Sales Tax Calculator

If your business has offices, warehouses and employees in a state, you likely have physical nexus, which means you’ll need to collect and file sales tax in that state. For more information on nexus, this blog post can assist. If you sell products to states where you do not have a physical presence, you may still have sales tax liability there – and therefore need to collect and remit taxes in that state. Every state has different sales and transaction thresholds that trigger tax obligations for your business – take a look at this article to find out what those thresholds are for the states you sell to.

If your company is doing business with a buyer claiming a sales tax exemption, you may have to deal with documentation involving customer exemption certificates. To make matters more complicated, many states have their own requirements for documentation regarding these sales tax exemptions. To ease the pain, we’ve created an article that lists each state’s requirements, which you can find here.

You should not collect sales tax from retail sales in a state before you have registered for a sales tax permit. (If you’re looking for sales tax rates in every state, we’ve provided them here.) In general, the steps you should take to register with a state to collect sales tax are as follows: gather your EIN or other business identifying information, visit your state’s department of revenue website, click on the “Sales and Use Tax” section of the site, and register your business. We’ve created a handy guide to lead you through the steps to register for every state right here.

The answer to most questions about sales tax is usually “it depends,” and the answer to this particular question is no different. If you’re a retailer that makes online sales, you only need to collect sales tax and file tax returns for states in which you have physical and economic nexus. (You can learn more about nexus in this blog post.) Wherever you have a physical presence in a state – like offices, warehouses and employees – you likely have physical nexus, which means you’ll need to collect and file sales tax on taxable goods and services in that state.

Things get more complicated when you’re an online seller, because you may have economic nexus (and thus, sales tax obligations to remit) in multiple states. Every state has different thresholds that trigger tax obligations for your business – it’s important to understand where you are in relation to those thresholds to know whether you have obligations in a particular state.

When you use TaxJar, it’s easy to track where you have (and where you may soon have) economic nexus using our Economic Nexus Insights dashboard. Another way to see if your business meets the threshold for economic nexus is by using this helpful guide. And if you’re looking for state sales tax rates, take a look at our state guide to sales and use tax.

The sales and use tax of any given item or service is the combined rate of a state sales tax rate and any additional local sales taxes levied by a county or city. Furthermore, there may be limited sales taxes called special taxing district rates to help raise money for publicly-funded ventures like new schools, parks or rail systems. That’s why the sales tax rate on a retail sale in one town can differ from one located in a different town – even if it’s close by.

You can calculate the sales and use tax rate in your area by entering an address into our Sales Tax Calculator. This will provide a combined sales tax rate for a location. For a look at sales tax rates of all 50 states, we’ve designed an interactive map to help you out. And lastly, if you’re looking for information on why sales tax varies from product to product, this article can assist.

Filing frequency varies by both the state you’re filing in and the size of your business. As a general rule of thumb, the more taxable revenue you generate in a state, the more often they want you to file sales and use tax. Your filing frequency may start out quarterly, but if you hit a revenue threshold, a state may decide you need to file monthly. If you need to register for a sales tax permit, we’ve compiled all the info here. And here’s a primer on how to file online and by mail for every state.

If you’re approaching a due date and you need to file sales tax today, we’ve created a quick guide on how exactly to get that done.

If you have sales and use tax liabilities – and don’t collect sales tax and remit them to a state – there are real implications for having tax due. That includes paying interest and penalties on top of the state sales tax you owe. There’s also the possibility of criminal penalties, lawsuits and reputational damage. For more information on some of the negative outcomes for not collecting sales tax, we’ve laid them out in a blog post here.

Here’s the good news: TaxJar makes it easy to track where you have (and where you may soon have) sales tax obligations using our Economic Nexus Insights dashboard. TaxJar’s AutoFile can also automate filing sales tax returns on your company’s behalf, so you never miss a filing date again.