Do You Need an LLC to Sell on Amazon or Shopify? (Including Non-US Sellers)

No. Amazon's seller registration guide says you do not need to be an LLC or a registered business to sell, and individuals choose "None, I am an individual." Shopify Payments depends on where your business is located, and France is on its list, so location is the test, not a US company. An LLC mainly separates your personal assets from the business. A US LLC also brings US tax filings, and a missed Form 5472 carries a $25,000 penalty.

Amazon sets no entity rule for individual sellers, and Shopify's page does not mention one. The real question is what you want a company to do for you and what it costs to run one. The table gives the short answer for each situation, and the sections after it give the numbers.

The short answer by situation

Your situation	Do you need an LLC?	What the platform page says
Selling on Amazon as an individual	No	Individuals register as "None, I am an individual"
Non-US seller registering on Amazon	No	Amazon asks for a government ID, proof of a residential address dated within 180 days, and tax information
Shopify Payments, business in a listed country (France included)	No	Availability follows where the business is located
Shopify Payments, business outside the listed countries	Not the deciding factor	Shopify says you need a third-party payment provider
You want liability separation or a US bank account	Optional	A choice you make, not a platform rule

What Amazon asks sellers to provide

Amazon's registration checklist lists a government-issued ID, an email address, a credit card that can be charged internationally, a bank account, a business license or registration (if you have one), proof of residential address from the last 180 days, and tax information. The guide says the card does not have to be in your name or your business name. It also says Amazon's currency converter lets you receive sales proceeds in a bank account outside the US, and that identity checks can run by photo or video call.

The checklist asks for tax information but does not name a form. The IRS asks a non-US individual to give Form W-8BEN to the withholding agent or payer, so expect a tax form on Amazon even if you never form a company.

Where Shopify Payments is available

Shopify Payments is available when your business is located in one of 40 countries and regions. The list includes Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. If your country is not on the list, Shopify says you need a third-party payment provider. The same applies if Shopify does not support your business category.

The page does not mention LLCs at all. Community threads describe a route for sellers in unlisted countries that runs through a US entity and a US bank account. Shopify's own page does not describe that route, so this guide does not count it as available.

When an LLC is worth forming

An LLC puts a legal wall between the company and your personal finances. That wall matters most when the store carries real liability, such as physical products that can injure a buyer, or when a bank or partner asks for a company name. For a test store, an individual account on both platforms is the cheaper start. You can form the company later and move the store into it once the sales justify the paperwork.

For a non-US founder, the LLC decision also decides whether you take on US filings. That cost is easy to miss, so the next section covers it before any price comparison. Seller fees are a separate cost, covered in Amazon seller fees, Shopify pricing and eBay seller fees.

What a US LLC adds for a non-US owner

A US company brings three costs that do not appear on a platform's checklist.

The first is the EIN. The IRS online EIN form cannot be used when the principal place of business is outside the US, so those applicants apply by phone, fax or mail. The IRS page also lists an SSN or ITIN for the responsible party as an eligibility requirement, which a non-US founder may not have.

The second is Form 5472. The IRS instructions treat a foreign-owned single-member LLC as a reporting corporation that files a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached. A penalty of $25,000 applies to a reporting corporation that fails to file when due, and it grows if the failure continues after an IRS notice. The same instructions say the exception for transactions with no US income does not reach foreign-owned disregarded entities.

The third is state tax. Delaware's LLC tax instructions set an annual tax of $400, due June 1. Late payment brings a $200 penalty plus 1.5% interest a month on the tax and the penalty. Delaware is the example state in the worked costs below. Each state sets its own filing fee on top of any service price.

Formation services compared

We compared the formation services on the three things their pages let you check: the price of the bundle, what the bundle includes, and whether it fits a non-US owner. Year one means the vendor's listed fees, with state fees left out because each state sets its own.

