Sell on Amazon FBA / FBM under an anonymous LLC. Keep your seller identity off state records. Handle multi-state sales tax cleanly.
By Shafwan Ahmed, Operations & Fulfillment Lead, Anonymousllc.co
Wyoming anonymous LLC taxed as a disregarded entity for sellers under $60k/yr; S-corp election above that. The LLC opens the Amazon Seller Central account with EIN, the business bank account, and any wholesale supplier accounts. Foreign qualification is rarely needed - Amazon FBA inventory in Amazon warehouses does not create state-level nexus under most state interpretations.
Amazon sellers are routinely targeted by competitors filing fake IP complaints, hijackers, and chargeback-fraud rings. State Secretary of State searches surface the seller's full name. An anonymous LLC means a competitor running a state search on your store name does not find your home address or full identity.
Wyoming is the standard for Amazon sellers. No state income tax. Strong banking acceptance for Amazon FBA businesses with consistent revenue. Wyoming RA address replaces your home address on filings. Annual cost $60.
| State | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wyoming (recommended) | $397 | Best balance of cost, anonymity, banking acceptance. |
| New Mexico | $347 | Cheapest. No annual report. Banking is harder. |
| Delaware | $407 | Strong for outside-investor setups. $300/yr franchise tax. |
An anonymous Wyoming LLC keeps the seller's name off the state registry, so a competitor running a search on the store name reaches the LLC and a registered agent address instead of the seller's home address and identity. Amazon sellers face a hostile competitive field. Rivals file fake intellectual-property complaints, hijack listings, and dig for the seller behind a fast-growing brand to target them directly. The first move in that playbook is a Secretary of State search connecting the brand to a person. When the business sits inside an anonymous LLC, that search dead-ends at the entity. The structure separates the public brand from the private owner. Buyers see the storefront, Amazon holds the owner identity under its own KYC rules, and the state record shows only the LLC. A competitor cannot pull a home address to send process servers, cease-and-desist letters, or worse to a personal doorstep. The shield covers passive discovery, not lawful process. A court can subpoena the owner, and Amazon knows who runs the account. What disappears is the easy, unregulated search that turns a store name into a home address.
An Amazon seller forms the LLC before opening Seller Central, because transferring an existing account to a new entity forces a full re-verification cycle that can freeze disbursements for weeks. Amazon ties a Seller Central account to the identity, tax profile, and bank on file. Opening the account under a personal SSN and then converting to an LLC later means changing the legal name, the EIN, and the deposit account at once, which triggers Amazon's identity review. A seller mid-launch loses selling privileges during that review. Forming first avoids the whole problem. The LLC files, the EIN arrives 5-7 days later, and the business bank account opens about 8-10 days after the EIN. The seller then registers Seller Central once, under the LLC legal name and EIN, on the Professional plan for FBA. The W-9 Amazon collects carries the LLC EIN, not the personal SSN, so the year-end 1099-K reports to the entity. One clean setup from the start beats a disruptive migration after revenue is flowing.
An Amazon seller LLC relies on marketplace facilitator laws, in force in 47 states, that make Amazon collect and remit sales tax on FBA and FBM orders, so the LLC registers on its own only where its direct activity creates nexus. FBA inventory sitting in Amazon warehouses does not create the seller's own collection duty in most state interpretations, because Amazon bears the facilitator responsibility. The seller's independent nexus arises from a physical office, employees, or fulfillment outside Amazon, such as a Shopify store shipping from the seller's own warehouse. Economic nexus thresholds still apply to non-Amazon channels. A seller running direct sales through Shopify monitors each state's revenue and transaction thresholds and registers where its own sales cross them. The LLC files those returns under its EIN. The practical rule: let Amazon handle marketplace sales tax, track independent nexus for direct channels, and register the LLC only where the seller's own activity, not Amazon's, reaches the threshold. This keeps compliance narrow and the paperwork under one entity.
An Amazon seller elects S-corp status once net income clears about $60,000 per year, splitting profit into a reasonable salary and distributions that avoid the 15.3% self-employment tax. Below that mark, the disregarded-entity default is cheaper. A seller netting $45,000 reports on Schedule C and skips the payroll administration an S-corp requires. A seller netting $130,000 files Form 2553, pays a defensible W-2 salary, and takes the rest as distributions, cutting the self-employment bill by thousands. Inventory accounting shapes the numbers. Amazon sellers carry cost of goods sold, and net income after COGS, not gross sales, drives the S-corp decision. A high-revenue seller with thin margins reaches the threshold later than the top-line suggests. The election changes only tax treatment. The LLC keeps its anonymous Wyoming filing, its EIN, its Seller Central account, and its bank account; the S-corp status governs how profit reaches the owner and requires a reasonable salary the IRS will accept.
A non-US resident sells on Amazon US by forming a Wyoming LLC without a US visit, obtaining an EIN by IRS fax with no SSN, and opening a US bank account with Mercury or Relay, which accept non-resident-owned LLCs. Amazon US accepts a US-formed LLC as the seller of record. The non-resident owner registers Seller Central under the LLC legal name and EIN, and Amazon disburses to the LLC's US bank account. No US residency or visa is required to own the entity or the account. Banking is the hardest step for non-residents, and it is solved. The formation service files the LLC, secures the EIN by fax in 5-7 days, and submits applications to 4-5 partner banks, with approval landing about 8-10 days after the EIN. Mercury and Relay specialize in non-resident LLC accounts. US tax treatment turns on whether the income is effectively connected to a US trade or business, which depends on the seller's activities and any applicable treaty. The anonymous filing keeps the non-resident owner's name off US state records while the entity trades openly on Amazon.
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