Is it possible to change tax ID and legal business name in an existing Amazon account? For context, we produce honey and retail some of that honey. Historically we’ve run everything through one corporation. We are considering a 2nd corporation to handle the retail end of the business such that Corp 1 would sell raw honey to Corp 2. Amazon account is registered with Corp 1, but I’m trying to understand if I could switch it to theoretical, new Corp 2, maintain seller reviews/etc, not blow myself up with Amazon?
Naturally, to not disturb the Amazon machine I should keep retail in Corp 1, not change anything in Amazon, and use Corp 2 for wholesale side. However, that creates a slew of other issues outside of Amazon that I’d rather avoid. Thanks for any insight.
Ownership of an Amazon account cannot be changed. A company that owns an Amazon account can be sold and the new owners of the company can continue using it, but in that case the business info stays the same. I don’t believe you can change the tax ID or other business info for an Amazon account.
Is it practical to create a new retail company and give them a new Amazon account?
It’s certainly practical in the sense that would be the easy thing to do on paper. I just worry about upsetting the algorithm boat, established sales history, etc… since we are the sole manufacturer and retailer of this product. There’s certainly a sense that we would be erasing 10+ years of history with Amazon and restarting from ground zero.
You would be starting over with a new account, but unless I’m wrong about not being able to transfer accounts they way you are talking about, I think your only other option is to move your manufacturing to the new company, which you already mentioned has its own issues.
Have a discussion with your accountant but you may be able to do a DBA for the wholesale or retail side. Your accountant will have the best options for you.
As the Amazon terms are written you can’t “SELL” an Amazon account. You can sell the corporation though, and corporations do move (mine has) and Amazon did not blink an eye (I notified them before hand, and had a utility bill ready to go in case they asked!).
@Gradyodi We do this. Our corporation has several DBA’s under it. One for each Brand, or different operations in the company. If we do a specialty website even for a local, national or regional service, we form a DBA under the corporation.
No reason why we could not separate wholesale and retail with that method if we needed to.
For us a DBA is easy under a corporation in our state. It is a $25 fee, and a trip to the Secretary of State office. I park in front of the building and my partner runs upstairs to register the DBA.
This is a common misconception - probably, methinks, largely founded upon an incomplete understanding of the prevailing aspects of Corporate Asset Transfer legislation, in light of the “Generally, Not Transferable” clause of the ASBSA (“Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement”).
Our friend Pep is correct on this:
We ourselves have, more than once, done the same with this or that SoA (‘Amazonese’ for “Selling on Amazon” aka 3P Seller aka Seller Central) Account, and even for a 1P (aka “Vendor Central”) Account back in the day.
Amazon’s Legal Team employs world-class talent in the Ivory Tower erected for its use near the Spheres, but those worthies - despite public & private attempts to do so, as has been referenced in both MSM reports & in various professional-discussion venues over the last several years - have yet to achieve an overturning of prevailing stare decisis on this particularly-defined front.
Let us all fervently hope that said state of affairs continues; elsewise, methinks, Chaos Ensues.
I confirm what Dogtamer said. When I started selling, I did so with my Hong Kong registered company. When I moved back to USA, I created an LLC and changed everything to the USA, LLC company. I did get separate 1099K’s for each entity that year but it wasn’t difficult to do and didn’t cause me any problems (with Amazon anyway).
Keep in mind, the people who have problems changing information on a seller account are GENERALLY people changing info for reasons that are against policy (aka purchasing an account).
Sellers who have an established history, a clean selling record, and a legitimate reason for changing/updating information tend not to have issues.
I have never transferred an account, but from what I’ve heard you can transfer a company that controls an account, but trying to transfer the account directly leads to trouble. As you mentioned above, that could have just been because the people who do it correctly don’t come to the forum to talk about it.
I will talk to my accountant about the DBA idea. From what I’ve read you can’t always shield the entity from liability across the different DBA’s and that is important in my case. My state might be an exception here.
My hesitantcy and trepidation around this entire issue is concerning. I feel like it is a poor reflection on the business relationship any one person/company can expect to have with Amazon.
Exactly. Amazon is a terrible business “partner,” and you should be able to do what you need to do for your business without factoring in how Amazon will mess it up.
I’ve done this. You change one attribute at a time (preferably no more than once a day).
I would open a support case succinctly describing what you are doing (not why).
Something like…I am trying to change some business information including credit card on file and address. Can I do this? And if so, how? I would format it better for legibility. I would then get the confirmation and proceed with 1.
I’ve decided to move forward with a 2nd corporation and updating the Amazon tax id name and number. Between these responses and confirmation from Amazon seller support, I’m reasonably confident I can achive my optimal, end goal of moving our retail business out of the old corp and into a new corp without blowing up our existing Amazon business. Thank you all for the advice. I will udpate in several weeks after all the changes have been completed.
