Does your business have nexus in any state that has sales tax? Nexus is physical connection, and we discuss it later in this article. Some states (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon) have no sales tax to begin with.
Is your product/service taxable to begin with? Keep in mind, most tangible goods are taxable, while most services are not, but each jurisdiction has its own rules, so it’s not that simple.
Q. Should I register in a state that has no sales tax, to avoid having to deal with it?
Sorry, but it’s not that easy.
For example, let’s assume you register in Delaware (that has no sales tax) and you are selling some tangible items by shipping them from China to buyers in the U.S. Since in this case your business only has nexus in Delaware (as state of registration), you will not have to worry about sales tax at all. However, if you are using a U.S. dropshipper that ships the product from warehouses in California, Kentucky and New Jersey, technically you are required to collect sales tax from buyers of your product in all three mentioned states.
If you register your company in Wyoming instead of Delaware, you add Wyoming as another state to collect sales tax in. Sounds inconvenient, but only if you assume that a serious number of consumers of your product are roaming the vast stretches of the least populated U.S. state. We are deeply in love with Wyoming, but your chances of selling anything in that state are mostly close to zero, so you might not even need to worry about registering for sales tax there until you make a few Wyoming sales first.
How do you register for sales tax in all these states? Read further.
Q. If I am registered in one state, but my vendors are drop shipping the stuff I sell in other states - which state do I need to collect sales tax in?
As you learned from the previous question, your company nexus spreads to all states where your dropshipper has nexus. So unless your dropshipper processes the payment side of your sales, or unless you make no sales in any of these respective states, you need to obtain permits in each of these states (as well as in your state of registration, if it has sales tax).
Q. I know that I need to collect sales tax. How do I register?
We can help you with the registration in any state. Depending on the state this permit will be called "sales tax ID", "sales permit", "reseller permit", "vendor ID", or just "tax ID". We have this item both on its own and as part of our LLC/Corporation registration applications.
Q. After I register, how do I do reporting and remit sales tax?