Amazon FBA Foreign Sellers: Your Form 5472 Filing Guide for 2026

Q: What is the FTIN on Form 5472 for an Amazon FBA seller from China?

For Chinese nationals, the FTIN is your Resident Identity Card (RIC) number — the 18-digit national ID number issued by the Ministry of Public Security. If you have a Chinese tax registration number (for business purposes), that may also be used, but the RIC is the standard identifier for individuals.

A non-US person selling on Amazon FBA through a foreign-owned US single-member LLC must file Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 every year — regardless of Amazon's own 1099-K reporting. The filing is triggered by reportable transactions between you and the LLC (capital contributed in, distributions taken out), and it applies even if the LLC owes no US income tax. Missing it carries a $25,000 penalty.

If you're a non-US person who sells on Amazon FBA through a US single-member LLC, the IRS requires you to file Form 5472 every year — not because of your Amazon sales revenue, but because of the money that moves between you and your LLC. Miss it and you're looking at a $25,000 penalty per form, per year under IRC §6038A(d), plus a new 2026 headache from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's 1% remittance tax on cross-border transfers.

This guide covers what FBA sellers specifically need to report, which transactions are the ones that matter, and what's changed in 2026 that makes getting this right more important than it's been in any prior year.

TL;DR — Form 5472 for Amazon FBA Sellers in 2026

You must file Form 5472 if you're a non-US person who owns a US single-member LLC used for Amazon FBA and had any money move between you and the LLC during the year.
Amazon's bi-weekly disbursements to your foreign bank account are distributions from the LLC — reportable on Form 5472 Part V.
The initial inventory funding wire you sent from your home-country bank account to the LLC is a capital contribution — also reportable.
Amazon FBA fees, storage fees, and ad spend paid from the LLC's own Amazon account are NOT reportable. They're expenses between the LLC and Amazon — a third party, not a related party.
The 2026 OBBBA 1% remittance tax potentially applies to Amazon payouts that flow from your US LLC to your foreign bank account.
IRS enforcement is automated in 2026 — penalty notices for missing Form 5472 are now system-generated, not manually reviewed.
The deadline is April 15, extendable to October 15 with Form 7004.

Why do Amazon FBA sellers need to file Form 5472?

Form 5472 exists to give the IRS a record of transactions between a US entity and its foreign related party — in this case, between your US LLC and you as the foreign owner. It was originally designed for large multinationals but was extended in 2017 (via Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-1) to cover all foreign-owned US single-member LLCs.

The most common misconception among FBA sellers: "My LLC pays taxes on the Amazon sales, so Form 5472 doesn't apply."

Two things are wrong with this. First, a single-member LLC owned by a non-US person pays no US federal income tax on its business income by default — it's a disregarded entity, so the income flows through to you, and your US tax treatment depends on whether you have effectively connected income. Second, Form 5472 is an information return — it doesn't calculate tax. It reports the money that moved between you personally and the LLC. Your Amazon customers' purchases have nothing to do with it.

Which Amazon FBA transactions are reportable on Form 5472?

This is the question that trips up most FBA sellers. The line is clear: transactions between the LLC and related parties (primarily you) are reportable; transactions between the LLC and unrelated parties (Amazon, your freight forwarder, your supplier — unless they're related to you) are not.

Reportable FBA transactions

Capital contributions — funding the LLC's inventory

When you wire money from your home-country bank account to the LLC's US bank account (Mercury, Relay, Brex, or similar) to buy inventory, that's a capital contribution. The LLC is using your personal funds to buy stock. This is reported on Form 5472 Part V as "Amounts paid or loaned to the reporting corporation by the foreign related party."

If you did this multiple times throughout the year — say, $5,000 in January to fund a Q1 shipment and $8,000 in July for Q3 inventory — you report the total across the year ($13,000) as capital contributions.

Amazon disbursements wired to your foreign bank account

Amazon pays FBA sellers bi-weekly (or on a custom schedule). If your LLC has a US bank account, Amazon deposits into that account — and then you periodically transfer money from the LLC's US account to your personal account abroad. That transfer is a distribution from the LLC to you, a foreign related party. It's reportable on Part V as "Amounts paid or loaned to the foreign related party by the reporting corporation."

