Relocating Office & Warehouse to New State
Hey Everyone,
Our business has been a long time seller (since 2012) on Amazon but never had to face this situation. Right now our business is registered in one state with a physical location.
We are looking to relocate to a space in a different state. Our current state does not allow you to domesticate your corporation, i.e. just change the address and keep everything else the same.
From what I have been reading on the forums and blogs, the only way to do this would be to do a merger - i.e.. start a new corporation in new state and then "Buy" the current corporation. This seems like an easy thing to do on paper, but my concerns are with the Amazon requirements.
How would this change work in Seller Central? We would need to update the business legal entity, EIN, and business address, as well as the bank account (not certain).
Would this trigger anything on Amazon's side?
Someone recommended we register as an Foreign entity with the new State and just add the new warehouse as a shipping location. This would mean our business address would be different than our legal entity address and Official Registered Address.
Has anyone had to do something like this and what was your experience?
I'm just trying to avoid a deactivation and interruption of business due to technicalities in the process.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
11 replies
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
You are asking bar tenders to do brain surgery.
Hire a freaking attorney so you don't screw everything up and potentially cause yourself legal liability.
Don't forget to inform your insurance carrier of the change and hope your premium doesn't go through the roof due to different costs in the new location!
Seller_crHiR57kkteUT
We moved from California to Texas a couple of years ago and had similar concerns. I thought we would lose our EIN based on what I found on Google. However, I hired an attorney and they knew what to do. I was able to keep my EIN and they helped me file all the paperwork. Like the other commenter mentioned, you should hire an attorney.
Seller_bgmcNFSQ8G693
From experience moving an LLC within the same state:
States have different rules for transferring a business. Typically you would need to dissolve the business in one state, and re-apply in the new state. But it varies by each state.
Your EIN is your federal tax id, you would need to contact the Federal government about updating your address. This information is given to you when you register an EIN.
You would need to contact the government. You could also take a look at northwest agent, they have some decent help files.
When we have moved (within the same state) we have only updated ship from address and return address on Amazon until our new address is officially transferred over with our EIN. Amazon will hold funds until you verify your new location, and possibly suspend you if you cannot verify it.
So ensure your EIN and State Licenses are all updated to the new address before you change anything account related on Amazon.
This is not legal advice. Contact an Attorney
**Not responsible if you f anything up
Seller_xihcNqth10mKb
The proper way to do this is to (1) change your address with the IRS, (2) register as a new LLC in your new state, and (3) dissolve your current LLC in your existing state.
Keep in mind: your EIN and LLC are two completely different things. You can have many LLC's in many different states, and the IRS doesn't really care. Wherever you conduct business is where your LLC should be, and it's where you pay employer taxes, sales taxes, etc.
What is most important is keeping your EIN intact by filling out Form 8822-b with the IRS. This will change your address with them. This might take 2 months for them to file everything, so mail it in ASAP.
If they don't mail you anything, get on the phone with them and request Form 147c which is an IRS EIN verification letter, and it WILL be mailed to your new address.
After you've changed Federal, you can file articles of incorporation for your LLC (or whatever your structure) in your new state, as well as DBA's, and switch over your payroll, etc.
Then dissolve everything in your old state. Depending on how much that is, if it's sales taxes, UI taxes, getting letters of good standing, an annual report to close...this could be a long couple days of phone calls and work to get done, but you need to just buckle up and do it.
And as far as changing address with Amazon, banking, everything else, you will need your new Articles of Incorporation to do this, and Amazon will send you a new verification to your new address, so be ready to have that on hand.
Just don't try to do the foreign thing and register in Wyoming, blah blah. At the end of the day, you will still need to register as an entity to your home state and pay taxes, so even if you save a few bucks, it's more complicated anyways. Been there, done that.
Good luck!
Edit: and one more thing...make sure to fill out forwarding forms with USPS, for both mail addressed to yourself AND addressed to your business, as they will match the addressee when they forward.
Seller_XVVnI56vRsg9p
There will be problems with Amazon no matter what route you chose to take. Do NOT register as a foreign entity, there will be all kinds of tax problems.
Seller_Eu7SDX0Q0YIE2
Depends on the relationship between the two states. Some states allow you to just move a LLC. Others you have to do an actual domestication which opens the LLC in the new state and dissolves it in the old one while retaining the same Federal EIN and relationship with the IRS. We did this between Kansas and Texas a few years ago. MyUSACorporation (website) handled the entire thing seamlessly for us and was fantastic. Other than the change of address verification (postcard) with Amazon there was no other drama as the EIN stayed the same. Overall it was very smooth. Filled out the forms on the MyUSACorporation website for what we needed to do. They assigned us a rep who handled everything on our timeline.
