Which states require online stores to collect sales tax?

All 45 states with a statewide sales tax, plus Washington, DC, make an online store collect sales tax once it has a physical presence there or crosses the state's economic nexus threshold. In most states that threshold is $100,000 in sales into the state. California, New York and Texas set it at $500,000. Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no sales tax, and Alaska's is local only.

The tables below show ecommerce sales tax by state as of October 2026. Each threshold comes from the Sales Tax Institute state-by-state threshold chart (as of August 1, 2026), checked against state revenue pages for the largest states. Rates come from the Tax Foundation July 1, 2026 rate table. This is general information, not tax or legal advice, so confirm your obligations with each state's revenue department or a CPA before you register or file.

On this page

• Why online stores owe sales tax in other states
• What counts as a physical presence for an online store
• How economic nexus thresholds for sales tax work
• Ecommerce sales tax by state: Alabama to Hawaii
• Remote seller thresholds: Idaho to Mississippi
• State sales tax rules: Missouri to Oregon
• Online sales tax thresholds: Pennsylvania to Wyoming
• States that dropped the 200-transaction test in 2025 and 2026
• Do you need to register: a quick decision table
• Do marketplace sales on Amazon, Etsy or eBay count
• How much tax to charge on an order
• What to do after you cross a threshold
• Wholesale orders, exemption certificates and use tax
• Worked example: a Colorado store selling nationwide
• Selling into the US from Canada or Australia
• How store platforms handle sales tax
• How to track your sales by state each quarter
• What happens if you are behind on sales tax

Why online stores owe sales tax in other states

Before June 21, 2018, a state could make a seller collect its sales tax only if the seller had a physical presence there, such as a store, an office, staff or inventory. That day the US Supreme Court decided South Dakota v. Wayfair. The ruling allowed states to tax remote sellers based on sales volume alone, and every state with a sales tax has since adopted a sales threshold for remote sellers.

A store now has two ways to owe tax in a state. The first is physical presence, which still applies and is easy to trigger by accident. The second is economic presence: cross the state's sales or transaction threshold, and you must register, collect tax on taxable sales shipped there and file returns.

For remote sellers, US sales tax is charged at the destination. The rate depends on the buyer's ship-to address, including any city, county and district taxes on top of the state rate.

What counts as a physical presence for an online store

Physical presence has no dollar threshold. One qualifying link to a state can create a duty to collect from the first sale, so check these before you look at sales totals:

• Inventory stored in the state, including stock held in a marketplace or third-party fulfillment warehouse.
• Employees or contractors who work in the state, including remote staff working from home.
• An office, showroom, pop-up shop or warehouse, even a small leased unit.
• Trade shows and events where you sell or take orders, in states that count temporary presence.
• Your own delivery vehicles or installers working in the state.

Inventory is the one that catches growing stores. A seller using a fulfillment network can have stock spread across warehouses in several states without choosing any of them, and each of those states may expect registration. Ask your fulfillment provider for an inventory location report every quarter.

How economic nexus thresholds for sales tax work

Three details change the answer for the same store in two states, and the tables below show each one.

• The amount. Most states use $100,000. Alabama uses $250,000 and Mississippi more than $250,000. California, New York and Texas use $500,000.
• What counts. Some states count gross sales, including exempt items and sales for resale. Others count only retail or taxable sales, so a store selling mostly exempt goods can stay under the line.
• The period. Many states look at the prior or current calendar year. Others use a rolling 12 months or the last four quarters, so you can cross a threshold in the middle of a year.

Some states also keep a transaction test. In Georgia, 200 separate sales into the state create a collection duty even if they total $20,000. Connecticut and New York require both tests: $100,000 and 200 transactions in Connecticut, and $500,000 plus more than 100 sales in New York.

For a store with a low average order value, the transaction test is the one that bites. At a $40 average order, 200 orders is $8,000 in sales, far below any dollar threshold.

Ecommerce sales tax by state: Alabama to Hawaii

Rates are the state rate and the Tax Foundation average combined state and local rate as of July 1, 2026.

Remote seller thresholds: Idaho to Mississippi

State sales tax rules: Missouri to Oregon

Online sales tax thresholds: Pennsylvania to Wyoming

States that dropped the 200-transaction test in 2025 and 2026

The trend runs one way: states are removing transaction counts and keeping only the dollar test. Four changes took effect in the last two years.

Illinois also changed how you measure. Its Department of Revenue bulletin tells remote retailers to review the 12 months ending December 31, 2025, then check on a rolling quarterly basis.

Fourteen states and DC still accept 200 transactions as an alternative test, and Connecticut and New York pair a transaction count with the dollar amount. Sellers of many low-priced items should check those states first.

Do you need to register: a quick decision table

Treat the table as a first screen. Product taxability, local rules and the way each state counts marketplace sales can change the answer, so confirm with the state or a CPA before you file.

Do marketplace sales on Amazon, Etsy or eBay count

Every state with a statewide sales tax now has a marketplace facilitator law. When a customer buys through Amazon, Etsy, eBay or Walmart Marketplace, the marketplace calculates, collects and remits the tax on that order. You do not collect it again.

Two questions remain for the seller. The first is whether marketplace sales count toward your own threshold. Certain states count them and others exclude them, which matters once you also sell through your own website. The second is whether your inventory sits in a marketplace warehouse in that state, because stored inventory can create a physical presence even when the marketplace collects the tax.

Say a seller ships $70,000 through Amazon and $40,000 through its own Shopify store into a state with a $100,000 gross sales test that counts marketplace sales. Total sales of $110,000 cross the threshold, so the seller registers and collects on the $40,000 of direct sales. In a state that excludes marketplace sales, the same seller stays $60,000 below the line.