Loans between you and the LLC

If you lent money to the LLC (rather than contributing it as capital) and the LLC is paying it back, those are reportable. If the LLC lent money to you — less common, but possible if you took out funds informally — that's also reportable.

Purchases from your own foreign company

If you source inventory from a company you own or control — your own factory in China, your own trading company in Hong Kong, your own supplier in Vietnam — those transactions are between the LLC and a related foreign party and belong on Form 5472 Part IV (monetary transactions involving sales and purchases). This is a more complex scenario that warrants careful reporting, particularly if transfer pricing becomes a question.

NOT reportable on Form 5472

Amazon FBA storage fees, fulfillment fees, referral fees paid from the LLC's Amazon account to Amazon
Pay-per-click advertising costs on Amazon
Freight and logistics costs paid to unrelated shipping companies
Cost of goods paid to an unrelated manufacturer or supplier
Stripe, PayPal, or other payment processor fees
Software subscriptions (Helium 10, Jungle Scout, etc.)

These are all transactions between the LLC and third parties. They're ordinary business expenses and have nothing to do with Form 5472.

What does the 2026 OBBBA remittance tax mean for FBA sellers?

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), enacted in late 2025, introduced a 1% federal excise tax on certain cross-border cash remittances effective in 2026. This applies to transfers initiated by non-US persons or by entities beneficially owned by non-US persons from US accounts to foreign accounts.

For an Amazon FBA seller whose Delaware LLC sweeps its Amazon payout to a foreign bank account every two weeks, this matters.

Treasury has not yet issued final implementation regulations, but the working interpretation is:

The 1% tax applies to the transfer from the US LLC's bank account to your foreign personal account (the distribution step).
It does not apply to Amazon's disbursement into the LLC's US bank account (that's a domestic payment from Amazon to a US entity).
The tax is collected at the point of transfer — your US bank or payment provider is expected to withhold and remit it.

For a seller generating $200,000 a year in net distributions from their US LLC, 1% is $2,000. On $500,000, it's $5,000. This is real money, and it adds up over a year of bi-weekly sweeps.

The practical implication: once Treasury issues guidance, some sellers will benefit from restructuring how and when they distribute funds. Some will elect to keep more cash in the LLC rather than distributing frequently. The Form 5472 filing itself doesn't change — you still report all distributions — but the economics of the distribution cadence shift.

Keep watching Treasury guidance at irs.gov. This is a developing area as of June 2026.

How did IRS enforcement change in 2026?

Two developments in 2026 make Form 5472 non-compliance riskier than in any prior year:

1. Automated penalty notices

In prior years, the IRS reviewed missing Form 5472 cases manually before issuing penalty assessments. As of 2026, the IRS has automated both the initial $25,000 penalty notice and the 90-day continuation notice that stacks an additional $25,000 per 30-day period (per EcomCPA, June 2026). There is no human review before the first two penalty rounds — if the system detects a missing or deficient return, the notice generates automatically. By the time you see the letter, the clock is already running.

2. Cross-referencing with entity data

The IRS is now cross-referencing the foreign person identified on Form 5472 against other government databases. Mismatches in entity identification — wrong name, wrong FTIN, the reporting corporation doesn't match the EIN on file — trigger correspondence audits. If your Form 5472 identifies you incorrectly as the reporting corporation instead of the LLC (a common DIY mistake), or uses an outdated EIN, the system flags it.

This doesn't mean the IRS is aggressively auditing FBA sellers. It means that a previously low-risk "I'll deal with this eventually" situation has become a genuinely automated process with predictable, fast-moving consequences.

How do you file Form 5472 as an FBA seller?

