Amazon VAT Transaction Report: how to read it without mistakes

What the VAT Transaction Report is

The VAT Transaction Report (VTR) is the main report Amazon Seller Central makes available to sellers for the tax management of their European sales. It can be downloaded from Reports → Tax Document Library → VAT Transaction Report and is generated on a monthly basis or for a custom period.

The file is provided in CSV (comma-separated values) format and contains one row for each tax-relevant transaction: sales, refunds, intra-community stock movements, Amazon fees and various adjustments.

Understanding how to correctly read this report is a prerequisite for any OSS filing, VAT calculation and accounting reconciliation activity.

The main columns: a field-by-field guide

Transaction identification columns

TRANSACTION_TYPE Indicates the type of transaction. The main values are:

• SALE: sale to an end consumer
• REFUND: refund (credit note)
• FC_TRANSFER: stock transfer between Amazon warehouses (e.g. from IT to DE)
• FC_IMPORT: import into an EU Amazon warehouse
• SHIPMENT: an alternative to SALE in some layouts

Note: FC_TRANSFER transfers are not sales but intra-community movements of your own goods. They create VAT obligations separate from OSS and generally require a local VAT number in the transfer’s destination country.

ORDER_ID The unique Amazon order ID. Use it to reconcile against payments received in your Amazon account.

TRANSACTION_ID The unique ID of the individual transaction (a sale can generate multiple rows if there are several items with different rates).

ACTIVITY_PERIOD The month the transaction relates to (YYYY-MM format). Essential for quarterly OSS returns: a Q1 return includes every transaction with ACTIVITY_PERIOD = 2026-01, 2026-02 and 2026-03.

Geographic columns

SALE_DEPARTURE_COUNTRY The ISO code of the country the goods shipped from (e.g. IT, DE, FR). Indicates which Amazon warehouse the product was stored in at the time of sale.

SALE_ARRIVAL_COUNTRY The ISO code of the country where the consumer was located at the time of sale. This is the country whose VAT rate applies for the OSS return.

BUYER_VAT_NUMBER The buyer’s VAT number, if provided. When this field is populated, the sale is likely B2B (business-to-business): it doesn’t fall under the OSS scheme and follows the rules for intra-community transactions (reverse charge). Should be checked case by case.

Tax columns

VAT_CALCULATION_SERVICE Indicates whether the VAT calculation was handled by Amazon (e.g. via Amazon’s VAT Calculation Service) or by the seller. Typical values: AMAZON_CALCULATED, SELLER_CALCULATED.

TRANSACTION_CURRENCY_CODE The transaction currency. Usually matches the marketplace’s currency (EUR for European marketplaces, but GBP for Amazon UK).

TAXABLE_AMOUNT The transaction’s taxable amount in the original currency. Don’t separately include shipping charges if they’re VAT-exempt.

TAX_AMOUNT The VAT amount actually applied to the transaction. Note: if VAT_CALCULATION_SERVICE = SELLER_CALCULATED, this field might be empty and you’ll need to calculate it yourself.

TAX_RATE The VAT rate applied, in decimal format (e.g. 0.19 for Germany’s 19%). Always check that it matches the expected rate for that product category in that country.

MARKETPLACE_ID The ID of the Amazon marketplace the sale occurred on. Useful to distinguish sales on Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, etc.

Common mistakes when interpreting the report

Mistake 1: including FC transfers in OSS sales

Rows with TRANSACTION_TYPE = FC_TRANSFER are not sales: they’re stock movements. If you include them in the OSS calculation, you overstate the VAT due. Always filter them out before aggregating data by country.

Mistake 2: summing SALE and REFUND without accounting for sign

REFUND rows have a negative TAXABLE_AMOUNT and TAX_AMOUNT. Make sure your aggregation process sums positives and negatives algebraically: credit notes reduce the VAT due for the period.

If a refund relates to a sale from the previous quarter, the OSS adjustment technically belongs in the return for the quarter in which the refund was issued, not the one for the original sale.

Mistake 3: not accounting for multi-item transactions

A single order with several items in different categories (e.g. a book plus an appliance) generates two rows in the report with different rates. If you only aggregate by ORDER_ID without distinguishing rates, you’ll get incorrect amounts.

Mistake 4: ignoring non-EUR transactions

If you sell on Amazon UK or other non-euro marketplaces, transactions are in pounds or another currency. For the OSS return (always in EUR), you need to convert using the European Central Bank exchange rate for the relevant month. Don’t use your bank’s exchange rate or the spot rate on the day you file.

Mistake 5: confusing ACTIVITY_PERIOD with the order date

Amazon periodically updates its reports, and some transactions may appear in a different month than the order (e.g. due to late adjustments). Always use ACTIVITY_PERIOD as the reference for quarterly attribution, not the order date.

Structure of a correct workflow with the report

A robust workflow for preparing the OSS return based on the VAT Transaction Report includes these steps:

1. Download the report for the whole quarter of interest (or one file per month and then merge them)
2. Filter the rows by type: keep only SALE and REFUND, exclude FC_TRANSFER and FC_IMPORT
3. Separate B2B sales (rows with a populated BUYER_VAT_NUMBER): these don’t go into OSS
4. Separate domestic sales (rows where SALE_DEPARTURE_COUNTRY = SALE_ARRIVAL_COUNTRY and match your country): these don’t go into OSS
5. Aggregate the remaining rows by SALE_ARRIVAL_COUNTRY and TAX_RATE
6. Calculate the sum of TAXABLE_AMOUNT and TAX_AMOUNT for each country-rate combination
7. Check that the rates match those expected for your product category in each country
8. Convert any non-EUR currencies using the ECB rate for the month
9. Prepare the OSS return with the aggregated data

VATManager runs all these steps automatically. Upload the CSV and the system produces the aggregated table ready for filing directly.

How VATManager uses the VAT Transaction Report

VATManager is built around the structure of Amazon’s VAT Transaction Report. When you upload the file:

• Structural validation: checks that the required columns are present and in the correct format
• Normalisation: standardises date, currency and country code formats even across different versions of the report (Amazon has changed the VTR layout a few times)
• Automatic classification: each row is classified as SALE, REFUND, TRANSFER, IMPORT
• Rate matching: for each SALE, compares the TAX_RATE in the file with the one expected in VATManager’s database; flags any discrepancy
• OSS aggregation: produces the country × rate table with taxable amount and VAT ready for the return
• Export: the final report is available in Excel, CSV and PDF, with per-row detail and a per-country summary