How much tax to charge on an order

The rate is the state rate plus every local rate at the ship-to address, and local rates change several times a year. A tax engine that looks up rates by street address beats a ZIP code table, because one ZIP code can cross city and district lines.

The spread between states is wide. A $200 order shipped to an address at Louisiana's 10.13 percent average combined rate carries about $20.26 in tax. The same order at Hawaii's 4.50 percent average carries $9.00, and in Oregon it carries none.

Taxability adds a second layer. Clothing, food, digital downloads, software subscriptions and shipping charges are taxed differently from state to state, and some states tax shipping only when the items shipped are taxable. Assign a product tax code to every item in your catalog instead of marking everything taxable at the full rate.

What to do after you cross a threshold

1. Register for a sales tax permit with that state's revenue department before you collect any tax. Start dates differ; North Carolina, for example, moved to a 60-day registration window on July 2, 2026.
2. Turn on tax collection for that state in your store platform, using the buyer's ship-to address.
3. Set which products are taxable, using product tax codes.
4. Collect resale or exemption certificates from wholesale and tax-exempt buyers, and store them with the order.
5. File returns on the schedule the state assigns, which can be monthly, quarterly or yearly, and file zero returns when you had no sales.
6. Review your sales by state every quarter, since rolling measurement periods can put you over a threshold mid-year.

Food shows how fast taxability shifts. Illinois eliminated its 1 percent state tax on food on January 1, 2026, the Tax Foundation reports, while many Illinois localities imposed their own food taxes. A store selling snacks or supplements has to follow both changes.

Wholesale orders, exemption certificates and use tax

A sale for resale is not taxable, but only if you hold proof. Before you ship a tax-free wholesale order, collect a resale or exemption certificate that matches the buyer's state. Keep it for as long as the state can audit you. A number of states accept the SST certificate of exemption or the Multistate Tax Commission uniform certificate, while others require their own form.

A missing certificate turns an exempt sale into a taxable one in an audit, and the tax then comes out of your margin. Collect the certificate at account setup in your B2B store, not after the first invoice.

When you do not collect tax because you sit below a state's threshold, the buyer may owe use tax to their own state on the same purchase. Business buyers usually report it on their own returns. That obligation sits with the buyer, but stating it on invoices to business customers avoids disputes later.

Worked example: a Colorado store selling nationwide

Say a home fitness store based in Colorado sells $1.2 million a year online at an average order of $85. It collects Colorado tax already because of its physical presence. Here is how its largest out-of-state markets compare with the 2026 thresholds.

The result runs against intuition. The two largest markets need no registration, while Georgia and Ohio, at $75,000 combined, do, because of the 200-transaction test. Illinois flipped the other way: 706 orders would have triggered registration under the old rule, and $60,000 in sales does not under the 2026 rule.

Selling into the US from Canada or Australia

State thresholds apply to remote sellers wherever they are based. Say a Toronto or Sydney store ships $130,000 of goods a year to customers in Washington state. It crosses Washington's $100,000 threshold the same way an Ohio store would, and it registers, collects and files in Washington.

Foreign sellers face two extra steps. Some state registration forms expect a US federal tax ID, so apply for an employer identification number early. Price display matters too: US shoppers expect tax to be added at checkout, so show it as a separate line instead of folding it into the product price. Measure US sales in US dollars, because state thresholds are written in dollars, and use the same exchange rate method every quarter so a currency swing does not hide a crossing.

How store platforms handle sales tax

Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce can each calculate tax at checkout once you tell them where you are registered, with built-in tools or a tax app such as Avalara, TaxJar or Zamp. None of them registers you or files returns by default, so that work stays with you or a paid filing service. The platform trade-offs are covered in the Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison.

If you are picking a theme for a new store, check that the cart shows tax and shipping as separate lines. The shortlist of best ecommerce website templates is a starting point.

Show tax early in checkout. A surprise tax line on the last step is one of the extra costs that pushes shoppers to leave, as the guide on how to reduce cart abandonment explains. Build tax, shipping and exemption handling into the scope when you budget a store, using the ranges in the guide to ecommerce website cost.

How to track your sales by state each quarter

1. Export the last 12 months of orders from your store, with ship-to state, order total, tax collected and sales channel.
2. Separate marketplace orders from direct website orders, since states treat them differently.
3. For each state, total the sales and count the orders, and split taxable from exempt sales where the state measures taxable or retail sales only.
4. Compare each state against its dollar test and, where one exists, its transaction test.
5. Mark every state within 20 percent of a threshold and repeat the check every quarter.

Rolling periods need the closest watch. Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas measure over the prior 12 months or the last full quarter, while Connecticut, New York and Vermont use their own quarter-based windows. A strong holiday quarter can push a store over in any of these states without waiting for the calendar year to end.

What happens if you are behind on sales tax

Crossing a threshold without collecting doesn't erase the tax. The store still owes it, usually from its own pocket, because the customers were never charged. States can add interest and penalties for every period you missed, and the exposure grows each quarter you wait.

Many states and the Multistate Tax Commission run voluntary disclosure programs for sellers who come forward before the state contacts them. These programs can limit how many past years you pay and waive some penalties. Talk to a CPA or tax attorney before you file anything, because the order of steps affects the terms you get.

Run the quarterly sales-by-state export described above before the next quarter closes, and start with any state where you are already within 20 percent of the threshold.

The ecommerce development team at Techno Mantra sets up tax calculation, product tax codes, exemption handling and tax app integrations on Shopify, WooCommerce and custom stores. Checkout then charges the right rate in every state where you register. Send your store URL and the states you sell into through the contact page or to info@technomantraa.com. Every inquiry gets a reply within one business day.