Does Amazon moving my stock abroad create a tax problem?
It can, and it is the part of the arrangement a seller has least visibility over. Fulfilment inventory held in another country is physical presence, whatever your intention was in sending it there, and the platform decides where it sits. Presence of that kind can create an indirect-tax registration obligation in that country, and it raises a separate and harder question about whether your own company has become taxable there on its profits. Neither question waits for you to notice it. The first practical step is to obtain the platform's inventory placement data and find out which countries you are actually trading from.
Does inventory in a foreign warehouse create a permanent establishment?
It is a real question rather than a formality, and the answer is not automatic. Treaties distinguish activity that is preparatory or auxiliary from activity that amounts to carrying on the business in that country, and holding a stock of goods for delivery has historically sat on the permissive side of that line. What has changed is how much of a modern fulfilment operation happens at the warehouse, and who controls it. So the analysis is about what is done at the site and on whose behalf, not simply about whether goods are present. It has to be worked country by country, against the treaty that country has with yours.
Why do Amazon's reports not match the returns I must file?
Because the reports describe a marketplace's obligations and your return describes yours, and those are not the same set. The platform accounts for tax on the transactions it is required to, in the jurisdictions imposing that requirement. It does not account for movements of your own stock between countries, which can be reportable events in their own right, and it does not cover sales made through any other channel. Your return has to show the sales the platform handled, the sales you handled, and the stock movements, each under its own treatment. Reconciling the platform data to that is a recurring job, not a one-off correction.
I incorporated at home and sell abroad, where do I pay tax?
Your company pays tax on its profits where it is resident, which is normally where it was incorporated and is managed. That is not the end of the matter. Where it has enough presence in another country, that country can tax the profits attributable to what happens there, and the treaty decides how the two claims sit together so the same profit is not taxed twice. Stock held in a foreign fulfilment centre is exactly the fact pattern that puts this question on the table. Selling almost entirely abroad does not by itself move the company's residence, and it does not remove the home filing obligation.
Do I need a registration in a country I have never visited?
Whether you have been there is not one of the tests. The obligation follows the goods and the sales, not the seller's travel. If your stock is stored in a country, the presence is the stock, and the registration question is asked of the person who owns it, which is you. This is the part clients find hardest to accept, because a warehouse they have never seen, chosen by a platform, in a country where they have no business relationship, has created an obligation in their own name. Get the inventory placement report, list the countries it names, and take them one at a time.
Can I stop Amazon storing my stock in other countries?
Usually to a degree, through the programme settings you agreed to when you enrolled. Restricting cross-border placement limits where the platform may hold your goods, which limits where obligations arise, and it also limits delivery speed and reach in those markets. That is a commercial decision with a compliance consequence and it should be taken as one, rather than left at whatever the default happens to be. Whichever way you go, the setting has to match the registrations you actually hold. Sellers get into difficulty when the settings are changed inside the platform and nobody tells the person preparing the returns.
Do I pay Canadian tax if I live abroad?
Only if you remain a Canadian tax resident. Residency follows your ties rather than your address, so leaving while your home and family stay usually does not end it. Non-residents remain taxable on Canadian-source income — employment or business income earned in Canada, dispositions of taxable Canadian property, and passive amounts subject to withholding. The year you leave is its own exercise, with a deemed disposition and its own schedules. See leaving Canada.
How many days can I spend in a country before I become tax resident?
It depends on the country, and a day count is only ever the start. Many use a threshold in a tax year, some also look at averages across several years, and some have no day test at all and decide on where your home and life are. Two countries can both conclude you are resident, which is what the treaty tie-breaker exists to settle. Counting days without checking the tie-breaker is how people end up filing as resident nowhere. See the residency tie-breaker.
