Best Countries to Start a Company for Amazon FBA and Marketplace Sellers (2026)
If you sell through Amazon’s Pan-EU FBA program, get this straight before you pick a country to incorporate in: no company domicile reduces your EU VAT registration burden. Amazon moves your inventory across warehouses in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic to speed up delivery, and as of 2026 Amazon requires proof of active VAT registration in at least five of those countries just to keep your Pan-EU FBA eligibility. That obligation tracks where your stock physically sits, not where your holding company is registered. An Estonian OÜ, an Irish Ltd, a Hong Kong Ltd, and a Wyoming LLC all face the identical multi-country VAT requirement the moment Amazon stores their goods in those countries. This guide compares eight jurisdictions on what company domicile actually controls, corporate tax on reinvested profit, setup speed, banking access, and admin cost, so you stop trying to solve the VAT problem with the incorporation decision.
The short answer
Incorporating anywhere does not reduce the EU VAT registration burden created by Amazon’s Pan-EU FBA program; that burden tracks Amazon’s warehouses in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic, not your company’s home country.
As of January 2026, Amazon requires proof of active VAT registration in a minimum of five EU countries to keep a seller eligible for Pan-EU FBA placement.
Estonia taxes retained and reinvested profit at 0%, with 22% (22/78 of the net distribution) due only when profit is actually paid out; an OÜ costs €265 in state fees and typically forms within days via e-Residency.
Poland (9% CIT for small taxpayers under about €1.9m revenue) and the Czech Republic are themselves core Pan-EU storage countries, which gives founders already shipping inventory there a logistical convenience, not a tax reduction, in the EU VAT problem.
Hong Kong and a Wyoming or Delaware LLC can sidestep the EU VAT problem entirely, but only for sellers who don’t run EU Pan-EU FBA; the moment either entity does, it owes the same multi-country VAT registrations as anyone else.
Cyprus and Ireland suit founders solving a different problem, actual personal relocation and a non-dom regime, or a deep OECD treaty network, rather than sellers hunting for the fastest or cheapest EU company.
Why ‘best country to incorporate’ and ‘where you owe VAT’ are two different questions
Company-formation guides usually rank countries by headline corporate tax rate and setup cost, as if an Amazon FBA business were a normal single-market e-commerce shop. For a marketplace seller that framing misses the obligation that actually drives most of the compliance cost: where Amazon physically stores your inventory. Under Amazon’s Pan-European FBA program, Amazon is authorized to move stock between its EU fulfillment centers, currently spanning Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic, to get orders to customers faster. VAT registration becomes mandatory in every country where Amazon stores even a single pallet of your goods, and as of January 2026 Amazon requires proof of active registration in at least five of those countries (Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain) to keep you eligible for Pan-EU placement. None of this changes based on whether your parent company sits in Tallinn, Dublin, Hong Kong, or Cheyenne.
A related nuance trips up a lot of sellers: since Amazon acts as deemed supplier for many business-to-consumer sales made by non-EU-established sellers, Amazon itself collects and remits the customer-facing VAT on those transactions. That shifts some collection work off you, but it does not eliminate your own registration obligation wherever Amazon stores inventory, you still need those VAT numbers for import VAT recovery, business-to-business sales, and Amazon’s own compliance checks. The IOSS scheme (the €150 low-value import threshold) is not relevant here; it only covers parcels shipped directly from outside the EU to a consumer, not FBA stock already sitting inside the EU. If your bookkeeping stack cannot handle these distinctions, that is a sign to bring in dedicated accounting support rather than reasoning it out once inventory is already spread across warehouses.
Two levers actually change this obligation, and neither is the incorporation decision. The first is opting out of Pan-EU and running single-country FBA (EFN) instead, handling VAT locally or through OSS/IOSS where they apply, at the cost of slower delivery and reduced Buy Box competitiveness. The second is hiring a specialized EU VAT compliance provider, hellotax, amavat, and Avalara all serve this niche, to manage the multi-country filings centrally; the workload stays the same size regardless of which country holds your parent company, a provider just makes it manageable. Everything else on this list, corporate tax, distribution tax, setup speed, banking access, is a separate decision about your holding company, and that is what the rest of this guide compares.
