I am trying to determine US tax liability based on USTB/PE for selling via Amazon Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) with a foreign corporation or foreign-owned US LLC pass-thru entity.

With Amazon's FBA program, the foreign corporation (FC) can sell on the Amazon.com platform in the US. The inventory is stored in Amazon's warehouses in the US and the FC owns the inventory up until Amazon facilitates the sale between the FC and US customer.

The FC has no physical presence in the US. It just sends its inventory from China to Amazon's warehouses and then sells it via their platform.

Based on this do you think I am or am not a US Trade or Business (USTB)?

If I am a USTB then I have to look to PE and country specific tax treaties which I think in general would exempt me from tax but I would still have to file.

If I can say I am not a USTB then I don't have to file at all.

Also I am hoping that if I say I am not USTB then I could also create a US LLC pass-through entity owned my the FC that could accept payments from Amazon.com and pay for various SAAS tools with a USD credit card in the LLC's name.

Any thoughts?