Does sales tax apply to me?
Sales tax can affect your orders depending on where they’re fulfilled and shipped. In the US, sales tax rules vary by state, and whether or not you’re responsible for collecting and remitting it depends on what’s known as a “nexus,” which is essentially a connection between your business and a state.
Printful is obligated to collect and remit sales tax on US orders being shipped within the US. However, sales tax won’t be applied to the order if you have submitted a valid resale certificate to us.
When do I need to collect and remit sales tax?
You’re required to collect and remit sales tax in states where you have nexus. Nexus means you have a significant presence in a state, and it can happen in a few different ways.
Physical presence
Most sellers have a physical presence in their home state, which means you likely need to register for a sales tax permit in your own state.
You may also have physical presence in other states if:
- You have an office, warehouse, or second location
- You employ someone working remotely in another state
- You store inventory in another state
Economic nexus
You may also be required to collect tax in states where you exceed a certain sales threshold, either by total revenue or number of transactions. This is called economic nexus.
For example, in most states, you’ll trigger economic nexus if you make $100,000 or more in sales, or 200+ transactions. But this varies by state. Minnesota, for instance, only uses a sales threshold now (100 transactions no longer applies).
You can find up-to-date economic nexus thresholds in TaxJar’s Economic Nexus Guide.
If you have nexus in a state, you’ll need to:
- Register for a sales tax permit in that state.
- Collect sales tax on orders shipped to customers in that state.
- Remit the tax to the state tax authority.
What if I don’t have nexus?
However, if you don’t have nexus and haven’t submitted a valid resale certificate, Printful will charge sales tax on orders shipped to states where Printful is registered – no action on your part is needed.
You may want to consider slightly raising your product retail prices in order to absorb the sales tax that will be charged on the Printful side.
However, if neither you nor Printful has nexus in a given state, then no sales tax will be charged. This means your customer won’t be charged sales tax for orders shipped to that state.