Step 1: Calculate your reportable transactions

From your records, identify:

Total capital contributions you made to the LLC during the year (all wires, transfers, personal credit card charges on behalf of the LLC)
Total distributions you took from the LLC (all transfers back to your personal foreign account)
Any loans in either direction
Any purchases from related-party suppliers

Step 2: Complete the pro forma Form 1120

The pro forma Form 1120 is a one-page cover sheet. Fill in:

LLC legal name and EIN
Registered agent address in the formation state
Date incorporated
Total assets at year end (check your Mercury/Relay balance at December 31)
Write "Foreign-Owned U.S. DE" across the top of page 1

Step 3: Complete Form 5472

Part I: LLC's name, EIN, address, tax year
Part II: Your information as the foreign shareholder (name, country of residence, FTIN — your country's equivalent of a tax ID)
Part III: Check the boxes corresponding to the transaction types that occurred
Part V: List each transaction category with the total dollar amount for the year

Step 4: Prepare the Part V supporting statement

A schedule attached to the Form 5472 that itemizes: "Capital contributions: $XX,XXX. Distributions: $XX,XXX." One line per transaction type.

Step 5: Fax to the IRS Ogden PIN Unit

Fax the complete package (Form 1120 cover + Form 5472 + Part V statement) to +1-855-887-7737. E-filing is not available for this filing type. Keep the timestamped fax confirmation receipt — it's your proof of timely filing under IRC §6038A.

The deadline is April 15, extendable to October 15 by filing Form 7004 before April 15.

What if you have multiple years of unfiled Form 5472?

The fix is the Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedure (DIIRSP). You file all missing years together with a reasonable cause statement explaining why you didn't file. Most foreign FBA sellers who didn't know about the requirement qualify for penalty abatement. The key: file before the IRS contacts you. Once you receive a notice, the continuation penalty starts immediately.

See the full DIIRSP guide for the step-by-step process.

Frequently asked questions

Does Amazon report my FBA sales to the IRS?

Amazon reports certain payment data (via Form 1099-K for US sellers who exceed the threshold), but this is a different reporting regime from Form 5472. A non-US person selling through a foreign-owned US LLC is subject to Form 5472 based on related-party transactions with the LLC, not based on Amazon's 1099-K reporting.

My LLC is a multi-member LLC with a US partner. Do I still file Form 5472?

A multi-member LLC is taxed as a partnership by default, not a disregarded entity. Form 5472 doesn't apply to partnerships in the same way. If your LLC has both a foreign owner and a US owner, get specific advice — the entity classification and filing obligations are different.

I fund my inventory through a Payoneer account. Does that affect what I report?

The payment method doesn't change the substance. If money flows from your personal Payoneer account to the LLC — it's a capital contribution. If the LLC sends money to your Payoneer — it's a distribution. Report the net flows regardless of what channel they used.

What is the FTIN on Form 5472 for an Amazon FBA seller from China?

For Chinese nationals, the FTIN is your Resident Identity Card (RIC) number — the 18-digit national ID number issued by the Ministry of Public Security. If you have a Chinese tax registration number (for business purposes), that may also be used, but the RIC is the standard identifier for individuals.

If my FBA LLC made a net loss, do I still file Form 5472?

Yes. Form 5472 is triggered by reportable transactions, not by profitability. A loss year typically still had capital contributions (to fund inventory) and possibly distributions. Report those. The LLC's profit or loss doesn't determine whether Form 5472 is required.

Does the 1% OBBBA remittance tax apply to my Amazon disbursements?

As of June 2026, Treasury has not issued final implementation guidance. The tax appears to apply to distributions from your US LLC to your foreign personal account — the step where you sweep the money home — not to Amazon's disbursement into the LLC's US bank account. Monitor irs.gov for final rules.

The bottom line

Amazon FBA is one of the clearest use cases for Form 5472: a foreign person owns a US LLC, funds it with personal capital, sells products through it, and periodically sweeps profits home. Every one of those steps generates a reportable transaction.

The form itself isn't complex — two pages plus a supporting statement. The 2026 environment (automated enforcement, OBBBA remittance tax) makes getting it right more consequential than in prior years.

For context on how this fits the broader Form 5472 requirements, see what Form 5472 is and who must file. If you have late years to catch up on, the DIIRSP guide covers the procedure start to finish.

File your Form 5472 now — takes about 15 minutes, fax to the IRS included.