If you sell through Bol or Amazon, you book sales on the amount the customer pays, not on the amount the platform pays out. The VAT is on what the customer pays. You book the commission, shipping labels and other platform costs separately as costs.
The payout itself is not revenue. It is money the platform received for you and passes on after deducting its costs. With a clearing account per platform you can see whether everything adds up: after each payout that account should be at zero.
In short
- You remain the seller and charge the VAT yourself, if you sell as a Dutch business from your own stock in the EU through a platform.
- Check on the platform's invoice which country it comes from. You deduct Dutch VAT as input tax, with VAT reverse-charged from another EU country you use boxes 4b and 5b.
- Through DAC7, platforms report your sales to the Belastingdienst, from 30 sales or more than € 2,000 a year. Your return must match that.
In this article
- Who charges the VAT when you sell through Bol or Amazon?
- Why do you book sales gross and not the amount that comes in?
- How do you book the commission and other platform costs?
- How do you make the payout reconcile with your bank?
- What does the platform report to the Belastingdienst?
- What changes if your stock is in a warehouse abroad?
- Why do you track earnings separately per sales channel?
Who charges the VAT when you sell through Bol or Amazon?
Usually you do. The platform only takes over the VAT in two cases. The first: goods imported from outside the EU, in a consignment of at most € 150. The second: goods sold to a consumer from a warehouse in the EU by a business that is itself established outside the EU (Belastingdienst, supplying goods through a platform).
That rule is called the deemed supplier rule. For VAT purposes the platform is then treated as the seller. If you are a Dutch online shop selling through Bol or Amazon from your own stock in the Netherlands, it does not apply to you. You charge and pay the VAT yourself, just as in your own online shop.
A party that only processes the payment, a payment service provider, does not make a platform the seller for VAT purposes either (Belastingdienst, supplying goods through a platform).
Why do you book sales gross and not the amount that comes in?
Because VAT is charged on the total amount the customer pays. The law calls that the consideration: the total amount charged for the supply, excluding the VAT itself (Turnover Tax Act 1968, article 8(2)). What the platform deducts afterwards does not change that consideration.
An example. A customer pays € 60.50 through the platform for a product at 21%. Your sales are € 50.00 and the VAT € 10.50. If the platform deducts commission and a shipping label, you are paid less, but you still pay € 10.50 in VAT. If you only book the amount paid out as sales, your sales are too low and so is your VAT.
Book the sales in the period of the sale, not in the period of the payout. For a sale to a consumer without an invoice, the VAT becomes due at the moment of supply (Turnover Tax Act 1968, article 13(1)). So an order of 30 June belongs in the second quarter, even if the platform only pays out in July.
How do you book the commission and other platform costs?
As costs, with the VAT shown on the platform's invoice. The platform sends an invoice for its commission, shipping labels, advertising and storage. Check which company issues it and from which country. That decides how you process the VAT.
If it shows Dutch VAT, you deduct it as input tax, as with any other purchase invoice. If the invoice comes from a company in another EU country, you usually receive an invoice with 0% VAT or with 'VAT reverse-charged'. You then declare the amount in box 4b of your VAT return and deduct the same VAT in box 5b (Belastingdienst, declaring goods and services from another EU country).
Which platform invoices from which country can change. So do not rely on last year, but check every invoice. Split the costs in your books by type, such as commission, shipping, advertising and storage. Then you can see later what each channel costs.
How do you make the payout reconcile with your bank?
With a clearing account per platform. On that account you book the sales including VAT as an amount the platform still owes you. You book the platform's costs off it. When the payout reaches the bank, you book that off too. If everything is right, the clearing account is at zero afterwards.
If a balance remains, something is missing. Think of a return the platform has offset, an advertising invoice you have not yet booked or an amount the platform is temporarily holding. Investigate the difference per payout and not only at the end of the year.
Use the platform's sales report as the source, not the bank statement. It shows per order the customer's amount and the costs. Keep those reports with your records.
What does the platform report to the Belastingdienst?
Information about you and your sales, if you sell 30 times or more in a year or for more than € 2,000. This follows from a European rule called DAC7 (Belastingdienst, European directive DAC7 for online sales).
The platform collects the information up to 31 December and reports it by 31 January of the following year (Belastingdienst, information for platform operators DAC7). So the Belastingdienst can compare your sales through the platform with your VAT return and your profit.
A report does not mean you have to pay tax on those proceeds (Belastingdienst, European directive DAC7 for online sales). But if you only book the payouts as sales, your sales will be lower than what the platform reports. Booking gross prevents that difference. Sales in your own online shop do not fall under DAC7 (Belastingdienst, information for platform operators DAC7).
What changes if your stock is in a warehouse abroad?
Then you sell from that country, under that country's VAT rules. KVK gives the example of fulfilment by Amazon in Germany. Your stock is then in Germany and you need a German VAT number for it. A sale to a German consumer is then a domestic sale in Germany (KVK, VAT rules for e-commerce in the EU).
That turnover does not belong in your Dutch VAT return as Dutch sales. Give such sales their own revenue account and their own VAT code in your books, so you can declare them separately in the country where they belong.
Why do you track earnings separately per sales channel?
Because each platform has different costs and only then can you see which channel really earns something. With a revenue account and a clearing account per platform, and costs by type, you make that visible without extra work afterwards.
There is another reason. Researchers looked at product categories in which Amazon itself started selling next to other sellers on the platform. Amazon more often chose categories that were already doing well. Sellers in those categories then grew less on the platform, while customers bought more and paid less for shipping (Zhu & Liu, 2018).
That research was about Amazon in the United States and says nothing about any particular shop. It does show that your position on a platform can change without your doing. If you know per channel what is left over, you see that sooner and can adjust in time.
Sources
- Belastingdienst, I supply goods through a platform, how does VAT work?, accessed 28 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Declaring goods and services from another EU country, accessed 28 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, European directive (DAC7) for online sales, accessed 28 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Information for platform operators (DAC7), accessed 28 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Turnover Tax Act 1968 (Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968), articles 8 and 13, in force on 28 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- KVK, VAT rules for e-commerce in the EU, accessed 28 October 2026. kvk.nl
- Zhu, F. & Liu, Q. (2018). Competing with complementors: An empirical look at Amazon.com. Strategic Management Journal, 39(10), 2618-2642. doi.org