Do I need an LLC to sell on Amazon?
The short answer is no. Amazon does not require an LLC, and you can open a seller account and start trading as an individual. The longer answer is that there are specific points where not having one starts costing you real money.
What Amazon actually requires
To open a Professional seller account you need an identity document, a bank account that can receive deposits in the marketplace’s currency, a chargeable credit card, a phone number and tax information. You can register as an individual.
Amazon does not ask for a business licence. Your state, country or local authority might — that is a separate question from what Amazon wants, and sellers routinely confuse the two.
What an LLC actually gives you
Liability separation — the real one
As a sole proprietor there is no legal line between you and the business. If a customer is injured by a product you sold and sues, your personal assets are exposed: your savings, potentially your home.
An LLC puts a legal wall there. The company can hold a bank account, borrow money, and sue or be sued in its own name. This matters most if you sell anything that can physically harm someone — supplements, electricals, children’s products, sporting goods. If that is your category, the question is not really whether to form one, it is when.
Access to suppliers and wholesale
Many wholesalers and distributors will not open an account without a registered business and a reseller certificate. If your growth plan involves buying wholesale rather than retail arbitrage, this becomes a hard blocker rather than a nice-to-have.
Banking and clean books
A business bank account in the company name makes bookkeeping dramatically simpler, and it is what most accountants and lenders expect to see. Running a growing business through a personal account is a problem that compounds quietly.
Tax: usually no change at all
A single-member LLC is taxed by default exactly like a sole proprietorship — profits flow through to your personal return. You get the liability protection without changing how you are taxed. People expect this to be a trade-off and it generally is not.
When you genuinely do not need one yet
Forming a company has real costs: formation fees that vary by state, annual filings, a registered agent, and the admin of keeping the thing compliant. If you are testing a product with a few hundred dollars of inventory in a low-risk category, that overhead buys you very little.
Selling in the US from outside it
You do not need to be a US resident or citizen to sell on Amazon US, and you do not need a US company. Plenty of sellers trade successfully from abroad as individuals.
What a US entity tends to solve is the practical friction:
- A US bank account, which removes conversion costs and the awkwardness of receiving payouts abroad.
- An EIN, which US suppliers, banks and payment processors expect.
- A reseller certificate, which lets you buy wholesale without paying sales tax on goods you will resell.
- A US business address and phone number, which several services require.
- Credibility with American suppliers who are often reluctant to open accounts for foreign individuals.
These are not Amazon requirements. They are the requirements of everyone else you will need to deal with, and that is usually what pushes overseas sellers to form a US entity.
The pieces that actually make a company work
Registration on its own is the easy part. A functioning setup needs:
- The entity itself — LLC in the US, LTD in the UK, registered in a state or jurisdiction that suits you.
- An EIN or tax number. Free directly from the IRS, and required for almost everything that follows.
- A business bank account. The step that trips up overseas founders most often.
- A reseller certificate, if you intend to buy wholesale.
- A registered address and phone number in the jurisdiction.
- Ongoing filings. Annual reports and, depending on structure, quarterly tax filings. Letting these lapse can dissolve the company you paid to create.
The last one is where most self-service formations come apart. Registration is a single afternoon. Staying in good standing is a recurring obligation that is easy to forget until a filing is missed.
The short version
No, you do not need an LLC to sell on Amazon. You will probably want one once you are selling seriously, and you will almost certainly want one if your product could injure somebody or if you plan to buy wholesale. If you are selling from outside the US, the entity is less about Amazon and more about everyone else you have to deal with.
We do this every day, in real accounts.
Our company formation team will audit yours free and show you exactly where the opportunity is. No obligation, and you keep the findings either way.