Country lists a US company is on
Stripe, PayPal and Shopify Payments each serve a set list of countries, and a US company is on all of them. Etsy is different: it enrols you where you live.
Cleared by the LLC
Built for · Print on demand
A US LLC for print‑on‑demand sellers outside the United States
Print on demand means no stock of your own, which keeps a US company's tax position simple. The common problem is payments, and that's what the company fixes.
01 · Why a US company
What it does for print-on-demand sellers.
Your designs, a US print partner, a US buyer, and a payments account that doesn't work where you live.
Read the full explanation
Your designs, a US print partner, a US buyer, and a payments account that doesn't work where you live. A US LLC with a US bank account can apply for Stripe, PayPal and Shopify Payments on their US terms for your own store, gives the print partner a company to invoice, and keeps the store's money out of your personal account.
- 01
A checkout for your own store
A US company can apply for Stripe and PayPal wherever you live.
Stripe payout payout+2,140.00 USD - 02
A company to invoice
The print partner bills a company with an EIN.
Bill toAster Studio LLC - 03
Issued to the company
Partners and marketplaces send tax forms to the company and look through it to you.
FormW-8 · owner abroad - 04
The store, apart from you
The store's money stays out of your personal account.
Store · YouSeparate accounts
02 · What stands in the way
Two things in the way, and one way through.
Forms issued to the company
Print partners and marketplaces send tax forms to the company and look through a single-member LLC to its owner abroad.
Cleared by the LLC
A US LLC, with its EIN and a US bank account.
One set of documents every payments account and print partner accepts.
Start a company03 · Your options
Three ways to run print on demand from abroad.
The printing is the same in all three: your partner makes and ships each order, usually close to the buyer. What changes is the checkout and the sales tax on your partner's bill.
| You, as yourself | Your company at home | A US LLCWhat we set up | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own store's checkout | A cost or a limit: Depends on your country | A cost or a limit: Depends on your country | Works in your favour: Stripe, as a US business |
| US orders printed in the US | Works in your favour: No import duty | Works in your favour: No import duty | Works in your favour: No import duty |
| Sales tax on your partner's bill | A cost or a limit: Charged in most states | A cost or a limit: Charged in most states | Neutral: Avoidable state by state, with a resale certificate |
| Who owns the stock | Works in your favour: Your partner | Works in your favour: Your partner | Works in your favour: Your partner |
| A claim over a design | A cost or a limit: Reaches you | Works in your favour: Reaches your company | Works in your favour: Reaches the LLC |
| Yearly US filing | Works in your favour: None | Works in your favour: None | A cost or a limit: Form 5472, and Wyoming's report |
Works in your favourNeutralA cost or a limitPrintful says most orders are made in the customer's own region. A US order printed in the US crosses no border, so there's no import duty, unlike dropshipping from abroad.
You, as yourself
- Your own store's checkout
- Depends on your country
- US orders printed in the US
- No import duty
- Sales tax on your partner's bill
- Charged in most states
- Who owns the stock
- Your partner
- A claim over a design
- Reaches you
- Yearly US filing
- None
A cost or a limit:
Works in your favour:
A cost or a limit:
Works in your favour:
A cost or a limit:
Works in your favour:
Your company at home
- Your own store's checkout
- Depends on your country
- US orders printed in the US
- No import duty
- Sales tax on your partner's bill
- Charged in most states
- Who owns the stock
- Your partner
- A claim over a design
- Reaches your company
- Yearly US filing
- None
A cost or a limit:
Works in your favour:
A cost or a limit:
Works in your favour:
Works in your favour:
Works in your favour:
A US LLCWhat we set up
- Your own store's checkout
- Stripe, as a US business
- US orders printed in the US
- No import duty
- Sales tax on your partner's bill
- Avoidable state by state, with a resale certificate
- Who owns the stock
- Your partner
- A claim over a design
- Reaches the LLC
- Yearly US filing
- Form 5472, and Wyoming's report
Works in your favour:
Works in your favour:
Neutral:
Works in your favour:
Works in your favour:
A cost or a limit:
Works in your favourNeutralA cost or a limitPrintful says most orders are made in the customer's own region. A US order printed in the US crosses no border, so there's no import duty, unlike dropshipping from abroad.
04 · Step by step
From company to first printed order, in seven steps.
The setup is quick. The decisions that matter are sales tax and what you print.
Step 1: Form the Wyoming LLC
We file the articles online. Wyoming approves an online filing the same day it is filed.
