Fee Reductions/ Pre-suspension POA Time Increased/ Letter from CA for Back Taxes

Hello All

1) Fee Reductions. “Hello from Amazon, Each year we reassess our referral fees to ensure they reflect changing industry dynamics and incorporate feedback to consider ways to grow your business. This year, we are lowering our referral and minimum referral fees across categories to help you increase your selection of products. Starting February 19, 2019, we will implement the following changes.Referral fee reductions:• Reduction of the per-item minimum fee from $1.00 to $0.30 across all applicable categories. The minimum fee for Jewelry and Watches will decrease from $2.00 to $0.30 per item.• Reduction of the referral fee percentage for Baby (excluding baby apparel), Beauty, and Health & Personal Care (including personal care appliances) from 15% to 8% on products with a total sales price of $10.00 or less. The referral fee on products with a total sales price above $10.00 will remain at 15%.• Reduction of the referral fee percentage for Furniture items (except for mattresses) from 15% to 10% on any portion of the total sales price above $200.00. You will continue to be charged 15% on any portion of the sales price at $200 and below.• Reduction of the referral fee percentage for Jewelry items from 20% to 5% on any portion of the total sales price above $250.00. You will continue to be charged 20% on any portion of the sales price at $250 and below.• Reduction of the referral fee percentage for Grocery and Gourmet products from 15% to 8% on products with a total sales price of $15.00 or less (previously announced on August 16, 2018).”

2) New! “Dear Seller, Orders fulfilled by your account have been identified as violating our Drop Shipping Policy. If this continues, it may result in account deactivation.”

3) New! “Please note that moving a restricted product listing to Out of Stock (OOS) does not make the listing compliant. Failure to properly close or delete all restricted product listings from your inventory may result in the removal of your selling privileges. If you think your product was incorrectly identified as a restricted product on Amazon, close the listing immediately, to ensure compliance while you appeal the restriction with Seller Support.”

4) Many sellers received a letter from CA for back taxes. There is no clear path yet exactly what to do so speak to your accountant. I discussed with Michael Fleming his position and what sellers should do.YouTubeDBYou can discuss all tax related concerns in “Tax Related ASGTG Group.”  To get links to all ASGTG Telegram groups, check the pinned messages on any group or fill out this form.

5) As suggested by ASGTG, Amazon changed the POA time pre-suspension from 24 hours to 72 hours. (HT Amazon)

6) From a concerned member “if you’re doing Seller Fulfilled Prime and using Amazon’s Buy-Shipping Services, you are NOT covered/reimbursed for Safe-T claims unless you ship with signature required. Quite annoying, as it used to be enough with tracking showing “delivered.”

7) New! “Amendments to existing German VAT legislation will become effective on January 1, 2019. As a result, you might no longer be able to sell on Amazon from March 1, 2019, if you have not obtained and provided us a copy of your German Tax Certificate.”

8) Daniel Wellington, after a 6-month break, seems to be back to back filing TM complaints. Many sellers received TM complaints from Loreal for items they did not list. You definitely listed at least one on the list so just address the ones you did list and then point out the others were never on your inventory.

Good Shabbos – Ed Rosenberg