Starting from April 15, Amazon's US and Canada sites will charge this fee!

Recently, Amazon announced that starting from April 15, 2022, California's Marketplace Tax Collection (MTC) rules will add new fees, including regulatory fees subject to MTC restrictions (for example, e-waste recycling fees, etc.).

It should be noted that this regulatory fee is levied on buyers. Sellers do not need to take any action in their accounts to charge buyers the regulatory fees supported by the region. As to whether Amazon will charge sellers a commission for the regulatory fee, the platform has not yet responded.

However, sellers should note that if regulatory fees are charged to buyers, the amount will be reflected in the "regulatory fee" item on the order and transaction detail pages. A new "regulatory fee" column will be added to the payment and sales tax reports in the back-end account to reflect the total amount of the regulatory fee.

Regarding how the fees are calculated, the announcement stated that these fees will be supported by Amazon's backend calculation system. The California e-waste recycling fee will be calculated, collected and remitted by Amazon (as a market facilitator) based on the quotes of third-party sellers. Other fees will change with the finalization of the MTC rules and Amazon's service support fees.

Some sellers said that they hope Amazon can make public in a timely manner what the “other fees” specifically include.

Regarding the calculation standard of the fee, the announcement stated that Amazon will determine whether the seller's product is eligible for the supported regulatory fee based on the relevant product information provided by the seller in the product listing (for example, product type, screen size, and battery information, etc.). In this regard, sellers hope that Amazon can accurately distinguish which products are truly eligible for this regulatory fee, rather than "accidentally hurting" some sellers' products like marking "pesticide" products.

In addition, sellers need to note that the sales tax report format will also be updated. Sellers who use the API to obtain reports need to pay attention to the updates of columns and headers.

It is understood that California's population accounts for 12% of the total U.S. population, and the per capita disposable income is more than $36,000. However, California's tax revenue has always been high, and the increase in regulatory fees may further affect California consumers' discretionary spending.

Amazon

US and Canada Site

New fees