E-commerce Sales Tax and VAT: A Multi-Jurisdiction Playbook

For every country where you make sales, ask three questions: is there a registration threshold, does a marketplace facilitator handle collection, and are your goods/services standard-rated, zero-rated or exempt? Build the answers into a jurisdiction matrix owned by finance.

The moment you cross a threshold — often quietly, through Amazon FBA inventory movements or a new marketing channel — you have days, not months, to register.

For B2C sales into the EU under EUR 150, IOSS lets you charge VAT at checkout and file a single monthly return via one Member State. For UK B2C sales under £135, sellers must charge and remit UK VAT directly. Higher-value shipments go through customs with import VAT paid by the buyer or importer of record.

Rate calculation: Avalara, TaxJar, Anrok. Filing: local tax agents or Avalara Managed Returns. Marketplaces: rely on the platform for facilitated states/countries but reconcile monthly. Above roughly $5m in cross-border revenue, a dedicated indirect tax lead pays for itself many times over.