How the corporate and distribution tax regime treats reinvested profit versus distributed profit, since most FBA sellers plow early profit back into inventory.
Whether you can incorporate and run the company fully remotely, since most FBA sellers already have a day job or live somewhere else entirely.
Whether local banking or an EMI can actually receive Amazon disbursements, a real blocker in several jurisdictions that look attractive on paper.
Total annual admin cost at the holding-company level, bookkeeping, annual filings, any local director or address requirements, kept separate from the unavoidable EU VAT compliance cost.
The founder’s own personal tax residency and treaty position, since company domicile never overrides where you personally live and work.
The 8 countries compared at a glance
The table below separates what each country actually controls, corporate tax, setup cost and time, from what it does not control, your EU VAT footprint under Pan-EU FBA.
Country | Corporate tax | Pan-EU FBA VAT note | Setup cost & time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Estonia | 0% retained profit / 22% (22/78) on distribution | Not a Pan-EU storage country; incorporating here neither adds nor removes the standard multi-country VAT obligation | ~€265 state fee + €100-150 e-Residency; days to weeks | Reinvestment-heavy sellers who want 0% tax on profit kept in the business |
Poland | 9% for small taxpayers (~€1.9m revenue threshold) / 19% otherwise, plus 19% dividend withholding | One of the core Pan-EU storage countries; still needs the same VAT number as any foreign seller would | ~€80 in state fees via the S24 portal; 2-5 business days | Sellers who want a low headline CIT and don’t mind Poland being both HQ and a mandatory VAT jurisdiction anyway |
Czech Republic | 21% flat, plus 15% dividend withholding (about 32.85% combined on distributions) | Also a core Pan-EU storage country; incorporating here doesn’t reduce the other registrations needed elsewhere | Share capital from CZK 1; remote via power of attorney; 1-5 business days | Founders with existing Czech inventory or logistics ties who want an EU legal presence with minimal capital |
Ireland | 12.5% on active trading income (25% on passive income) | Not a Pan-EU storage hub; incorporating here has no effect on the VAT footprint, which still tracks Amazon’s warehouses | Non-resident-friendly with a Section 137 bond; 6-14 weeks to a working bank account | Sellers who want a reputable EU/OECD holding jurisdiction and a large treaty network |
United Kingdom | 25% main rate (19% under £50k profit) | Its own VAT/customs territory since Brexit; a UK company still needs the EU registrations for EU sales, plus separate UK VAT registration with no threshold for non-established sellers | £50 direct filing, £150-550 via formation agents; days for incorporation, longer for VAT and banking | Sellers whose primary market is Amazon.co.uk rather than the EU marketplaces |
Cyprus | 15% (raised from 12.5% on 1 January 2026) | Not a Pan-EU storage hub; same doesn’t-touch-the-VAT-footprint logic as Ireland | Moderate EU-standard incorporation cost; the non-dom personal regime is the real draw | Founders who will also relocate personally for the 0% dividend/interest non-dom benefit |
Hong Kong | 8.25% on the first HKD 2m, 16.5% above; 0% on properly substantiated foreign-sourced profit | Irrelevant to EU VAT if you skip Pan-EU FBA entirely; identical EU burden as anyone else if you use it | Fast, 100% remote, single non-resident director allowed; mandatory annual statutory audit regardless of size | Sellers focused on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.jp, or Amazon.com.au with no EU footprint |
US: Wyoming / Delaware LLC | 0% federal/state with no US trade-or-business presence; Form 5472 + pro-forma 1120 mandatory ($25,000 penalty if missed) | Irrelevant to EU VAT unless the LLC also runs EU Pan-EU FBA, in which case the same obligation applies | Wyoming ~$100 filing + $60/yr; Delaware ~$110 filing + $300/yr franchise tax; days to form | Non-US founders selling primarily on Amazon.com wanting the simplest, cheapest US wrapper |
Consider a founder who incorporates an Estonian OÜ, reinvests most of her profit into new inventory, and sells through Pan-EU FBA into six EU countries. Her Estonian company pays 0% tax on the share of profit she keeps in the business, and that decision was the right one for her tax bill. She still needs six separate EU VAT registrations, because that requirement was never about where she incorporated in the first place.
