How do I resolve the "Seller of Record is same as your account" error in Organizations when I try to join an organization?

Short description

The error occurs when your account's seller of record (SOR) doesn't match the SOR of the organization's management account. To resolve this error, confirm that both accounts are in the same AWS partition and have the same SOR.

Resolution

Understand how AWS determines your partition and SOR

An AWS partition is a cluster of AWS Regions that are physically and logically isolated. AWS supports the AWS Regions, AWS China Regions, and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions partitions.

Legal and billing rules prevent an account from joining an organization in a different partition. For example, accounts in the AWS Regions partition can only be in an organization with accounts that are also in the AWS Regions partition.

The location you chose when you created your account determines your AWS partition. Your partition then determines your SOR. For more information, see How does AWS determine the location of your account?

An SOR in AWS is the legal entity that's responsible for selling AWS services to you in a particular Region or country. For example, Amazon Web Services India Private Limited (AWS India), formerly known as Amazon Internet Services Private Limited (AISPL), is an SOR. For more information, see Finding the seller of record.

Note: If your SOR is AWS India, then your account can be on a legacy data model with limited functionality. For more information, see Changing the seller of record to or from AWS India.

Resolve an SOR mismatch for AWS India

Within the commercial AWS partition, AWS India and legacy AISPL billing configurations are treated as distinct SOR-based boundaries. Both are in the same partition, but an AWS India account and a legacy AISPL account can't join the same organization if their SORs don't match.

Your SOR can change when you add or update Indian tax registration information, such as Goods and Services Tax (GST) or Permanent Account Number (PAN), on your account. If you recently updated your tax registration and now receive this error, then the SOR change created a mismatch with the organization's management account.

To resolve this mismatch, identify your account's billing model and then complete the following steps for that model.

Accounts on the updated AWS India billing model

To align your SOR with the organization's management account, complete the following steps:

1. Update or remove the tax registration number on the affected account.
2. Change the seller of record to or from AWS India.

Accounts on the legacy AISPL billing model

If your AWS India account can't invite or accept invitations from accounts with a different SOR, then your account is on the legacy billing model. Accounts on the legacy model can't self-service the SOR change. For more information, see Consolidated billing in India.

To resolve this issue, complete the following steps:

1. Open an AWS Support case.
2. Request a backend migration to the updated model.

Related information

AWS GovCloud (US) compared to standard AWS Regions

Managing account invitations with AWS Organizations

Consolidated billing in India