One catalogue. Two channels the states treat differently.
Sales the marketplace collected on and sales you made yourself are two different positions. In many states the first still counts toward the threshold that catches the second — so the platform can push you over a line in a state you never registered in.
Through a marketplace
Every state with a sales tax now makes the platform collect on the sales it facilitates. Genuinely helpful, and where most sellers stop reading — because in many states those sales still count toward your own threshold.
Your own storefront
Nobody is collecting for you here. You are the seller of record, which means registering in each state you have triggered, charging the right rate, and filing the returns yourself.
“Amazon collects the tax, so we are fine”
Four things the facilitator rules do not do for you.
Three stages, followed down both sides
Registering in a state announces you to it. That is the right move once you know your position, and the wrong first move if you have historic exposure you have not measured yet.
Where you have triggered something
The platform reports what it collected, but its report is not a nexus study. In several large states these sales are included in the count that decides whether you are registered.
Your own sales are measured against each state’s test on their own. A modest direct channel can be what tips you over once facilitated sales are added underneath it.
Registering and collecting
Nothing to configure — the platform charges and remits. Your job is reconciling what it collected so those orders are excluded from what you file on.
Registration opened in each state that matters, collection switched on at the right rates, and a filing calendar that runs monthly, quarterly or annually depending on the state.
Historic exposure
Generally the cleaner side, because the platform was collecting. The exposure sits in whether those sales pushed you over a line you never registered behind.
Uncollected tax on direct sales is your liability, and it accrues from the day you crossed the threshold rather than the day you noticed.
A foreign-owned selling entity brings its own layer — Form 5472, an EIN before anything else can move, and no treaty protection at state level. Sales tax is collected from your customer rather than charged on your profit, so a treaty does not reach it. We handle that alongside the nexus work.
What is missed costs more than what is owed
Sales tax you failed to collect does not disappear. It becomes yours.
You remain liable for tax you should have charged the customer, long after the customer has gone.
Walking into a state and filing forward can leave the whole historic period exposed and close off the disclosure route.
Physical presence created by a fulfilment network, backdated to whenever the stock first arrived.
Treaties bind the federal government. States are not party to them, and sales tax is not a tax on your profit.
What sellers ask first
Amazon already collects and remits. Do I need to register at all?
Often yes. The facilitator rules cover the sales the platform makes for you, not the ones you make yourself, and in a number of states those facilitated sales still count toward the threshold that puts you on the hook for your direct channel. If you sell only through marketplaces and nowhere else, your position is much simpler — we will tell you if that is the case rather than sell you a study you do not need.
Does using FBA really create nexus?
Holding inventory in a state is a classic physical presence, and fulfilment networks move stock without asking you. It has been contested in places and the treatment is not identical everywhere, so the honest answer is that it depends on which states your stock has actually sat in — which is why we start from the inventory report, not an assumption.
We think we should have registered two years ago. What now?
Do not simply register and start filing — that can leave the historic period fully exposed. We size the back exposure first, then look at whether a voluntary disclosure agreement is available, which in many states limits the look-back period and can abate penalties. Sequence matters here more than speed.
We are based outside the US. Does a treaty protect us?
Not at state level, generally. Tax treaties bind the federal government, and states are not party to them, so a treaty position that shields you from federal income tax may do nothing about a state’s sales tax or its income and franchise tax. Sales tax in particular is a tax you collect from the customer rather than one on your profit, so treaty relief is not the relevant question.
How is this priced?
A fixed fee, scoped from your channels, your state footprint and how many registrations and returns are involved. Business engagements start at $2,400 a year, agreed in writing before any work begins. Never hourly, and never a percentage of anything we save you.
Find out where you actually stand.
Tell us which channels you sell through and where your stock sits. We come back with the states that matter, what the exposure looks like, and a fixed price before any work begins.
Start scoping