Case Study: How a German Manufacturer Expanded Kitchenware Sales to Germany and Beyond with Automated VAT Compliance

Discover how a €40M German kitchenware brand expanded with Amazon Pan-EU VAT and automated VAT compliance powered by hellotax’s platform.

---

The Challenge: Expanding E-Commerce, Rising Compliance Complexity

A €40M-revenue German kitchenware and household goods manufacturer decided to expand from traditional manufacturing into a direct-to-consumer (D2C) e-commerce model. With 250 employees, the company launched its own Shopify store and joined the Amazon Pan-European (Pan-EU) programme to accelerate growth.

But expansion came with serious VAT compliance challenges:

• 📍 Multiple EU markets (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Spain)

• ⚖️ Different VAT registration rules, timelines, and filing requirements

• 📊 In-house finance team lacked EU-wide VAT expertise

• 🚨 High risk of penalties, delays, and blocked sales channels without a scalable compliance system

---

The Solution: Automated EU VAT Compliance with hellotax

To overcome these hurdles, the company partnered with hellotax — a trusted provider of automated VAT compliance for e-commerce businesses.

Seamless Integration Across Platforms

• 🔗 Amazon & Shopify API connections ensured real-time syncing of all transactions.

• 📥 Bulk data uploads enabled visibility across additional sales channels.

Fully Managed VAT Services

• 🌍 Multi-country VAT registrations in five EU states, handled end to end.

• 📑 Automated VAT filings & OSS returns, including proforma invoices for intra-EU stock movements.

Centralised Dashboard & Expert Support

• ☁️ A cloud-based dashboard to track VAT compliance across all markets.

• 👩‍💼 A dedicated account manager guiding the company through onboarding, filings, and future expansions.

Amazon’s official guide on Pan-EU FBA VAT and storage obligations here.

---

The Implementation: Fast, Transparent, Scalable

Onboarding was designed to be smooth and scalable:

1. Document Provision → Company documents submitted once, used for all VAT registrations.

2. System Integration → Amazon & Shopify accounts connected to hellotax’s VAT software.

3. Automated Compliance → VAT obligations tracked, reported, and filed automatically, with expert oversight.

This setup was particularly valuable for Amazon Pan-EU VAT compliance. Since stock was stored in multiple EU fulfillment centers, the client needed VAT numbers in each relevant country. hellotax automated the registrations and filings, ensuring that Pan-EU expansion ran without disruption.

---

The Results: Growth Without the Tax Headaches

The partnership allowed the kitchenware brand to expand across Europe fully compliant, without overloading the in-house team.

✅ Immediate Wins

• Fast VAT registrations enabling timely market entry

• Automated filings removing manual work

• Centralised visibility across all EU sales

✅ Long-Term Scalability

• Future-proof VAT system ready for new countries, products, and platforms

• Reduced compliance risk thanks to automated filings

• Finance team freed to focus on growth instead of admin tasks

The results highlight the value of automated VAT compliance for companies operating across borders. With Amazon Pan-EU VAT obligations covered, the brand was able to expand into multiple countries quickly, without facing delays or penalties that could have jeopardized sales momentum.

Lessons Learned: Why Automated VAT Compliance Matters

For businesses expanding across multiple EU markets, VAT compliance is not just a legal requirement — it’s a strategic necessity. This case showed that relying solely on an in-house finance team often leaves gaps when it comes to Amazon Pan-EU VAT obligations, where goods are stored in several fulfillment centers at once.

By implementing automated VAT compliance, the brand gained:

• Predictability – no surprises with tax deadlines or filings.

• Speed – faster registrations and returns across six EU countries.

• Accuracy – reduced risk of human error in manual filings.

• Growth capacity – the ability to scale into more markets without new compliance headaches.

For mid-sized e-commerce companies, this approach ensures VAT does not become a growth bottleneck. Instead, compliance becomes a streamlined process running in the background, while the business focuses on customers, products, and sales.

---

Conclusion: The Right VAT Partner for E-Commerce Growth

This case study shows how a mid-sized e-commerce brand scaled across Europe by relying on hellotax’s automated VAT compliance platform.

With integrations for Amazon Pan-EU VAT, Shopify, and other platforms, plus expert support, hellotax ensures that sellers expand confidently without tax headaches.

👉 Ready to simplify your VAT compliance? Book your free consultation today and discover how hellotax can support your cross-border growth.

For extensive information on cross-border e-commerce VAT, check other articles from hellotax here.