- Physical nexus: an office, staff, inventory, or sometimes attending a trade show
- Economic nexus: exceeding a state's sales or transaction threshold from outside it
- Whether services are taxable varies enormously by state, and many trades services are
- Rates stack: state, county, city and sometimes special districts
- Marketplaces often collect on your behalf, which does not always remove your filing duty
Inventory stored in a state creates physical nexus there. Amazon moves your stock between fulfillment centers, so you may have nexus in states you have never heard from.
Economic nexus is separate: exceeding a state's sales or transaction threshold from outside it. At $300k spread nationally you may cross a few of the lower ones.
Marketplace facilitator laws mean Amazon collects for you in most states, which helps enormously, but it does not always remove your registration or filing duty.
Get the inventory report first. Want me to tell you exactly what to pull?
Advanced engine. It found the nexus created by a warehouse you do not control.
Economic nexus since Wayfair
Since South Dakota v. Wayfair (2018), a state can require a seller with no presence there to collect once its sales into the state pass a threshold. California: more than $500,000 of goods delivered into the state in the current or preceding calendar year. Texas: more than $500,000 of Texas revenue in the preceding 12 calendar months. New York: more than $500,000 of goods and more than 100 sales in the preceding four sales tax quarters, both together. Florida: more than $100,000 of taxable remote sales in the previous calendar year. Many other states use $100,000, but check each one rather than assume it. As of Oct 2026.
South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., 585 U.S. 162 (2018); Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code sec. 6203(c)(4); 34 TAC sec. 3.286(b)(2); N.Y. Tax Law sec. 1101(b)(8)(iv); Fla. Stat. sec. 212.0596(2)
Storing inventory in a fulfillment warehouse generally creates nexus in that state from the first unit, without you doing anything else there. Pull your FBA or 3PL location report, then register and file where required, even where the marketplace collects for you. This is the one that surprises online sellers.
Marketplace facilitator laws move the collection. They do not always move your registration or filing duty, and your own-site sales are still yours.
Five states have no statewide sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon, though Alaska localities do. Colorado home-rule cities, Louisiana parishes and Alabama localities run their own taxes on top of the state.
Behind on filing?
A voluntary disclosure agreement, approached before the state contacts you, usually limits the lookback to 3 or 4 years and waives most penalties. Do it before you sell the business, because buyers price unfiled exposure. As of Oct 2026.
State voluntary disclosure programs; Multistate Tax Commission National Nexus Program
I sell [what] from [state] to customers in [where]. My annual sales are around [amount]. Where do I likely have sales tax nexus, and what do I need to do about it?
Every lesson ends with a question to hand to a Greymill specialist, who answers with what it knows about your business.