How to Sell on Amazon USA from Latin America (2026 Guide)

Can a company based in Latin America sell on Amazon.com?

Yes, and Amazon says so in writing. Its “Countries accepted for seller registration” list includes Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic, plus Venezuela and most of the Caribbean. Cuba is the only country in the region that is not on it.

Three conditions get you in the door: residency in a listed country, a valid phone number and an internationally chargeable credit card. For the US store you also provide a bank account (more on that below), your tax information and Amazon’s tax interview, which routes a foreign company to Form W-8BEN-E instead of a W-9. Amazon’s Spanish-language guide for the region puts it plainly: you do not need a US business entity or a US bank account to expand into the US.

Identity verification is a selfie with your government ID or a video call, scheduled or on the spot. Have these ready, because a rejected document restarts the clock:

• Passport or national ID of the account holder (for Brazil, RG or passport)
• Business license or company registration
• Proof of business address, in Latin America or the US
• A bank or credit card statement as proof of address
• Tax information for the W-8BEN-E interview
• A bank account Amazon can pay, or a participating payment provider account

Open the Professional plan ($39.99 a month plus selling fees) as a unified North America and Brazil account, which lets you list in the US, Mexico, Canada and Brazil under one login and never pay more than the $39.99 equivalent across the merged stores. The Individual plan ($0.99 per item) is built for occasional sellers: no advertising, and Amazon’s new-seller incentives require Professional, so it is not a real option for a brand. One quirk to know: Amazon phone support is not offered to sellers in Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador and Honduras; you get email and chat.

Do you need a US LLC to sell on Amazon USA?

No, and most Mexican and Argentine manufacturers should start without one. Amazon does not require it, Amazon Mexico’s own FAQ says a persona moral can sell on Amazon.com without a US company, and the paperwork of a foreign-owned LLC is real. A US LLC earns its keep when one of six things applies to you.

The cost is modest. Wyoming charges $100 to form an LLC and $60 a year for the annual report; Delaware charges $110 to form and a flat $400 annual tax due every June 1. Add a registered agent, priced by the provider, and an EIN, which is free but which a company with no US principal place of business obtains by phone or fax rather than online (fax takes about four business days).

Two compliance facts changed in 2026 and matter here. First, the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial-ownership report is gone for US-formed companies: FinCEN’s final rule, effective August 14, 2026, permanently exempts them. Second, what did not change: a foreign-owned single-member LLC still files Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 every year, and the penalty for missing it is $25,000 per filing. Budget a US bookkeeper from day one.

How do you get paid from Amazon.com in Latin America?

This is where the region splits in two. Amazon’s rule is that your bank account must sit in a country supported by Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers (ACCS), or be issued by a payment service provider in Amazon’s program. ACCS supports exactly two Latin American countries: Mexico (pesos, flat 1.5%) and Argentina (pesos, flat 2.5%). Disbursements arrive in the local currency, on average two to five business days after Amazon initiates them; the first payment after you add or change a bank account can be held up to 14 days, and every bank-detail change carries a three-day security hold.

Everyone else, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and all of Central America, uses one of two routes. Route one is a participating payment service provider: Payoneer is the one Amazon Brazil itself recommends, and its receiving accounts are free to receive marketplace payouts, with a 1.2% to 4% fee when you withdraw to a local bank with currency conversion. Route two is a US bank account owned by a US LLC, where Amazon pays in dollars with no conversion fee, and you decide when and how to move money home.

A third tool sits in between: Amazon Seller Wallet, a free account that holds your dollars inside Amazon until you choose to convert. Sellers established in almost every Latin American country can open one, and it can pay out to a payment provider’s account. Its direct bank transfers in the region, though, reach Mexico only. Treat it as a holding tank for timing your conversions, not as a payout route on its own.

What taxes apply when you sell on Amazon USA from abroad?

Sales tax is the easy part. Amazon is the marketplace facilitator, so it calculates, collects and remits US sales tax in every state that has one (all of them had marketplace laws in force by January 1, 2023), and that applies to foreign sellers shipping from abroad. You never register for state sales tax to sell through Amazon. Amazon does not, however, file any income or gross receipts tax for you.

Federal income tax is the part to put in front of an advisor before the first container ships. Amazon warns in its own FBA rules that holding inventory in the US “may” create US tax liability. The technical question is whether your activity is a US trade or business with effectively connected income, which a foreign corporation reports on Form 1120-F, and whether a tax treaty narrows that exposure. The United States has income tax treaties in force with Mexico, Chile (since December 19, 2023) and Venezuela. It has none with Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama or the Dominican Republic.

Two housekeeping items. Your W-8BEN-E expires on December 31 of the third year after you give it to Amazon, and an expired form suspends your selling privileges until you redo the interview. And Amazon’s statements and invoices are issued in dollars, the store’s functional currency, whatever currency you are paid in; your local accountant works from those.