Same dayWe do itStep 2: Get the EIN
Without a Social Security Number the IRS issues it by fax, which is the slowest step. The expedited EIN, $199, has us file the day the company exists and chase it.
The longest waitWe do itStep 3: Open the bank account and your checkout
Both in the LLC's name. Stripe reviews the store; Shopify Payments asks for a US address where the business operates, so many sellers use Stripe or PayPal there.
Days, then the reviewYouStep 4: Connect the print partner as the company
The partner account in the LLC's name, paid from its card or wallet, with your store connected and a return address set.
An hourYouStep 5: Decide on resale certificates
Your partner charges you sales tax on its bill in most states, unless a resale certificate is on file. A certificate needs a seller's permit, which means registering, and filing returns, in that state. Worth it where your volume is. We register for $149 a state.
Once sales buildYou, with usStep 6: Print only what's yours
No other brand's names, logos, characters or artwork. Print partners and marketplaces take down designs that copy someone else's, and repeat takedowns put the account at risk.
Every designYouStep 7: Diary the filings
Form 5472 is due each 15 April, and Wyoming's annual report on the first day of the month the LLC was formed in. Any state you registered in for sales tax expects its returns too.
Every yearOn your calendar
05 · The honest part
What to know before you order.
Does a print-on-demand LLC owe US income tax?
You never hold the stock
The print partner makes and ships each item, so you never own stock in a US warehouse. That keeps the US trade or business question simple, and most foreign-owned print-on-demand LLCs owe no US income tax.
Read more
A foreign-owned single-member LLC files Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 every year, even a year with no income. It reports what moved between you and the company, and missing it carries a $25,000 penalty.
Who collects sales tax on my sales?
Sales tax
Marketplaces collect it for you.
Read more
Your own store doesn't, and once you pass a state's economic nexus threshold, usually $100,000 of sales into that state in a year, it's yours to collect there.
Sources: Printful Help, what is a resale certificate?; Printful, pricing; Stripe, pricing; Federal Register, indefinite suspension of the de minimis exemption (2026); US Supreme Court, South Dakota v. Wayfair (2018); IRS, Instructions for Form 5472.
06 · What it costs
What it costs, line by line.
Printful's from its own page, ours from our price list.
| Cost | Amount | When | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| The print partner | Per order | Each sale | Printful charges the product, printing and shipping when an order comes in, with no upfront cost. Its optional Growth plan is $24.99 a month, waived from $12,000 of sales a year. |
| Launch, with Wyoming's fee | $351.40 | First year | $249 to us and $102.40 to Wyoming, at cost. The LLC, the EIN and the registered agent. |
| Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ | Each sale | A US card, on your own store. |
| Sales tax registrationOptional | $149 a state | When it pays | For a seller's permit, and a resale certificate to your partner. |
| From the second year | $309 | Every year | $249 for Launch and Wyoming's $60 minimum. Form 5472 is an accountant's fee on top. |
Your margin is your price minus the partner's charge, the checkout fee and any sales tax on the partner's bill. Price with all three in.
The plan that fits
Launch, usually.
With no stock of your own, the company stays simple to run.
Launch
Fits print on demandFor your first company, when it needs to exist and nothing more yet.
What it covers
- Your Wyoming LLC, filed, with the state fee at cost
- The EIN the payments accounts ask for
- Form 5472 and the annual report on your calendar
Add the expedited EIN if a payments account is waiting.
07 · Questions
Questions from print-on-demand sellers.
If yours is not here, email us at hello@baseacross.com before you order.
Because it sells the printed goods to you before you sell them on. Printful charges sales tax on merchant orders in most US states unless a resale certificate is on file for that state, and a certificate needs a seller's permit from the state.
Not when the order is printed in the US. Printful says most orders are made in the customer's own region, so a US order printed in the US crosses no border. Orders printed abroad and shipped in do owe duty.
Wyoming, for most sellers abroad: $60 a year to the state, no owner on the public record, and the state banks are used to seeing.
A Wyoming LLC on Launch is $351.40 for the first year: $249 for Launch and $102.40 to Wyoming, at cost. After that it is $309 a year, $249 to us and $60 to Wyoming.
Ready when you are
Answer the questions. We do the filing.
It takes about four minutes. You see the whole order, Wyoming fee included, before anything is charged.
Step 1 of 10 · About four minutesNothing charged yet
You're startingLLC · WY
Start a companyLaunch · $351.40 · Wyoming fee included