Selling on Amazon US From Another Country: A Practical Setup Guide

Amazon's US marketplace is open to sellers based in other countries, and many of them run it from an overseas office or factory. What changes is not the selling itself but the plumbing around it: how you prove who you are, which tax forms you complete, how money reaches your bank, how stock crosses a border, and what happens to the units shoppers send back. For a domestic seller each of those has a cheap default. For you, some have a costlier answer that is easier to plan before you open the account than after. This guide takes the five areas in the order you will meet them. It is general information, not tax or legal advice.

Identity checks: prove the business is real

Before you can list, Amazon verifies the person and the business behind the account. Read the current requirements in Seller Central before you start, because the exact steps change. The pattern is stable, though. You supply business details, a government-issued ID for the primary contact, proof of address, a bank account and a payment card, and a phone number you can answer. Amazon has also used a live video call in which a representative checks your documents against your face.

Most delays come from mismatches, not suspicion. The legal business name, the address and the account holder's name must agree across every document you upload. A utility bill that shows an old address, a bank statement that spells the company name differently, or an ID that has expired will each stall the review. Fix the paperwork first, then apply. The person who applies should be the person who actually controls the business. Amazon's policy is generally one selling account per seller, so check the current rule before you think about a second one.

Tax forms: two questions, not one

The first question is how the United States treats the income your business earns from US customers. During registration Amazon runs a tax interview in which you say whether you are a US or non-US person. Non-US sellers typically complete a W-8 series form instead of a W-9, which tells Amazon how to report your earnings. Whether you owe US income tax, whether a treaty between your country and the US applies, and whether you need a US taxpayer identification number all depend on your country, your entity type and where your operations sit. Those are questions for a qualified cross-border tax advisor.

The second question is about transaction taxes. In states that have marketplace facilitator rules, Amazon calculates, collects and remits sales tax on orders it facilitates, but the details vary by state and you may still have obligations of your own. Goods crossing the border face customs duties and fees, which belong in your landed cost. Your home country may also expect income tax and VAT reporting on exports. Write down who is responsible for each item before the first shipment leaves the factory, because each one is cheapest to arrange before stock is in a container.

Getting paid: banking and currency

Amazon pays out sales proceeds on a regular cycle by transfer to a bank account you register. For a seller outside the US there are three common routes. You can register a bank account in your home country and let the payout be converted into your currency. You can use a payment service that provides a US dollar receiving account and then moves the money onward. Or you can open a US business bank account, which some foreign owners can do and others cannot, depending on the bank and the documents you hold.

The cost hides in the exchange rate. A route that advertises no fee can still convert at a rate noticeably worse than the market rate, and that gap acts as a fee. Compare routes with one test: take a hypothetical $10,000 payout and ask each provider how much arrives in your home currency after every fee and the rate. Remember timing too. You pay suppliers, freight and duties before sales proceeds arrive, so your working capital must cover the whole stretch from purchase order to payout.

Inbound logistics: who is the importer of record?

Moving stock across a border adds a legal role: the importer of record, the party responsible for declaring the goods to customs and paying duties. Decide who holds that role before you order. Most overseas sellers work with a freight forwarder and a customs broker who handle US entries. Ask suppliers to quote on terms that make the split of responsibility clear. In one common arrangement the supplier delivers to the departure port and you pay for everything after it. In another the price includes delivery and duties. Compare quotes on a landed cost basis, never on the headline unit price. Check, too, that the product meets US safety, labeling and country-of-origin marking rules and any category approval it needs, because goods that fail them can be held at the border or removed from sale.

You then have two routes for FBA stock. You can send goods straight from the factory or forwarder to Amazon fulfillment centers using the shipping plan you create in Seller Central. That is the cheapest route per unit when goods arrive correctly prepared and labeled. Or you can ship to a US warehouse or prep center first. That adds a handling cost and some days, but gives you a place to inspect cartons, fix labels and split shipments. With a new product or an unproven supplier, the extra stop can be worth paying for. Fulfilling orders yourself from abroad is possible, but US shoppers expect tracked delivery within a few days, and a slow international parcel makes late shipments and poor metrics likely.

Returns and customer service from a distance

Returns are where cross-border cost shows up late. With FBA, shoppers return units to Amazon, which processes them and puts sellable units back into stock. Units that cannot be resold remain in your inventory as unfulfillable until you ask for them to be disposed of or removed. A removal order that ships goods back to your country costs freight, and the goods may face customs again. For most low-value items the sensible default is to dispose of or liquidate unsellable units inside the US. Look at the removal and disposal fees before damaged stock builds up.

With FBM, the shopper needs somewhere to send the return. A US address, such as a warehouse or prep center, is far more practical than a return to another country, and Amazon's policies set expectations for how merchant-fulfilled returns are handled, so read the current rules. Also plan buyer messages. Amazon expects replies within a short window set out in its seller policies, so time zones matter if your team is asleep while US shoppers write. Many overseas sellers assign someone to cover US business hours.

A staged plan

Do not try to solve everything at once. A first product is a test of the whole route, not only of demand. Use the stages below and move on only when the previous one has produced numbers you trust.

Where to start

• Collect the identity and address documents and make the names match exactly.
• Book time with a cross-border tax advisor before you complete the tax interview.
• Choose and test a payout route using a hypothetical $10,000 payout.
• Decide who will be importer of record and quote suppliers on a landed cost basis.
• Pick a US return address and an unsellable-units plan before the first shipment.
• Check US product safety, labeling and category rules for your product before you order production.