The JournalCommerce
How Does a Non-Resident Start an Amazon FBA Business With a US LLC?
By Andres Platts · June 27, 2025 · 2 min read · Updated September 23, 2026
Quick answer
Form the LLC, get an EIN, open a bank account, then register Seller Central, in that order. Amazon collects sales tax; FBA inventory still creates nexus.
Form the LLC, get its EIN, open a business bank account, then register for Amazon Seller Central under the company, in that order. No US address, SSN, or visit required at any step when each piece is sequenced correctly, which is where most self-filed attempts stall.
The sequencing matters because Seller Central asks for an EIN and a bank account during registration, and neither exists until the LLC does. Applying out of order is the single most common reason a non-resident's Amazon application sits in review far longer than it should.
Do I Need to Collect Sales Tax Myself?
In almost every case, no. All 45 states with a general sales tax now have marketplace facilitator laws, which put the collecting and remitting duty on Amazon itself for sales made through the marketplace. You do not calculate a rate per state or file a return for those sales; Amazon already has.
The sequencing matters because Seller Central asks for an EIN and a bank account during registration, and neither exists until the LLC does.
Does Warehousing My Inventory Create Tax Exposure Anyway?
Yes, and this is the part marketplace facilitator laws do not touch. The moment Amazon stores a single unit of your inventory in a state's fulfillment center, you have physical nexus there, no minimum sales threshold required. Amazon's network redistributes stock across warehouses without asking you, so an FBA seller can accumulate physical presence in a dozen or more states without making a single deliberate decision. That presence can trigger a state income tax filing obligation for the LLC even though Amazon is already handling the sales tax side. An accounting consult that reviews your actual fulfillment footprint once a year is the honest way to know which states apply to you specifically.
Which State Should I Form My LLC In?
It does not need to match a warehouse state, and usually should not. Most non-resident FBA sellers form in Wyoming or Delaware for low formation cost, ongoing simplicity, and no state income tax on the LLC's out-of-state activity, then let inventory-driven nexus in other states be handled separately as it arises rather than trying to predict it in advance.
Getting the Seller Central account itself approved on the first attempt is its own hurdle for a non-resident; we handle that piece directly through an Amazon account setup built around your new LLC. Start here and we will sequence the LLC, EIN, and account together instead of one at a time.
In this series
Banking, Payments & Real Estate
Start hereOpening a US Bank Account as a Non-Resident- Why Do Banks Reject Non-Residents?
- Can You Open a US Business Bank Account Without an SSN or ITIN?
- How Do You Get a Stripe Account for a US LLC Owned From Abroad?
- What's the Best State to Form an LLC for Stripe and US Banking?
- How Do Non-Resident Owners Pay Themselves and Move Money Out of a US LLC?
- What a Foreign Amazon Seller Actually Owes in US Tax
A firm or advisor? Refer clients and build alongside Prodezk.
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