Blogs for E-commerce Businesses

For many US-based sellers, though, the best answer is neither, because the state you live and work in still taxes you and may charge its own fees on top.

The filing is triggered by money moving between you and your LLC, such as the wire you send to pay for inventory or the profit you pull out. Your sales volume has nothing to do with it.

What that deduction is worth still depends on the contract date, the install date, your state and whether you plan to sell the business soon, which is where the planning happens.

The QBI deduction lets owners of pass-through businesses deduct up to 20% of their qualified business income on their personal return, and most Amazon and Shopify sellers qualify because selling physical products is not a specified service business.

Once you are an employee of your own S corp, those personal-side deductions mostly disappear, and reimbursement under an accountable plan becomes the clean way to recover the same costs.

Take too much and the next restock or tax payment comes up short. Take too little and you still owe tax on profit you never touched.

In one day you might approve a purchase order, rework a PPC campaign, chase a stranded FBA shipment and plan Q4 inventory. Each of those jobs has its own market rate, and a well-built salary reflects the mix instead of guessing at a single title.

This guide covers the filing itself. Whether the election makes financial sense for your store is a separate question that depends on your profit and a reasonable salary for your role, so settle that first.

In the LLC vs S corp decision, most Amazon and Shopify sellers end up with both: an LLC for legal protection, taxed as an S corporation once steady net profit sits well above a reasonable owner salary.

Keep reading to learn exactly which 2026 rules apply to Amazon FBA and Shopify sellers, what triggers an obligation in a state where you have never set foot, and what to actually do about each one.

In this guide, you’ll discover how to reconcile Amazon settlements correctly, track COGS across fulfillment centers, and build a monthly close that shows your real margin before your next restock.

In this guide, you’ll discover how revenue, inventory, and fees should actually land in your books under accrual rules. Keep reading to learn when the IRS requires the switch, how settlement timing distorts cash-basis profit, and what a clean conversion looks like in QuickBooks Online.