Country-by-country: what each jurisdiction actually gets you
Is Estonia a good fit for Amazon FBA sellers?
Estonia’s real advantage for FBA sellers is structural: 0% tax on profit that stays in the business, with the 22% rate (22/78 of the net distribution) due only once you actually pay yourself. Since most FBA sellers reinvest early profit straight into more inventory and ad spend, this can mean years of paying close to nothing at the company level. Formation is fast and fully remote through e-Residency, and an OÜ costs €265 in state fees with a €0.01 minimum share capital. The catch specific to this persona: Estonia is not one of Amazon’s Pan-EU storage countries, so an Estonian OÜ still needs VAT numbers in Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic exactly like a company registered anywhere else, Estonian incorporation neither reduces nor complicates that separate obligation.
Does incorporating in Poland shrink your EU VAT footprint?
No, and Poland is the clearest illustration of why. It is simultaneously a candidate holding jurisdiction and one of the countries where Amazon physically stores Pan-EU inventory, which means a Polish company is already inside a VAT hub for its own sales but still needs the identical five-to-six-country registration set once stock moves to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic. The tax picture is genuinely competitive on paper: 9% CIT for small taxpayers under roughly €1.9m in revenue, though a further 19% withholding tax applies once profit is distributed. Formation via the S24 online portal is cheap (about €80 in state fees) and fast (2-5 business days), with no residency requirement for shareholders or directors. Banking for non-resident-owned Polish companies tends to move slower than in Estonia or the UK.
Is the Czech Republic worth it for Amazon sellers?
Like Poland, the Czech Republic is both a viable holding jurisdiction and a core Pan-EU storage country, which gives founders already shipping stock there a logistical reason to incorporate locally, not a VAT-reducing one. Minimum share capital is a token CZK 1, and remote incorporation via power of attorney is well established, often completing in one to five business days. The tax picture is the least favorable of the EU options here: a flat 21% corporate rate plus 15% dividend withholding tax works out to roughly 32.85% combined on distributed profit, though retained profit is only taxed once at 21% until withdrawn. As with every other candidate, a Czech company still needs the same multi-country EU VAT registrations the moment Amazon stores inventory outside the Czech Republic under Pan-EU.
Why would a founder choose Ireland over Estonia?
Ireland’s 12.5% rate on active trading income is one of the lowest headline corporate rates among reputable OECD and EU jurisdictions, and its treaty network is a genuine asset for founders with complicated personal residency situations. It is not a fast or cheap non-resident setup, though: realistic timelines for an operational company with a working bank account run six to fourteen weeks, and a board with no EEA-resident director typically needs a Section 137 bond, an added cost. Ireland is not a Pan-EU storage hub, so incorporating there has zero effect, positive or negative, on the multi-country EU VAT obligation, which still tracks Amazon’s warehouse footprint regardless. Watch the 25% rate on passive income too, it is a trap for anyone routing licensing or investment income through the entity rather than genuine trading income.
What changes if you incorporate in the UK instead of the EU?
Post-Brexit, the UK is its own VAT and customs territory, separate from the EU, so a UK company selling on Amazon.co.uk needs UK VAT registration (mandatory immediately for non-established sellers, no turnover threshold) in addition to, not instead of, the EU Pan-EU registrations if that same company also sells into EU marketplaces. Formation is cheap and quick, £50 for direct digital filing or £150-550 through an agent, and boards made up entirely of non-resident directors are permitted. Mandatory identity verification for all directors, including overseas ones, took effect from 18 November 2025 under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, adding a step non-resident founders should plan for. The main corporate tax rate is 25% (19% under £50k profit), noticeably higher than Estonia’s reinvestment rate, and Making Tax Digital is now mandatory with no exemption for non-residents.
When does Cyprus actually make sense for an FBA seller?
Cyprus raised its standard corporate tax rate to 15% from 1 January 2026, up from the long-standing 12.5%, narrowing but not eliminating its edge over Ireland’s 25% passive-income rate. Its real draw for this persona is the personal non-dom regime: a founder who actually relocates and becomes Cyprus tax-resident-non-dom can receive company dividends personally at 0% tax on dividends and interest for up to 17 years, a benefit that requires physically moving, not just registering a company remotely. Like Ireland, Cyprus sits outside Amazon’s Pan-EU storage network, so it neither helps nor hurts the underlying multi-country VAT requirement. This makes Cyprus a stronger fit for founders planning genuine personal relocation than for someone who just wants a remote-only corporate shell.
