Do you owe US sales tax, and where?
A state can make you collect its sales tax once your sales there pass its threshold, usually $100,000 a year. That holds with no office or stock in the state, and from abroad. Add your sales by state, your own store's and the marketplaces' apart, and see which states want you registered.
Checked by the BaseAcross team.
US sales tax at a glance
- Usual threshold
- $100,000Of sales into the state, a year
- Highest
- $500,000California, New York and Texas
- Marketplace sales count
- In 29 of 47States and DC with a sales tax
- No sales tax
- 4 statesDelaware, Montana, NH and Oregon
Where do you stand in each state?
Add a state at a time, or paste a sales-by-state report. Your own store's sales and the marketplaces' go in apart, because states count them differently.
Use each state's window, usually this year or last. Nothing you type is stored or sent.
Add the states you sell to and see where you stand in each.
Which of your sales count?
The threshold is the easy part. What goes into it is where sellers get it wrong.
Your own store's sales always count. Shopify, WooCommerce, your own checkout: every sale shipped to the state counts toward its test.
Marketplaces collect on their sales. Every state with a sales tax makes Amazon, Etsy, eBay and the like collect and pay it on the sales they handle. You don't collect on those twice.
But 29 states still count them toward your threshold. Including California, Texas, New York and Washington. In 18 others, among them Florida, Illinois and Georgia, they're left out. The table below has every state.
Stock in a state is presence there. Inventory in a warehouse, a 3PL's or a marketplace's, can oblige you to register with no threshold at all. If you use fulfilment centres, find out which states your stock sits in.
Over a threshold? Four steps.
In this order, and the sooner the cheaper.
- Register with the state.Each state has its own sales tax permit. In the 24 Streamlined states you can register in one go, for free, through the Streamlined registration system.
- First
- Turn on collection for that state.In Shopify or your checkout, add the state so tax is charged at the customer's address. Rates can differ by city and county, so let the platform work them out.
- Same day
- File returns on the state's schedule.Monthly, quarterly or yearly, as the state assigns, including returns with nothing to report. Many states charge a penalty for a late return even when nothing was owed.
- Ongoing
- Let a certified provider do it, possibly free.In Streamlined states, a qualifying remote seller can use a certified service provider whose fee the states pay: AccurateTax, Avalara, Avior, Sovos or TaxCloud.
- Optional
Every state's threshold, and what counts.
46 states and DC have a sales tax. Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon don't. "Or" means either test is enough; "and" means both must be met.
| State | Threshold | Marketplace sales | Measured over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $250,000 | Don't count | previous calendar year |
| Alaska | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Arizona | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| ArkansasSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| California | $500,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Colorado | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Connecticut | $100,000 and 200 orders | Count | twelve months ending 30 September |
| District of Columbia | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Florida | $100,000 | Don't count | previous calendar year |
| GeorgiaSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Hawaii | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Idaho | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Illinois | $100,000 | Don't count | previous twelve months, reviewed quarterly |
| IndianaSST | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| IowaSST | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| KansasSST | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| KentuckySST | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Louisiana | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Maine | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Maryland | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Massachusetts | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| MichiganSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | previous calendar year |
| MinnesotaSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | previous twelve months |
| Mississippi | $250,000 | Don't count | previous twelve months |
| Missouri | $100,000 | Count | previous twelve months |
| NebraskaSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| NevadaSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| New JerseySST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| New Mexico | $100,000 | Don't count | previous calendar year |
| New York | $500,000 and 100 orders | Count | preceding four sales tax quarters |
| North CarolinaSST | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| North DakotaSST | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| OhioSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| OklahomaSST | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Pennsylvania | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| Rhode IslandSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | previous calendar year |
| South Carolina | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| South DakotaSST | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| TennesseeSST | $100,000 | Don't count | previous twelve months |
| Texas | $500,000 | Count | previous twelve months |
| UtahSST | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| VermontSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | previous twelve months |
| Virginia | $100,000 or 200 orders | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
| WashingtonSST | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| West VirginiaSST | $100,000 or 200 orders | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| WisconsinSST | $100,000 | Count | current or the previous calendar year |
| WyomingSST | $100,000 | Don't count | current or the previous calendar year |
SST marks the Streamlined Sales Tax states, where registration is one free form. Thresholds read against the Sales Tax Institute's guide (as of 1 August 2026), Avalara and TaxCloud; Kentucky's order test ended on 1 August 2026. States change these often, so confirm with the state before you register or decide not to. Not tax advice.
Questions about US sales tax.
If yours is not here, email us at hello@baseacross.com before you order.
Nexus is the link with a state that obliges you to collect its sales tax. Since the Supreme Court's Wayfair decision in 2018, selling enough into a state creates it on its own, with no office, staff or stock there. That's economic nexus.
Most states use $100,000 of sales a year. California, New York and Texas use $500,000, and Alabama and Mississippi $250,000. 17 states also count orders, usually 200, and Connecticut and New York need both tests met.
Yes, once you pass a state's threshold. The rules turn on where your customers are, not where you or your company are. A US LLC owned from abroad is treated like any other seller.
It depends on the state. Every state with a sales tax makes the marketplace collect on the sales it handles. 29 of them still count those sales toward your own threshold, and 18 leave them out.
Usually not for the sales themselves, because Amazon collects and pays the tax on them. Two things can change that: stock you keep in a state, which can make you present there, and a state that wants every seller over its threshold registered. Wisconsin says outright that a seller who sells only through collecting marketplaces needn't register.
Register with that state, then collect its tax on your own sales there and file returns on the schedule it sets, including returns with nothing to report. The obligation starts from the sale that crosses the line, not from when you notice.
Talk to the state before it talks to you. Most states offer a voluntary disclosure agreement: you pay the tax for a limited look-back period, often three or four years, and penalties are usually waived. The Multistate Tax Commission runs one process covering many states at once.
Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no statewide sales tax. Alaska has none at state level, but many of its towns do, and they share a $100,000 threshold through the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission.
Selling into the US? Do it as a US company.
A US company opens the US bank and payment accounts that state registrations and marketplaces ask for. You see the whole order before anything is charged.
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