Service	Price	What the price covers	Year one, before state fees	Renewal
doola Starter	$297 a year	Formation filings, EIN, operating agreement, registered agent, virtual mailing address	$297	$297 a year
ZenBusiness	Formation from $0	Formation filing only. EIN ($99) and registered agent ($199 a year) are separate	$298 with EIN and agent	$199 agent plus $100 per annual report
Firstbase Start plus Agent	$99 one-time (struck through from $399), plus $299 a year per state for Agent	Start: formation in Delaware or Wyoming and expedited EIN. Agent: registered agent, annual report and franchise tax filings	$398	$299 a year
Stripe Atlas	$500 one-time	Delaware incorporation with 24-hour expedited processing, EIN, first-year registered agent, 83(b) election filing	$500	$100 a year for the registered agent
Bizee Standard	$199 plus state fee	Formation paperwork and filing, with one free year of registered agent service. EIN not listed	$199 plus state fee, no EIN	Not listed
LegalZoom Managed Service	$249 plus state fees	Operating agreement and EIN. Registered agent not listed	$249 plus state fees, no agent	Auto-renews at $49 a month after 30 days unless canceled

On year-one price for the full bundle (formation, EIN and registered agent), doola's Starter plan comes first at $297. ZenBusiness is close at $298, but it sells the EIN and the registered agent separately, so you add two purchases to reach that total. Firstbase comes to $398 and Stripe Atlas to $500. Atlas then renews at $100 a year, the lowest renewal in the table, while Firstbase's agent service renews every year as well. Bizee and LegalZoom quote lower headline prices, but Bizee's plans do not list an EIN and LegalZoom's table does not list a registered agent. Neither compares like for like with the bundles above.

On fit, doola goes first for a non-US founder who wants everything in one plan. Its Business-in-a-Box plan lists formation, the EIN, the registered agent, bookkeeping and tax filings, at $2,999 a year plus state fees. No other plan in this comparison lists all five. If you only need the Form 5472 filing on top of formation, Firstbase is the cheaper route. Its tax filing package for non-US-owned single-member LLCs is $899 a year, against $1,999 a year for doola's Tax and Compliance plan, which covers federal and state tax filing.

Stripe Atlas fits a founder who already runs payments through Stripe, since its $500 comes with $2,500 in Stripe product credits for the first year. The page says the fee can be recovered by depositing $5,000 into a Stripe Treasury account within 90 days. Its listed inclusions do not mention bookkeeping, the annual Delaware franchise tax or ongoing tax filings, so plan that work separately.

Year one for a non-US owner, worked out

Here are three routes for one Delaware LLC. Each route includes a tax filing, but only Firstbase's page names Form 5472 by name, so check the filing scope with any provider before you pay. Each total adds Delaware's $400 annual tax to the vendor's year-one fees.

Route	Service fees, year one	Total with Delaware's tax, before state filing fees
Firstbase Start, Agent and tax filing	$1,297 ($99, $299 and $899)	$1,697
doola Tax and Compliance	$1,999	$2,399
doola Business-in-a-Box	$2,999	$3,399

The cheapest full bundle is doola's Starter at $297, which with Delaware's tax comes to $697. That route lists no tax filing, and the Form 5472 rule does not go away because the formation fee was low. Other states set their own fees and annual taxes, and this table does not price them.

Toolradar data: Toolradar tracks 270 accounting tools as of October 12, 2026, and ranks them on G2 and Capterra review volume and rating plus media mentions. Formation is a one-time decision, while bookkeeping runs every month, so the accounting tool deserves the same comparison as the entity service. Start with Toolradar's accounting software ranking.

Banking the company

doola's page says a US business bank account needs a passport or US ID for each founder, and it points to Mercury for banking. It describes Mercury as a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Mercury lists $0 a month for its base plan, $29.90 a month for Plus and $299 a month for Pro. Its pricing page does not say whether non-US owners qualify, so ask the bank before you form the company.

