LLC for online business: the US company for sellers who live abroad
You don't need a US LLC to sell online. You form one when a platform, a payment provider or your US customers want a US business behind the checkout, and when you want the business's debts kept apart from your own.
Forming in Wyoming or New Mexico doesn't decide your taxes. Where your buyers and your stock are decides US sales tax, and where you live decides most of your income tax.
You built something that sells: a store, a listing that ranks, an app with paying users, a template people download at 3am your time. Then a checkout form asked for a US address, or a US buyer asked for a W-9, and the question changed from "can I sell?" to "what should the business behind this be?"
Why sellers abroad form a US LLC, and when they don't need one
A limited liability company is a separate legal person. Contracts, refunds, chargebacks and supplier disputes land on the LLC, not on you. For a business that sells mostly to Americans, it also gives you the things US checkouts expect: a US entity name, an EIN, a US bank account for payouts and a W-9 you can hand to a US client.
Form one when
- Your country isn't on a payment provider's list, or its version lacks what you need.
- Most buyers are in the US and you want US payouts in US dollars.
- You're raising money from US investors (they'll usually want a corporation later, and a Delaware one).
- You want liability kept inside a company before you scale ads or stock.
You may not need one when
- Your home country is supported by Stripe or Shopify Payments and your buyers don't care where you're based.
- You sell on Amazon from abroad: Amazon registers companies from many countries directly.
- A local company is cheaper to run and your tax adviser prefers it.
If your country is supported by Stripe, our Stripe supported countries guide shows what a local account can do and where a US LLC adds something.
An LLC is a wrapper for the business you already have. It doesn't create customers, and it doesn't make your income tax-free where you live.
What Amazon, Shopify, Stripe and the app stores actually ask
Provider adverts often say a US LLC "unlocks" these platforms. Each platform publishes its own rules, and they're narrower and more interesting than that. This is what each one says, with the row for your model highlighted.
| Platform | What it says about sellers abroad | What it asks the LLC for |
|---|---|---|
| AmazonSelling on Amazon.com | Sellers from many countries open a North America account directly, and Amazon's own page says you may not be required to form a US company. | A passport or ID, a card that can be charged internationally, a bank account, a business registration document, proof of address dated within the last 180 days, and a tax interview that creates the right IRS form. |
| Shopify PaymentsUS store | Offered where the business is located in a supported country, about 40 of them. A US LLC can use the US version, and a representative living abroad can give a passport instead of an SSN. | An EIN, a full US dollar checking account at a US bank, and the US address where the business mainly operates, with proof dated within six months. Shopify's account rules for its Balance product exclude registered agent and virtual addresses, so settle the address first. |
| StripeUS account | Stripe says US registered businesses may operate in another country. Without an SSN or ITIN, the representative gives a local tax ID and papers showing they aren't a US taxpayer. | The EIN, a real business address (no PO box), a US bank account, and SSN or ITIN digits for each owner once lifetime volume reaches US$500,000. Our Stripe guide compares a US account with your country's. |
| Apple App StoreDeveloper Program, organization | An LLC enrols as an organization. Apple doesn't accept DBAs or trade names, only the legal entity. | A D-U-N-S number, a signer with authority to bind the LLC, a public website on the LLC's own domain and an email on it. US$99 a membership year. |
| Google PlayConsole, organization | Organization accounts can't be created without a D-U-N-S number, and the name and address must match the Dun and Bradstreet profile. | D-U-N-S, an organization phone number and website. A US$25 one-time fee. |
Each platform still checks the person behind the LLC. Where a page needs a sign-in, such as Seller Central's tax help, we describe only what the public page says.
Read the platform's rule before you form. The LLC fixes "where is the business"; the platform still wants to know who you are.
US sales tax for online sellers: the economic nexus checker
Until 2018 a state could only make you collect sales tax if you had a physical presence there. In South Dakota v. Wayfair the Supreme Court let states require remote sellers to collect once their sales into the state pass a set amount. Every state with a sales tax now has such a line, and each draws it differently.
Two things are true for you as a seller abroad. Your LLC's home state doesn't matter here: a Wyoming LLC selling to Texans deals with Texas. And marketplaces collect on their own sales under marketplace facilitator laws, so a pure Amazon seller rarely registers anywhere, while a Shopify store owner might.
Economic nexus checker
| State | Sales | Orders | Measured over | Rule |
|---|
Each row links to the state's own page. States revise these lines; the state's page wins over this table. Registering is only the start: which of your products are taxable is a separate, state by state question.
