Selling from a Dutch 3PL or fulfilment warehouse

Why stock in the Netherlands means a Dutch VAT number

When you sell goods from Dutch stock to consumers in the Netherlands, the sale takes place in the Netherlands and nobody else pays the VAT for you. Your company owes the Dutch VAT itself and registers as a foreign business.

A warehouse or fulfilment centre run by a third party, without your own staff, is usually not a fixed establishment of your company. You register through the Registration form Foreign companies, and your company stays established abroad.

Getting the goods into the warehouse

Goods from outside the EU are imported. Your company needs an EORI number, issued in the EU country where it files its first customs declaration, and import VAT is due at import, usually paid through your customs broker. With a Dutch VAT registration you deduct that import VAT in your Dutch VAT return.

An Article 23 licence moves the import VAT to your return, so nothing is paid at the border. A foreign company can only use it through a fiscal representative; we refer you to a licensed partner if you need one.

How each sale is taxed

• Consumers in the Netherlands: Dutch VAT, reported in your Dutch VAT return
• Consumers in other EU countries: the VAT of the customer's country, reported through the Union OSS from the first sale. For a company established outside the EU there is no € 10,000 threshold
• Business customers established in the Netherlands: the VAT is reverse-charged to your customer
• Business customers in other EU countries: an intra-Community supply at the zero rate, with the customer's VAT number and on your EC Sales List
• Consumers through a marketplace: for a seller from outside the EU, the marketplace is in many cases treated as the seller. Your sale to the marketplace is zero-rated and still reported in your Dutch return

Moving stock to another EU country

Moving your own goods from the Dutch warehouse to a warehouse in another EU country is a transfer of your own goods. For VAT it is a supply in the Netherlands, reported in your Dutch return and EC Sales List, and an acquisition in the country of arrival, where you usually need a VAT registration as well.

Example

A company from the United Kingdom imports goods with a customs value of € 40,000 per quarter into a Dutch fulfilment centre and sells them to consumers in the Netherlands for € 60,500 including VAT.

• Import VAT at 21% of € 40,000: € 8,400, paid at import and deducted in the Dutch VAT return
• VAT on the sales: 21/121 of € 60,500 = € 10,500
• To pay with the quarterly return: € 2,100

This is a worked example with rounded amounts, without customs duty or other costs in the import value, not a client case.

What we do

We follow your goods from the supplier to the warehouse and on to your customers, and tell you which registrations you need. Then we register your company for Dutch VAT (€ 275, everything included), apply for your EORI number if needed (€ 59) and file every return in our monthly package: € 100 per month, € 150 with the OSS return.

Are you a 3PL or fulfilment company with clients from abroad? Read how we work with you on the Dutch VAT of your clients.