What changes by country?

Four rules decide how hard your path is: whether Amazon can pay your local bank, whether your home trademark office counts for Brand Registry, whether a US tax treaty exists, and what additional tariff your goods carry at the US border. The table collects all four for the region as of October 14, 2026.

How do you protect your brand on Amazon: trademark, Brand Registry, barcodes?

Brand Registry is the gate to everything that makes a brand a brand on Amazon: A+ Content, a Brand Store, Sponsored Brands ads, Brand Analytics, Vine reviews and the tools that remove hijackers. It requires a registered or pending trademark in an office Amazon accepts, and the office list is the trap for this region. Amazon accepts marks from 23 offices, and in Latin America only two qualify: Mexico’s IMPI and Brazil’s INPI. A mark registered in Argentina, Chile, Colombia or Peru does nothing for you on Amazon.com.

The fix is to file in the United States, and to file in week one. The USPTO base fee is $350 per class, with a $100 surcharge per class for an incomplete application and $200 per class for free-form descriptions instead of the ID Manual. Current pendency is about 4.3 months to a first office action and about 10 months to registration (add roughly four months for an intent-to-use filing after the Statement of Use). None of that waiting matters for Brand Registry: Amazon enrolls you on the pending application. Use Amazon’s IP Accelerator and a vetted firm files the US application for no more than $700 plus government fees, and the pending filing is recognized faster. Our Brand Registry setup guide walks through the enrollment screens.

Two requirements catch exporters: the mark must be a word mark, or a design mark that contains words (a logo alone is not accepted for initial enrollment), and the brand name must be permanently printed on the product or its packaging. Amazon verifies ownership by sending a code to the attorney of record, who has 10 days to return it, so brief your lawyer. Once one office’s mark is approved, you hold a global Brand Registry account for every Amazon store.

Barcodes are simpler but strict. Buy GTINs from GS1 only: a single GTIN costs $30 with no renewal, a 10-GTIN company prefix costs $250 plus $50 a year, 100 GTINs cost $750 plus $150 a year. Amazon checks every UPC and EAN against the GS1 database and removes listings whose code does not match the GS1 record, so the licensee and brand on file must line up with your listing. Barcodes licensed from GS1 Mexico, GS1 Argentina, GS1 Brasil or GS1 Colombia are EAN-13 codes in the same global registry and are accepted. Grocery listings must carry the manufacturer’s own UPC, no exceptions.

1. File the US trademark week 1Word mark, USPTO, through IP Accelerator if you want Brand Registry inside a few weeks. Pick the right class (packaged foods usually fall in class 29 or 30, beverages 32, cosmetics 3, leather goods 18, apparel 25).
2. License your GTINs from GS1 week 1One prefix sized for every flavor, size and pack count you will ever list, in the brand’s name.
3. Open the Professional account and clear verification weeks 1 to 3Unified North America account, tax interview, bank or payment provider, with the documents in the checklist above.
4. Enroll in Brand Registry with the pending application weeks 3 to 6Then build the Brand Store and A+ Content before inventory lands, so the listing is complete on day one.
5. Start the incentive clocks on purpose at listingBrand Registry within six months of your first ASIN, first FBA shipment received within 90 days of listing, first campaign and coupon within 90 days.

What compliance applies to your product category?

Amazon dropped category-level gating for Grocery, Beauty, Baby and Toys; approvals now happen at the ASIN or brand level, and you will know because the “Apply to sell” button appears. What has not relaxed is US federal law, which is enforced at the border by customs and inside Amazon by document requests. The table is the minimum for the categories Latin American exporters actually ship.

What does it cost and how long does it take?

The paperwork is cheap next to the inventory. Everything a factory pays to become an Amazon.com brand owner, before a single unit ships, fits under a few thousand dollars; the container, the listing creative and the launch advertising are the real budget, and Guide 2 and Guide 4 in this series price those.

The path above compresses to four to five months because nothing waits for the trademark. The slow items are yours: a factory that needs eight weeks for a first run, a packaging supplier with a long lead time on printed film, or a lab test that comes back with a failed element. Start those the same week you file.

What incentives does Amazon give new brands in 2026?

The clocks inside the program are the useful part. First FBA shipment received within 90 days of listing, first Sponsored Products campaign within 90 days, Vine within 90 days of brand eligibility: each is a deadline that happens to match a good launch plan. Build your calendar around them and the credits fund a meaningful share of a first-year ad budget. Our product launch playbook sequences the first 90 days.

If you are weighing whether to run this yourself or with a partner, our comparison of full-service Amazon agency scope and our guide to what an Amazon agency costs set the market context. For a one-off question before you commit, an advisory session starts from $450.

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