Intra-community movements of own goods without active EU VAT number

A French company made movements of own goods from France to Poland in 2020. The Polish VAT number to intra-Community transaction was not registered, because it was not active at that time. The movements were purely internal (from France warehouse to Polish warehouse – through Amazon). In December 2021, the French tax authorities initiated tax checks and applied taxation to these transactions at 20% VAT rate. Is the approach of the tax authorities correct?

In this article, the answer given is that the French company could not have applied the VAT zero-rate, because it did not have a valid Polish VAT-id number at the moment of the transfer. This may be something that Amazon sellers should take into account, as Amazon may require sellers to send their products to a local Amazon hub, even before they are sold.

Source Intertax

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