Relay lists its Starter plan at $0 a month, Grow at $30 a month and Scale at $90 a month under a limited-time discount from $120. Relay says transaction fees apply on top of the plan fee.

Airwallex lists Explore at $0 a user a month for up to 10 Spend users, and Grow at $12 a user a month plus a platform fee by team size. Its FX spread is 0.5% above interbank rates for major currencies and 1% for others. At the major-currency rate, converting $10,000 costs $50 before any plan fee. The pricing page does not name eligible countries, so check that with Airwallex before you open an account.

Two mistakes that cost sellers money

The first is forming a US company and treating the tax filing as optional. The Form 5472 penalty starts at $25,000 for a late or missing filing, and the low formation fee does not change that obligation. Price the filing in the first year before you compare formation bundles.

The second is comparing bundles by headline price. Bizee, LegalZoom and ZenBusiness look cheapest on paper, but each leaves out at least one item that a full formation needs, so the bundle costs more once you add it. Put every quote next to the same list of items, which here is formation, EIN, registered agent and the first year of filings.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an LLC to sell on Amazon?

No. Amazon's registration guide says you do not need to be an LLC or a registered business to sell, and individuals register as "None, I am an individual." An LLC is a choice for liability separation, not an Amazon requirement.

Do I need an LLC to sell on Shopify?

Shopify does not require one on its supported-countries page. Shopify Payments is available when your business is located in one of 40 countries and regions, and France is on the list. Outside that list, you use a third-party payment provider.

Can a non-US seller use Shopify Payments without a US LLC?

Yes, if the business is located in one of the listed countries. Shopify ties eligibility to business location, so location is the test. Businesses outside the list need a third-party provider, and the community claims about a US-entity route do not appear on Shopify's page.

How much does an LLC cost to sell on Amazon?

It depends on the service and the state. The full-bundle options in the table run from $297 for doola's Starter plan to $500 for Stripe Atlas, before state fees. Delaware adds a $400 annual LLC tax due June 1. A full tax-compliant year for a non-US owner runs from $1,697 to $3,399 across the routes in this guide.

Does a foreign-owned LLC have to file taxes if it has no US sales?

Yes. The IRS instructions treat a foreign-owned single-member LLC as a reporting corporation, and they say the exception for transactions with no US income does not reach foreign-owned disregarded entities. The penalty for a late or missing Form 5472 is $25,000. Check your position with a cross-border tax adviser before you rely on a low-cost plan.

Do I need an EIN to sell on Amazon?

Amazon's registration checklist asks for tax information but does not name an EIN. An EIN is the federal number for a US company. The IRS online form is closed to applicants whose principal place of business is outside the US, so those applicants apply by phone, fax or mail.

How we checked

We read the pricing pages for doola, Stripe Atlas, Firstbase, ZenBusiness, Bizee, LegalZoom's LLC overview, Mercury, Relay and Airwallex on October 12, 2026, and quote the USD price printed on each page. We read Amazon's registration guide and Shopify's supported-countries page the same day, along with the IRS Form 5472 instructions, the IRS EIN page, the IRS Form W-8BEN page and Delaware's LLC tax instructions.

Year-one totals add only the vendor's listed fees. Where a vendor lists a state fee on top, the total leaves it out and says so. Where a bundle needs an item the vendor sells separately, we add that item at its listed price. Prices change, so check the vendor page before you buy. This guide is by Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple.

Cite this: Retailpresso, "Do You Need an LLC to Sell on Amazon or Shopify? (Including Non-US Sellers)", October 2026.

Disclosure: some links on this page to the formation, banking and bookkeeping providers are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, Dupple may earn a commission. Rankings follow the price, inclusions and fit described above.

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Confirm the terms of any bank or payments account with its provider before you open it. It is not tax advice either.

For the tools behind the margin math, see best Amazon seller tools, AI for Amazon sellers and Shopify review. Sellers still choosing a platform can compare best Shopify apps, Shopify vs WooCommerce and how to start dropshipping.

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