I don't know if they still do it, but some years ago when I lived in the UK and later when I ordered something from amazon.co.uk while visiting, some items such as DVDs, which were marked as "sold by Amazon" were actually shipped by a channel islands (Jersey?) based company. The channel islands aren't in the EU or the UK's VAT system, so by splitting the order into shipments below the UK's import VAT threshold, they could avoid charging VAT. I don't know if that scheme still works, as non-EU businesses that do above a certain amount of EU based trade need to register for EU VAT. (including getting an "EU" prefixed VATIN)

No, that was stopped some time ago https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/mar/15/vat-loophol...

I seem to remember the name of one of the companies Amazon used as "Indigo Starfish."

That's the one!

Now Amazon has a boatload of fulfillment centers inside the UK. Faster shipping time requirements and higher volumes makes it more economical- despite the tax costs- to have their product much closer to the customer.

couldnt agree more...and to top it off they paywalled it...

nothing wrong with a newspaper doing that, you can read it without paying:

> Receive complimentary access to two articles from The Times and The Sunday Times every week