Say you run a skincare store from Lisbon on Shopify. Last year it sold US$140,000 into California, US$95,000 into Texas, US$62,000 into Florida and 1,100 small orders worth US$48,000 into New Jersey.
California and Texas set the line at US$500,000, Florida at US$100,000: nothing to register yet. New Jersey is the surprise. Its line is US$100,000 or 200 separate sales, so those 1,100 orders cross it, and the store registers in New Jersey before its biggest market.
Marketplace sales: collected for you, but they may still count
A marketplace facilitator collects and pays the tax on the orders it handles. Whether those same orders count toward your line is a state choice. They count in California, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Washington. They're left out in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia. It matters when you also sell from your own site: in Texas, Amazon orders plus site orders together decide whether you register for the site orders.
The order tests are disappearing. Illinois dropped its 200 order test on 1 January 2026, Kentucky on 1 August 2026, Utah in 2025, Wyoming and North Carolina in 2024. Connecticut and New York are the only states where you must pass both the dollar and the order count.
Sales tax follows your buyers, one state at a time. Run your top three states through the checker every quarter.
Stock in a US warehouse: the two questions it raises
The day your goods sit on a shelf in Kentucky or Pennsylvania, you have something in the US that a remote seller doesn't. That raises one state question and one federal one, and they have different answers.
The state question: sales tax
Stock is physical presence, and physical presence doesn't wait for a dollar line. In many states, goods stored there are enough on their own to need a sales tax permit.
Some states carve out stock in someone else's warehouse. Nevada's tax department says a remote seller selling through collecting marketplaces doesn't need a permit if its only presence is inventory in a third party's fulfilment centre. Not every state says this; check each state your stock sits in.
The federal question: a US trade or business
The IRS says that if you own and operate a business in the US selling products, you're generally engaged in a US trade or business, and profit connected with it is taxed in the US. Sales of goods you bought are sourced where title passes to the buyer, and a US office or fixed place of business pulls sales attributable to it into US income.
No IRS guidance names fulfilment centres. If you live in a treaty country, the treaty's permanent establishment rules matter: the US model treaty says a facility used solely for storage, display or delivery isn't one. Your country's actual treaty decides.
US stock is a reason to talk to a US tax adviser before you send the first pallet, not after.
US income tax by business model: four worked examples
A US LLC with one owner is, by default, ignored for US income tax: its profit is treated as yours. The US then taxes you only on income connected with a US trade or business and on certain US passive income. What makes a trade or business is a question of facts, so here is how the facts usually line up for each model.
Own online store, shipped from abroad
Say you live in Warsaw and your store ships from a supplier in Shenzhen straight to US buyers. No US warehouse, no US staff, no US office: the business is run from Poland.
On those facts there's usually no US trade or business, so no US income tax return for the profit. The LLC still files Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 every year, and Poland taxes you on the profit.
Marketplace seller with US stock
Say you live in Madrid and send pallets to fulfilment centres in three states. Amazon collects the sales tax. The open question is the federal one from chapter 4: whether stock and sales in the US amount to a US trade or business for you.
Spain has an income tax treaty with the US, so the treaty's storage rule is part of the answer. Ask a US tax adviser before the first shipment.
SaaS or app with two founders
Say you and a cofounder, in Bangalore and Nairobi, run a subscription app through a Delaware LLC. With two owners the LLC is a partnership for US tax: it files Form 1065 every year and gives each of you a K-1.
Code written and supported from abroad, with no US staff or office, usually means no US business income. If US investors arrive, they'll usually want a corporation, which changes the filings.
Digital products and templates
Say you sell design templates from Buenos Aires through Stripe, a third of them to US buyers. Nothing about the business happens in the US except the payments and the customers.
That's the cleanest case: one Form 5472 a year, a W-9 for US clients who ask, and VAT or GST abroad (chapter 6) as the bigger tax question.
Form 5472 is due with the pro forma 1120 by its due date, 15 April for a calendar year. The IRS penalty for not filing is US$25,000.
The full federal picture, including the US$25,000 penalty and how to file, is in our Form 5472 guide; the general rules for owners abroad are in US LLC for non-residents.
The LLC usually passes its profit to you. Whether the US taxes that profit depends on what happens in the US, not on the LLC.
VAT and GST on digital products sold to buyers abroad
A US LLC selling e-books, courses, software or subscriptions to consumers in other countries meets their consumption taxes, not America's. The four largest regimes for a seller outside them:
A seller with no business in the EU charges the buyer's country's VAT on digital services to consumers and can declare it all through the non-Union One Stop Shop. The EUR 10,000 threshold is only for sellers established in an EU country.
