Some formation services sell a business licence report as if every company needed one. Most companies run from abroad need no licence at all, and the ones that do can usually tell from what they sell. Here's how licensing actually works.
There's no general federal licence
The US doesn't license businesses in general. Federal licences exist for specific regulated activities, such as alcohol, firearms, aviation, broadcasting and investment advice, and a company that does none of those needs none of them. The EIN is a tax number, not a licence.
State and local licences
Most licensing happens at state, county and city level, and it attaches to two things: operating in a place and doing a regulated activity. A general business licence, where a state or city has one, is for companies operating there, with a shop, an office or a home business at a local address. Wyoming has no general state business licence. Delaware requires one from companies doing business in Delaware, which a Delaware company run from abroad isn't. A company with no premises in any state isn't operating in any city or county, so it generally doesn't need their licences.
The seller's permit
A "seller's permit", "sales tax permit" or "resale licence" isn't a licence to sell. It's a sales tax registration with a state, which lets you collect that state's sales tax and buy stock for resale without paying it. You need one in a state once you have sales tax nexus there, or when a US wholesaler asks for a resale certificate. Until then, you don't. The sales tax guide has the thresholds.
Where licensing matters
- Regulated professions, such as law, medicine, accounting, engineering, architecture and real estate, which each state licenses. A company offering them needs licensed people.
- Regulated products, such as alcohol, tobacco, firearms, cannabis, medicines, supplements, cosmetics and food, each with federal rules, state rules or both. Facilities that make or store food for US consumers, for example, have to register with the FDA.
- Regulated activities, such as money transmission, lending, insurance, investment advice, transport and telecoms, each licensed by a federal or state regulator.
- Physical premises, such as a shop, restaurant, warehouse or office in a US city, which brings that city's business licence, zoning and inspections.
For a typical foreign-owned company
Software, consulting, design, content, agencies and online stores selling ordinary goods aren't regulated activities, and when they're run from abroad with no US premises, they aren't operating in any US city. A company like that needs its formation, its EIN and its registered agent, and a sales tax registration once it passes a threshold. That's usually all.