I'm worried about sales tax
You know you probably owe sales tax somewhere, but you’re not sure where. Selling on marketplaces, your own site, and out of FBA warehouses creates sales tax nexus in more states than most sellers realize. Most find out after they’ve already crossed a threshold.
Does this sound familiar?
Your sales, your inventory, and even a remote employee can create nexus in a state. Each state sets its own rules for when that happens.
Notices rarely go away on their own, and waiting usually makes the problem bigger.
You’ve crossed thresholds in states where you never registered, and every month adds to what you might owe.
Amazon collects sales tax on your Amazon orders. That does nothing for your Shopify store, and in some states your Amazon sales still count toward the economic nexus threshold.
Registrations, filings, and deadlines in every state you file in turn into a part-time job nobody signed up for.
Why this happens
Since the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision in 2018, states can require you to collect sales tax based on your sales alone, even if you’ve never set foot there. Each state sets its own threshold, and they don’t all count the same sales toward it.
Ecommerce creates nexus in ways a local shop never would. FBA spreads your inventory across warehouses in states you didn’t choose, and inventory sitting in a state often means you have nexus there. Add wholesale accounts, a second marketplace, or a remote hire, and the list of states grows faster than anyone is tracking it.
Most sellers put sales tax off because they’re busy growing, and at first nothing happens. Then a notice shows up with questions about sales into jurisdictions. This can uncover back taxes, penalties, and interest that you're responsible for and can even turn into an audit. We recommend finding out where you stand now, while you still get to choose how to fix it.
How we fix it
Sales Tax
We start by finding out where you stand. The free Risk Assessment tells you whether you may have exposure, and a one-hour Sales Tax Consultation gets your questions answered. To find out exactly which states you owe in, we run a nexus study. If there are gaps, we handle the registrations, back filings, or VDAs to close them. Then Managed Returns or Full-Service Sales Tax keeps your filings and payments on track every month.
Not sure what sales tax means for your business?
- 1 hour · $250
Sales Tax Consultation
Bring your questions to one of our sales tax experts. We’ll talk through how nexus works for sellers like you, how to set up collection on your channels, and what registering and filing involves. If you need to know exactly which states you owe in, we’ll tell you whether a nexus study makes sense.
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Free assessment · Sales Tax Risk Assessment
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Take the 6-minute assessment and get a personalized score and a specific action plan based on your answers.
Where to go next
DownloadSales Tax Compliance ChecklistA step-by-step guide to the 10 steps of ecommerce sales tax compliance, from finding nexus to filing, plus software comparisons and a state threshold chart.
ArticleThe Where, Who, and What of Sales Taxability for Online SellersSales taxability comes down to three questions: where, who, and what. This breaks each down with examples, from Colorado's rates to Massachusetts's cutoff.
VideoAmazon & Shopify Sales Tax: What Ecommerce Sellers Get WrongSellers turn on Shopify tax collection, sell on Amazon, and assume compliance is handled. This walks through the gaps that assumption leaves behind. Amazon remits under marketplace facilitator laws but never registers you, and FBA inventory creates physical nexus in every state it sits in. Shopify collects nothing on its own. You also get the difference between collecting without remitting and never collecting at all, plus a five step cleanup plan. 
WebinarCompliance Counts: Why Your Business Cannot Afford to Ignore Sales Tax Six years after Wayfair, the grace period is over. States are buying seller lists, pulling data from marketplaces, and auditing back to 2018. Lauren Maillard walks through the business activity questionnaires arriving from Illinois and Washington, the two ways to get compliant, and how to decide between them. Stephen Brown fields a heavy stream of audience questions on nexus, drop shipping, exemption certificates, and the new retail delivery fees.
Does storing inventory in a state (like Amazon FBA warehouses) create sales tax nexus?
It depends on the state, about half say yes, storing inventory in a third-party warehouse counts as physical presence regardless of whether you control where it's stored, and the other half don't require it for exactly that reason. You can find which states your FBA inventory sits in through Seller Central's Inventory Event Detail report, the first three letters of each fulfillment center ID map to a nearby airport code.
Read: Find where your FBA inventory creates nexusIf Amazon collects sales tax for you, do you still need to file a return?
Yes, in your home state, as well in EVERY state you have nexus, even if you only have nexus due to marketplace sales. You still have an obligation to report those marketplace sales even if it results in no tax due because Amazon already collected and remitted the tax on your behalf. If your inventory sits in FBA warehouses, about half of all states also consider that enough physical presence to require registering and filing there too.
Read: Filing returns when Amazon collectsWhat is sales tax nexus and how does it apply to ecommerce businesses?
Nexus means a business has a strong enough connection to a state to be required to collect and remit sales tax there. For ecommerce sellers, this mainly comes down to two triggers: physical presence (people or property in a state) and economic nexus (crossing a state's sales or transaction threshold), with click-through and affiliate nexus applying only in narrower situations.
Read: Complete guide to sales tax nexus
Client stories
How Micro Balance Got Sales Tax Clarity
LedgerGurus resolved years of sales tax issues, cleaned up the books, and created clear channel-level reporting. Micro Balance Health Products can now see what’s profitable, make smarter decisions, and plan with confidence.
“We can plan everything with confidence. We know how each part of the business is doing and how our decisions will impact it. It’s been game-changing for all of us.”
: Micro Balance Health Products
Peace of mind
LedgerGurus took over sales tax, bookkeeping, and reconciliations, with monthly gross profit margin reports and KPIs. Beddy’s gets a full team of specialists through one company.
“Whenever I have a question, I know exactly who to contact, and I get an answer quickly, and I’m confident that the answer that I’m getting is correct.”
: Beddy’s