A business with no UK establishment must register for UK supplies whatever their value, digital services included.
A non-resident registers for GST once turnover reaches A$75,000 in 12 months. Sales to GST-registered businesses don't count, and sales made entirely through a platform that collects GST don't need registration. ATO
Simplified GST/HST registration applies once sales to unregistered Canadian buyers pass C$30,000 over any 12 months, not counting sales through a registered distribution platform. CRA
If your checkout sells to the world, either register where the rules need it or sell through a platform that acts as the seller of record and handles the tax.
Which state for an online business
An online business has no shop front and no staff in any state, so the state choice is about running cost, the public record and who might invest. It changes nothing about which states' sales tax you collect.
Bars show year one. Prices include the state's fees and our registered agent. Nevada vs Wyoming and Wyoming vs Delaware go deeper.
For most stores and digital sellers: Wyoming or New Mexico. For a SaaS that will raise: Delaware.
What a US LLC for an online business costs, year one and after
The bill has three parts that never change, whatever you sell: the state, the registered agent and the yearly federal form. Sales tax registrations, an accountant and VAT filings depend on your model and come later, if at all.
Your bill
State registrations for sales tax are free in most states; filing the returns is the cost, in time or software. A US bank account comes with our setup, and it almost always goes through. An ITIN is only needed for certain filings; most single-owner LLCs selling from abroad don't need one.
Year one from US$99 in New Mexico or US$181.40 in Wyoming, every state fee included.
Step by step: from idea to first payout, without a US visit
- Pick the state and the name
Match the name to your brand, so payout descriptors and invoices look like your store.
Day 1 - We file the LLC
Articles filed with the state, registered agent in place, operating agreement drafted for a single owner.
Minutes to a few days, by state - EIN from the IRS
Applied for without an SSN. It's the number every platform asks for. Our EIN guide walks through it.
About four business days by fax - US bank account
Opened in the LLC's name for payouts. See the US bank account guide.
After the EIN - Connect your platforms
Stripe, Shopify Payments, Amazon, Apple, Google: each in the LLC's name, each with its own identity check of you.
Week 2 to 4 - Tax forms for platforms
The LLC gives US platforms and clients a W-9 once it has its EIN; marketplaces run a tax interview inside your account.
At signup - Watch your states
Once a quarter, put your top states' sales into the checker above and register where you cross.
Every quarter - File Form 5472 by 15 April
Every year the LLC exists, even with no US income. We can prepare it.
Each year
Eight steps, all from where you live. The platform step takes longest, so start it the day the EIN arrives.
LLC for online business: questions sellers ask
Do I need an LLC to sell online in the US from abroad?
No. Amazon registers sellers from many countries directly and says you may not need a US company. You form one when a platform or payment provider needs a US business, or to keep the business's liabilities apart from you.
What is the best state for an online business LLC if I live abroad?
Wyoming or New Mexico for most stores and digital sellers, on cost: US$181.40 or US$99 for year one with us. Delaware for a SaaS company planning to raise from US investors. The state doesn't change your sales tax.
Does my US LLC have to collect sales tax?
Only in states where your sales cross that state's remote seller line, usually US$100,000 a year, or where you have stock or staff. Marketplaces collect on their own orders. The checker on this page has every state's line.
Can a foreign-owned US LLC use Shopify Payments?
Shopify's US requirements accept an LLC with an EIN, a US dollar checking account at a US bank and the US address where the business mainly operates. A representative living abroad can give a passport instead of an SSN.
Does Amazon FBA inventory make me pay US income tax?
No IRS guidance names fulfilment centres. The general rules on a US trade or business and your country's tax treaty decide it, so settle it with a US tax adviser before you ship stock to the US.
Do I charge EU VAT on digital products sold through a US LLC?
Yes, on sales of digital services to EU consumers, from the first sale. A seller outside the EU can use the non-Union One Stop Shop to declare it in one place.
How much does a US LLC for an online business cost?
With us, year one is US$99 in New Mexico or US$181.40 in Wyoming, state fees and registered agent included. Form 5472 preparation is US$179 a year.
Changelog
- 13 November 2026: first published, with remote seller thresholds for every sales tax state.
More reading: US LLC for non-residents, Stripe supported countries, Form 5472 guide, US bank account guide. A guide, not tax advice.
A US company behind your checkout.
From US$99 in New Mexico or US$181.40 in Wyoming for year one, state fees and agent included, with the EIN and the bank account set up with you. Paid in crypto.