Austria's Parcel Delivery Tax took effect October 1, charging €2 on qualifying B2C distance-sale parcels delivered in Austria. The threshold is €100 million in Austrian distance-sales turnover in the prior fiscal year.

The detail that matters most for sellers is who pays. When a marketplace facilitates the sale, Austria treats the platform as the seller for this tax.

That makes Amazon, Temu, Shein, AliExpress, and eBay each independently liable, and each one now has to decide whether to absorb €2, raise seller fees, or raise consumer prices. Four platforms, potentially four different answers.

How Austria's Parcel Tax Deemed Supplier Rule Works

Under the Austrian Finance Ministry's guidance, the liable party files quarterly through FinanzOnline. For a sale facilitated through an online marketplace, the platform is treated as if it made the distance sale itself.

That means the marketplace's facilitated Austrian turnover determines liability, not the individual merchant's revenue. A small seller on a large marketplace is generally not the statutory taxpayer for facilitated orders.

That is not a promise you will never bear the cost. A platform can change fees, cut shipping subsidies, alter promotions, or pass cost to customers. Austria's law says nothing about how a platform recovers the tax.

Direct-to-consumer merchants need a separate analysis. If your own qualifying Austrian distance sales stay below €100 million, the tax does not apply to you under the threshold described. Group structure, platform role, or turnover attribution questions warrant local tax advice before changing checkout.

Austria's €2 Tax vs. the EU's €3 Import Duty

These are different measures with different triggers, and conflating them will produce a wrong margin model.

Austria's charge covers qualifying domestic deliveries from distance sales. It is not limited to parcels below €150, and the location of goods when the customer orders does not determine whether it applies. A parcel shipped from an Austrian warehouse can be covered.

The EU's low-value import duty is a customs measure focused on goods entering the bloc, and it can vary with the customs classifications inside a shipment.

For every Austrian order, identify the sales channel, where inventory sits, who facilitates the transaction, the import treatment, and which party's contract absorbs each cost.

The pressure lands hardest on low-priced goods. A €2 platform cost is 10% of a €20 order before VAT or any import charge.

Why Split Shipments and Returns Get Expensive

A liable business may calculate the tax at €2 per delivered parcel, or elect €2 per order that produces a taxable delivery. That election applies across the entire filing period.

The order option matters when one checkout generates several parcels or combines goods from multiple underlying sellers. A platform's choice here changes its incentive to consolidate shipments, set minimum order values, or steer buyers toward products held near each other.

Returns do not reverse the charge. Austria's guidance says a later customer return does not undo the taxable event. A replacement delivery for already-delivered goods creates no additional charge, but the original tax stands.

So a platform or merchant can refund the buyer and absorb reverse logistics while the €2 remains paid.

How to Audit Your Austrian Orders and Settlements

Pull real Austrian orders placed after September 30. Capture product price, shipping charge, tax display, promotion, marketplace fees, and seller payout. Repeat for a single-item order, a multi-item order, and one likely to split across locations.

Then check the platform's Austrian seller notice and fee schedule for a named parcel-tax line, a commission change, a shipping adjustment, or a pricing-rule update.

If nothing appears, do not invent an allocation. Preserve the first settlements so you can compare them when the platform publishes detail.

For your own store, tag Austrian B2C orders separately from B2B sales carrying a valid VAT identification number. C2C and qualifying B2B transactions fall outside the tax scope, but your records need to support that classification.

What to Watch as Platforms Decide

The next real development is how each marketplace recovers the cost. Model three cases until the terms are public: the platform absorbs it, passes it to the buyer, or shifts it into merchant fees.

That range is more useful than assuming the statute tells you who ultimately pays. It does not. Each platform's answer will tell you something durable about how it treats seller costs when a government hands it a bill.