: not verified. The rules exist, but no official text applies them to Amazon royalties; ask an accountant.
• The United States has no VAT. Since 1 October 2025, Amazon adds Washington State sales tax for a Washington billing address, and nothing can be deducted.

What if you sell products to consumers?

Then registering usually costs more than it saves. You deduct the VAT on your ads, but you must also charge VAT on every sale, and consumers cannot get it back: unless you can raise your prices, the VAT you hand over on your sales outweighs the VAT you recover on your ads.

Example in France: a seller under the small-business scheme with €5,000 of sales and €1,000 of ads a month keeps €3,800. Registered, her ads cost €1,000 instead of €1,200, but €833.33 of her sales is now VAT to hand over: she keeps €3,167, €633.33 less every month. Registering pays when your sales carry no VAT to pay, like royalties, or go to businesses that deduct it.

Example: €3,000 a month of Amazon ads in France

A KDP author in France under the small-business scheme (micro-entrepreneur) who spends €3,000 a month on Amazon ads pays €600 of VAT a month on top: €7,200 a year she cannot get back.

If she opts for VAT (article 293 F of the tax code, for at least 2 years), she deducts that VAT in her returns. Her royalties, paid by Amazon Media EU in Luxembourg, still carry no French VAT, and authors' rights would be taxable in France, which keeps her right to deduct (article 271 V d). Her ads then cost €3,000 a month instead of €3,600, less what her returns cost her.

€3,000 × 12 × 20% = €7,200 of VAT a year

VAT on Amazon ads, country by country

The standard rate of each of the 24 countries we checked, and whether a KDP author who registers can deduct the tax on his ads, read in each country's law and tax-office pages (linked at the bottom of this page).

“Not verified” means no official source settles the case: ask an accountant before you decide.

What should you do?

First, read the tax line of your Amazon Ads invoices: it is what you really pay. Then, if this page says registering would get it back, ask an accountant what the returns would cost you and how long the option commits you, and compare that with the tax you would recover each year.

• Once registered, add your VAT number to your Amazon Ads billing settings and claim the tax in every return.
• If you sell products to consumers, count the VAT you would charge on your sales before you register.
• If nothing can be recovered, count the tax as part of your ad cost when you judge your ACOS and your bids.