No: an Italian KDP author cannot get back the 22% VAT on Amazon ads, under the text of Italian VAT law. Licensing your own book to Amazon is not a VAT transaction in Italy, and VAT on purchases linked to transactions outside VAT cannot be deducted. A partita IVA does not change that. Every euro you spend on Amazon ads costs you 1.22 €.
This page is for self-published authors living in Italy who advertise their books with Amazon Ads. It is based on Italian law as in force in October 2026 (Normattiva), Amazon's KDP terms and Amazon Ads help. We found no ruling of the Agenzia delle Entrate on KDP itself (see below). It is information, not tax advice.
Your own figures: Amazon Ads VAT calculator, Italy preselected.
What 22% VAT costs you
| Ads a month | VAT a month | VAT a year |
|---|---|---|
| 200 € | 44 € | 528 € |
| 500 € | 110 € | 1,320 € |
| 1,000 € | 220 € | 2,640 € |
| 3,000 € | 660 € | 7,920 € |
Amazon says it plainly: an advertiser in a VAT country who has not given a VAT number is charged VAT on the advertising fees. Giving one does not make the tax go away: a VAT-registered buyer then accounts for it himself (reverse charge). Either way you pay it, so the only question is whether you can deduct it.
Why the VAT cannot be deducted
Four texts, in order:
- What KDP is. Under the KDP terms, you grant each Amazon company "a nonexclusive, irrevocable, right and license" to print and sell your book. You are paid royalties by the Amazon company that made the sale; Amazon Media EU S.à r.l., in Luxembourg, is one of them.
- That licence is outside Italian VAT. Article 3, fourth paragraph, letter a) of DPR 633/1972: "Non sono considerate prestazioni di servizi: a) le cessioni, concessioni, licenze e simili relative a diritti d'autore effettuate dagli autori". The only exceptions are drawings and architecture, films, and works used by businesses for commercial advertising.
- VAT linked to it cannot be deducted. Article 19, paragraph 2: "Non è detraibile l'imposta relativa all'acquisto o all'importazione di beni e servizi afferenti operazioni esenti o comunque non soggette all'imposta".
- Being paid from Luxembourg does not save it. The exception for transactions abroad (article 19, paragraph 3, letter b) covers only those which, "se effettuate nel territorio dello Stato, darebbero diritto alla detrazione". In Italy, your licence would not.
If you are in the forfettario scheme, the answer is no for a second reason: forfettari "non hanno diritto alla detrazione" of VAT on their purchases (Law 190/2014, article 1, paragraph 58).
| Your situation | Can you deduct the 22%? |
|---|---|
| No partita IVA | No |
| Partita IVA, forfettario | No |
| Partita IVA, ordinary scheme | No, for VAT on ads that sell your own books |
How to get an official answer
The reading above is the text of the law applied to KDP. No tax office has written it down for KDP: we found no published ruling of the Agenzia delle Entrate on self-publishing through Amazon.
To get one for your own case, file an interpello ordinario. The Agenzia must answer within 90 days; if it does not, its silence counts as agreement with the solution you proposed. What to ask, or to ask your accountant:
- Is my KDP licence to Amazon outside VAT under article 3, fourth paragraph, letter a)?
- Does article 19, paragraph 2 block the deduction of the VAT on my Amazon ads?
- Does anything in my case change that (publishing other people's books too, selling books myself, a company)?
The law changes its numbers on 1 January 2027. DPR 633/1972 is replaced by the new consolidated VAT text (Legislative Decree 19 January 2026, n. 10), which reorders the rules in force into one text. Ask your accountant for the new article numbers before you file anything after that date.
How to lose less: waste less ad spend
The VAT stays, so the lever is the ad spend itself. Every euro wasted on a click that never sells costs you 1.22 €.
Example: you spend 1,000 € a month, and 25% of it goes on search terms that never sold a book. That is 250 € of ads plus 55 € of VAT, 305 € a month, 3,660 € a year, for nothing.
- Count the VAT in your break-even. If a sale earns you a 4 € royalty, you can spend at most 4 ÷ 1.22 = 3.28 € of ads per sale before losing money, not 4 €.
- Add negative keywords on the search terms that spend without selling: how negative keywords work.
- Move spend from automatic to manual targeting once you know which searches sell: automatic vs manual targeting.
- Know what a click costs before you raise a bid: what Sponsored Products cost.
Gloriads can do the first two for you every day, by rules you set: for example, add a negative on any search term that spent more than a set amount without a sale.
Check your own figures with the Amazon Ads VAT calculator for Italy.
Sources
- DPR 633/1972, article 3 (author's licences outside VAT), Normattiva
- DPR 633/1972, article 19 (deduction), Normattiva
- DPR 633/1972, article 16 (22% rate), Normattiva
- Law 190/2014, article 1, paragraphs 54 to 89 (forfettario scheme), Normattiva
- Legislative Decree 19 January 2026, n. 10 (consolidated VAT text from 2027), Normattiva
- Interpello ordinario, Agenzia delle Entrate
- Directive 2006/112/EC, article 196 (reverse charge), EUR-Lex
- KDP Terms and Conditions, sections 5.4 and 5.5, Amazon KDP
- Value Added Tax (VAT) on Electronically Supplied Services, Amazon Ads
Gloriads is an Amazon Ads automation platform that creates, monitors and optimizes Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and Streaming TV campaigns for sellers, brands, authors and agencies, by rules you control. See how it works.