Can Hong Kong help you avoid the EU VAT problem altogether?
Yes, but only if you are not actually using EU Pan-EU FBA. Hong Kong’s territorial tax system taxes only Hong Kong-sourced profit, so a founder selling exclusively on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.jp, or Amazon.com.au with no EU footprint can claim offshore profit exempt (0%) with proper economic substance, sidestepping the EU VAT problem entirely because it never arises. Run the same Hong Kong company through EU Pan-EU FBA, though, and it faces the identical five-to-six-country VAT registration burden as any other non-EU entity, Hong Kong incorporation has no bearing on that separate obligation. A single non-resident individual can own and direct the company 100% remotely, and profits tax rates (8.25%/16.5%) are attractive for genuinely local or non-EU income, but banking has gotten noticeably harder for non-resident-directed shells, and a mandatory annual statutory audit applies regardless of company size.
Is a Wyoming or Delaware LLC enough on its own?
For non-US founders selling primarily on Amazon.com, a Wyoming LLC (roughly $100 to file, $60 a year) is the cheapest, simplest wrapper on this list, paying no US federal or state income tax as long as you have no US trade-or-business presence, the tradeoff being a mandatory Form 5472 plus a pro-forma Form 1120 every year, with a $25,000 automatic penalty for missing the filing. Delaware ($110 to file, $300 a year franchise tax) only makes sense if you anticipate raising US venture capital or converting to a C-corp later. Getting an EIN without a US Social Security Number is a solved, if bureaucratic, process. The genuine blocker is banking, an LLC does not guarantee a bank account, and most non-resident sellers end up combining a US-facing account with an EMI such as Wise or Payoneer to actually receive Amazon disbursements; and if the same LLC also sells into the EU via Pan-EU FBA, it carries the same multi-country VAT obligation as every other entity on this list.
Estonia’s honest caveats for FBA sellers specifically
Estonia genuinely wins on reinvestment-friendly tax treatment and setup speed, but state the caveats plainly rather than overselling them.
e-Residency is a digital authentication credential, not tax residency, it does not change where you personally owe tax, and it does not by itself establish where the company is tax resident either.
Traditional Estonian banks routinely decline non-resident-directed companies for a standard deposit account; the practical route for almost every FBA seller is an EMI such as Wise Business, Payoneer, or Revolut Business, which is not deposit-insured the way a bank account is.
If you run the company day-to-day from another country, that country can still tax it under place-of-effective-management, permanent establishment, or CFC rules, Estonian registration does not override this.
Non-residents must maintain a paid Estonian legal address and contact person; this is an ongoing cost, not a one-time formality.
Late annual report filing carries a fine of up to €3,200, repeatable, applied to both the company and its board members personally, so keep bookkeeping current rather than treating the filing as an afterthought.
Most importantly for this persona: Estonia is not one of Amazon’s Pan-EU storage countries, so incorporating an OÜ does nothing to reduce the multi-country EU VAT registration burden described above.
So which country should you actually pick?
There is no single best answer, because where you incorporate and where you owe VAT genuinely don’t move together for this persona. Three patterns are worth following depending on what you’re actually optimizing for.
If you’re reinvesting profit into growth (the majority of FBA sellers), Estonia remains the strongest all-around holding jurisdiction on this list: the 0%-on-retained-profit structure directly rewards the inventory-heavy reinvestment cycle, setup is the fastest and most remote-friendly of any EU option, and the admin burden is manageable once bookkeeping is in order.
If your business is genuinely non-EU (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.com.au), Hong Kong or a Wyoming LLC deserve serious consideration specifically because they sidestep the EU VAT problem by never triggering it, not because either jurisdiction is inherently better. Wyoming is cheaper and simpler to run; Hong Kong carries a mandatory annual audit that adds fixed cost.
If you’re solving a different problem entirely, actual personal relocation and treaty optimization with Cyprus’s non-dom regime, or a globally credible EU trading entity with a long treaty list in Ireland, those two earn their place, but not as faster or cheaper alternatives to Estonia for a purely remote FBA operation.
