Recently, many sellers have reported that they have received reminders related to Italian VAT in the backend, with each one seemingly more serious than the last. The main issues include: being required to provide VAT registration information for Germany/UK/France within 14 days, otherwise it may affect Amazon.it inventory and FBA permissions; and being warned of the risk of account suspension, with reminders that Italian VAT issues could impact shipping or warehousing on other sites.

Why are there so many issues this year?

In the past, if a tax number in a European country expired, it could indeed directly affect the account, even leading to account suspension. However, since April last year, Italy has implemented a deposit policy, which has led to widespread adjustments. Simply put, this is not an operational issue for a single seller, but a common situation. Currently, most Chinese sellers operating on the Italian site have received similar reminders.

Because of this, Amazon has been relatively more lenient in dealing with Italian tax number issues. However, the system's warning logic has not been fully updated, so some sellers still receive warnings of "account suspension risk," which can be quite alarming.

Will an Italian VAT anomaly affect the entire account?

If the anomaly is limited to the Italian VAT number and does not involve tax issues in other countries, the impact is controllable and will not lead to the suspension of the entire account. The core recommendation is to directly close Italian warehousing (FBA), which will not affect other sites such as Germany, France, and the UK, and will not lead to the suspension of the entire account, but will only limit your FBA functionality on the Italian site.

What happens after the grace period?

Many sellers are concerned about the "14-day grace period" mentioned in most warning notices. Here is a breakdown of the actual situation:

1. During the grace period (usually 14 days): System reminders are the main focus, and functionality is basically normal;

2. Just after the grace period: Italian FBA inventory can usually be sold normally for a while;

3. About 14 days after the grace period: Inventory will begin to be frozen陆续被冻结；

Once it enters the freezing stage, sellers need to deal with it as soon as possible. It is recommended to move the warehouse first to avoid long-term locking of goods in Italian warehouses.

IV. Is the restriction on self-shipping also normal?

Some sellers reported that after the Italian tax number became invalid, even self-shipping was restricted. Is this normal? Because according to the normal rules, Italian VAT issues should not affect self-shipping, so it can currently be judged that this is most likely a system BUG, not a policy requirement.

Moreover, some sellers have successfully restored the self-shipping function through appeals. You can open a case to contact Amazon customer service or directly connect with the account manager to appeal.

Therefore, this issue is recoverable, and you should not give up the Italian market because of it.

V. What should sellers do now?

Even if there are abnormalities in Italian VAT, as long as the operation is proper, the Italian market can still be layout normally.

First of all, the goods need to enable Pan-EU, and the Italian site orders will be remotely distributed from your other sites that have enabled inventory configuration through EFN (European Distribution Network). Based on the Pan-EU enablement rules, just make sure that the goods meet two major conditions to sell normally on the Italian site and enjoy the advantages of Pan-EU:

Requirement 1: Inventory configuration must be enabled in at least two of the five countries of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland, and have the corresponding EU VAT tax number for the country/region.

Requirement 2: The product Listing prepared to join Pan-EU must be uploaded to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands and maintain a saleable state.

In response to changes, it is also recommended that sellers focus on the following points in the future:

1. First judge the scope of impact: Whether it is limited to Italian VAT, don't be scared by the system email;

2. Close Italian storage in time: Control the risk scope;

3. Pay attention to inventory status: Plan to move inventory in advance to avoid passive handling after freezing;

4. Appeal in time when encountering abnormal restrictions (such as self-shipping), and do not assume that this is the normal rule.

Finally:

The essence of this Italian VAT issue is the stage confusion brought about by policy adjustment superimposed on the system not being fully synchronized, rather than a risk control strike against a certain seller.

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