Selling USA as foreign seller (Canadian)

[DHB07]

Looking for any info for selling Amazon.com as foreign seller. I am Canadian living in States. I sell textbooks and was caught up in the Amazon textbook restrictions disaster. I need to back on. I am wondering if anyone could point me in a good direction for selling on Amazon.com as a foreign seller. I do not want to create an account only to have it burned when I register and enter tax info as a Foreign entity. Although I live in the States, I want to register as living in Canada, (will use dedicated VPN?) but do not wish to live in the Great White.
I especially curious regarding the 30% tax withholding requirement. How does the $20,000 / 200 sales (I believe it is still in effect?) threshold work with the foreign tax withholding? Do they withhold tax on everything or after the threshold?
I realize this is problematic, but am hoping there are some foreign sellers who could point out some useful facts, and make my life a lot easier. Anything regarding this problem and any information pertaining to selling as a foreign entity would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance....

[chaichaoyi]

I especially curious regarding the 30% tax withholding requirement. How does the $20,000 / 200 sales (I believe it is still in effect?)


What is that? I am not aware. Could yo please send a reference link?

[Canadianleaf]

I am also curious about the textbook restrictions. Not trying to hijack thread but how does one get through the textbook gate? It appears not all textbooks are restricted, how a handful for new accounts.

In regards to your question, I suggest you make an Amazon.ca account, register as a Canadian then sell on the .com marketplace using this account. You will fill out W8-BEN form and say you are non US citizen. You wont have to provide tax identity information.

[elmo]

Account age has a lot to do with those product restrictions.

They also open up product restrictions randomly throughout the year.

if textbooks is what you want to sell, best way would be to create a store as soon as you can, and just build it up with other products for sale.

Eventually that store should be allowed to list those textbooks by either account history, age, or by chance of the restriction being temporarily removed

[wiseman_ae]

amazon account is not approved yet.
What shall I do?

[DHB07]

thanks for the info regarding the textbook restrictions. It was the tax information I was looking for, and I appreciate the heads up about W8-BEN. Thanks CanadianLeaf. Kinda what I thought but its nice to know. Guess I'll find a way to open a Canadian Bank account. Any ideas how I can do that without having to return to Canada?
I'm thinking of selling Amazon.ca? Guess wouldn't hurt to try.
Thanks for the heads up Elmo and yeah, your partly right about the reasons for the restrictions. However, the main is reason is because of pirated text books outta China and Malaysia. Many sites (I sell all of them) including E bay and Abe.com have banned Malaysian sellers for pirated textbooks. These ⊗⊗⊗⊗ textbooks are hard to spot, they're that good, and in many instances they pass inspection.( I know this because I bought a few when they first started appearing.) Many sellers will sell them as new. Dealers know them but students often don't know. If you see USA Editions cheap on E bay (their almost always from Malaysia) don't buy because you will get burned. (a heads up to anyone buying textbooks online)
Textbooks can be very lucrative but you really need to know what your doing. Anyway, great advice from you people. Thanks so much....S

[rsot]

Welcome to the forums DHB07 - amazon.ca has notoriously less traffic than its .com equivalent.

[DHB07]

Canadianleaf; thanks. You seem to be interested in textbooks. I move thousands of text book a year, and have been at it a very long time. I sell mainly IE editions. The nice thing about textbook is there are several goods sites:
Amazon, eBay, abe.com, half.com, Alibris, Biblio etc....to name the biggest
All have their good points, but Amazon is far away the big dog. (BTW, they now own abe.com) Amazon was my bread and butter for many years. I started back when IE editions were not allowed, and I ran stealth accounts. No taxes, no limits, every day was a pay day. It was the wild west of International Editions. I often made 50.00 a book.
About the restrictions: Its on many of the high ranked USA editions. As far as I know, not on IE editions ) It includes new and like new. They will want detailed information about your supplier, including phone number, address etc.. going back for quite some time. A ban is a ban by any other name. There is no way around it. I would not provide and like many others was suspended. Now I'm looking to go back on stealth, but things have changed from the good/bad old days.
Alibris and abe are good also. Three main seasons, but sales never really go away. It can be lucrative if you know what your doing. I wish you the best if you decide to sell textbooks.
If you have any questions, please pm me. I would have PMed this info but since I'm new
here, I need 10 posts. Also, if your looking for textbooks, I have access to a very large best seller inventory.

[Canadianleaf]

Originally Posted by DHB07

Canadianleaf; thanks. You seem to be interested in textbooks. I move thousands of text book a year, and have been at it a very long time. I sell mainly IE editions. The nice thing about textbook is there are several goods sites:
Amazon, eBay, abe.com, half.com, Alibris, Biblio etc....to name the biggest
All have their good points, but Amazon is far away the big dog. (BTW, they now own abe.com) Amazon was my bread and butter for many years. I started back when IE editions were not allowed, and I ran stealth accounts. No taxes, no limits, every day was a pay day. It was the wild west of International Editions. I often made 50.00 a book.
About the restrictions: Its on many of the high ranked USA editions. As far as I know, not on IE editions ) It includes new and like new. They will want detailed information about your supplier, including phone number, address etc.. going back for quite some time. A ban is a ban by any other name. There is no way around it. I would not provide and like many others was suspended. Now I'm looking to go back on stealth, but things have changed from the good/bad old days.
Alibris and abe are good also. Three main seasons, but sales never really go away. It can be lucrative if you know what your doing. I wish you the best if you decide to sell textbooks.
If you have any questions, please pm me. I would have PMed this info but since I'm new
here, I need 10 posts. Also, if your looking for textbooks, I have access to a very large best seller inventory.

I sell mostly on Amazon.ca. Im aware of other markets but they would make such trivial traffic that its not worth focusing on. In addition, employing them would complicated my already complicated inventory management system which is based on Amazons sale reports.

I've experienced two restrictions

1) Unable to sell like new or new on certain ASIN's like you say. This is not a big issue, as I just downgrade the book cond and make a note.

2) Complete baring from selling on certain textbook ASIN's. This has only been an issue for very new accounts made this year.

As much as I hate taxes, are you saying you never reported this income or collected sales tax? I am not aware of your business or how its setup but depending on how much revenue you've made any uncollected / unreported tax may cause a red flag if there are very large amounts of money being transferred to your banks. This leaves a clear paper trail. Regardless, id like to hear what you mean by that. Bump up your posts to 10 posts and PM here if you wish to explain.

I've had my fair share of experience with IE editions and it appears accounts have a precarious lifespan when handling them. This can range from mixing IE editions on US edition listings (willingly or not) which can cause suspensions and anger buyers. IE editions can be synonymous with counterfeit and can be low quality print / paper and overall fragile. IE can be profitable but its a walking a fine line and risks unwanted attention from Amazon and suspensions.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by DHB07

Also, if your looking for textbooks, I have access to a very large best seller inventory.

University and college?

[Canadianleaf]

Originally Posted by rsot

University and college?

Where is this INV located? PM ur deets I may be interested.