In every case, the multi-country EU VAT registration obligation under Pan-EU FBA is a constant that no choice of holding-company domicile removes. The only levers that actually change it are your Amazon fulfillment settings, opting into or out of Pan-EU, or restricting to single-country EFN, and using a dedicated VAT compliance provider to manage the resulting filings, a service layer that sits on top of the incorporation decision, not instead of it. Once you’ve made the incorporation choice on its own merits, compare Enty’s pricing to see what ongoing bookkeeping and compliance support costs at the holding-company level.
Frequently asked questions
Does incorporating in Estonia reduce my EU VAT obligations under Pan-EU FBA?
No. Estonia is not one of Amazon’s Pan-EU storage countries, so an Estonian OÜ selling through Pan-EU FBA still needs VAT registrations in Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic exactly like a company registered anywhere else. The VAT obligation tracks where Amazon physically stores your inventory, not where your holding company is registered, so no incorporation choice changes it.
How many EU countries do I need VAT registration in for Pan-EU FBA in 2026?
As of January 2026, Amazon requires proof of active VAT registration in a minimum of five EU countries, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, and Spain, to keep a seller eligible for Pan-EU placement. Depending on your configuration, Amazon may also route stock through the Czech Republic, Sweden, or the Netherlands, each triggering its own registration the moment inventory lands there.
What is the cheapest country to form a company for Amazon FBA?
On raw filing cost, Wyoming is the cheapest at roughly $100 to file and $60 a year, followed by Poland at around €80 in state fees and the Czech Republic with a token CZK 1 minimum share capital. Estonia costs more upfront, €265 state fee plus €100-150 for e-Residency, but is often the cheapest to run long-term for reinvestment-heavy sellers, because 0% tax on retained profit outweighs a slightly higher setup fee.
Can I avoid EU VAT registration entirely by incorporating outside the EU?
Only if you don’t sell into the EU through Pan-EU FBA at all. A Hong Kong or Wyoming/Delaware company selling exclusively on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.jp, or Amazon.com.au can genuinely avoid the EU VAT problem because it never arises. The moment that same company enrolls in EU Pan-EU FBA, it faces the identical multi-country VAT registration burden as an EU-incorporated company.
Is Estonia’s e-Residency the same as EU tax residency?
No. e-Residency is a digital authentication credential that lets you set up and manage an Estonian company online, it is not tax residency and does not change where you personally owe tax. Your company’s own tax residency and your personal tax obligations are determined separately, by where the business is actually managed and where you personally live, not by holding an e-Residency card.
Which country’s corporate tax is best for FBA sellers who reinvest most of their profit?
Estonia, by a clear margin, because it taxes retained and reinvested profit at 0% and only charges 22% (22/78 of the net distribution) once profit is actually paid out. Sellers who plow most early profit back into inventory and advertising can go years paying close to nothing at the company level, an advantage none of the other seven countries in this comparison replicate.
Do I need a bank account in the same country where I incorporate?
No, and for most of these jurisdictions you shouldn’t expect to get a traditional deposit account as a non-resident anyway. Traditional banks in Estonia, Poland, and several other countries on this list routinely decline non-resident-directed companies, so most FBA sellers use an EMI, Wise Business, Payoneer, or Revolut Business, to both hold funds and receive Amazon disbursements, regardless of where the company is registered.
What happens if I don’t register for VAT in every Pan-EU storage country?
Amazon can suspend your Pan-EU FBA eligibility if you can’t show proof of active VAT registration in the required countries, and local tax authorities can separately assess back VAT, interest, and penalties once your inventory is found to have been stored there without registration. The safest path is to register before enrolling in Pan-EU, or to use single-country EFN fulfillment until the registrations are actually in place.
Should I use a VAT compliance provider instead of registering myself country by country?
For most sellers running Pan-EU FBA across five or more countries, yes, providers such as hellotax, amavat, or Avalara exist specifically to manage this multi-country filing workload centrally, which is usually cheaper and less error-prone than coordinating separate local accountants in each jurisdiction. This is a service layer on top of your incorporation decision, not a substitute for it, you still need the underlying holding company question answered first.
