hi and welcome back to another amazon selling video if you're new to my channel my name is
nikki kirk and i've been selling on amazon doing retail arbitrage for three and a half years now
today i'm going to answer a couple of the common questions i get about amazon selling
which is do you need a business license to get started do you need to have an llc can you change
your business structure or turn into a business and does that affect ungaining so the first
question no you do not need a business license to sell on amazon you don't need to be an llc
you can just go ahead and start and you will be a sole proprietor you are essentially just a person
using your social security number for taxes and you're selling on amazon if you're trying to get
on gated you also don't need a business license for that unless your state requires you to have a
business license to get a sales tax certificate or resell certificate a lot of states i don't think
you do need that but some i think i have heard do require it i can't remember i feel like it was
california but i'm not sure which one it was if you're trying to get ungated in toy my toy guide
does require a resale certificate but my topical otc grocery you don't need anything you don't need
sales tax you don't need a business you can just go ahead and start so just keep that in mind and
i'll get into why that matters in a little bit but i also just wanted to really quickly side
note because this did come up in one of my groups recently is that if you get a resale certificate
which you can use actually at stores to not pay taxes when you're out shopping like walmart and
tj maxx and marshalls and all that which is great i have another video where i'll show
you how i got that and did it but i just wanted to note really quickly that if you do get one
you have to still file your sales tax with the state you don't just get it and don't do anything
so make sure you file your sales tax amazon files the sales tax for almost all the states but there
are a few where they do not i have a full like blog i'll link it below where i go over all of it
and why it matters but just know that you do need to file even if amazon is collecting you just my
market marketplace facilitator when you're filling it out or no business to report and so that's just
something to know don't just get it and be like yay you do still need to file with the state it
is not difficult but like all things with taxes is just like annoying but it's not hard to do okay so
you've set up on amazon now you can set up as an llc it really doesn't matter i mean for you
personally it matters it's your decision which like entity you want to be but you can just
start as a sole proprietor as you yourself so no you don't need a business license unless that's
something you want for your business as far as amazon is concerned all you're doing when you're
changing your business is you're changing your tax info so it's what they're reporting to the irs
it's all in your account you just go to account and then account info and you'll see it all there
your legal entity is what you would be changing and all you would do is change out your tax form
so it's just i think a camera it's like a w9 i think i can't remember what it's called but it's
the whole thing i'll show you really quickly but it's just like you file like i'm an individual
here's my address here's my social security and that's it you're done so if you do change
it though you just change your information there i will say that if you go from a sole proprietor
to a single member llc they just still consider you a sole proprietor it's like the income is
passing right through to you that's what a sole member llc is you just have that added protection
so just know that if you go that route there's really nothing you need to change
on amazon's side because they are still going to take your social security number or your 10
taxpayer identification number if your llc is a partnership or you have an s corp or another form
then you would go ahead and change it and you would select that you were a business instead of a
individual the reason i'm bringing this up is if you didn't know your information is actually
showing on amazon if you have your address in amazon as your legal address and your business
address you want to go ahead and change that from your house i think i mean you can keep it
if you want but go ahead and get like a ups box or a po box just something that would be that address
showing that's what i recommend that's what i do so i mean you don't have to your own business do
what you want but that's what i would recommend okay so as i mentioned if you want to go ahead and
change all this you would just go to your settings and account info and then you'll hit legal entity
and then it's going to take you through to where the legal entity is you would just hit update
tax information and now you see here the whole system so you would say select if your business
which tax classification are you so limited liability company but i'll tell you right now
so you can see here the s corp c corp or partnership are the only options and that's why
it does not work it's still if you are a single member you are still
basically like a sole proprietor in amazon's eyes anyways but you would just go ahead and change all
this information and then hit save now i will tell you this one from experience i tried to update
it with my single member llc information and it didn't save right away and it was because the ein
was not taking an ein is your federal business tax number and because it was a pass-through
it wasn't taking it and so it took a while if that happens if it doesn't save right away just
know that when it finally does process it could take a couple weeks that amazon's going to like
degrade your account it's not shut down but it's like if you don't fix this you will be shut down
so just keep an eye out for that if it doesn't save right away that that is probably going to
happen and you just need to redo it to your social security number and all that
so that's just something to look out for but it is super easy to change now what i was talking
about for ungating when you're getting ungated your invoice company name whether that's your
name or your company name needs to match what it is in amazon as your company name and your
business address and all that whatever says in legal entity has to match whatever the bill to
is on your invoice if that does not match amazon will reject your invoice so that is the only thing
that you have to be aware of if you are changing it and trying to get on data you have to either do
it before you order or wait to change it until you get ungated with your order so that's just
something to keep a lookout for if you want to get my ungating guides as always they are always
linked below on every video they are affordable they are super helpful i'm not just saying that
this is feedback that i've gotten that they are so worth the money it is a great investment
into your amazon selling business so go ahead and grab the guides below i hope this video
was helpful you guys and as always i will see you back here for another amazon selling video
you