United States / Guides / Sales tax for Amazon sellers: what Amazon collects, and what still lands on you
United States · guideSales tax for Amazon sellers: what Amazon collects, and what still lands on you
The short answer
For sales Amazon facilitates, Amazon is the party legally responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax, not you — every state with a marketplace facilitator law (which is effectively every state that taxes sales) treats Amazon as the retailer of record on those transactions, following the same pattern confirmed by Washington, California, and Texas among others. What Amazon's collection does not do is register you, collect on your non-Amazon sales, or resolve whether FBA inventory stored in a state you never visited has created physical-presence nexus there — those three gaps are where most Amazon sellers still owe work, even after Amazon starts collecting.
Key facts — verified dates on each
Amazon collects on Amazon sales — this part is settled, and near-universal
Every state that levies a general sales tax has enacted some version of a marketplace facilitator law, and Amazon registers and collects under each one. California's Marketplace Facilitator Act, for example, took effect October 1, 2019: from that date, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration treats the marketplace facilitator, not the marketplace seller, as "the retailer" for facilitated sales, meaning Amazon collects, reports, and remits the tax itself and the seller is no longer the party liable for it on that transaction.
Texas runs the same structure under a different name: a "marketplace provider" — defined by the Texas Comptroller as an entity that "owns or operates a marketplace... and processes sales or payments for marketplace sellers" — must collect and remit state and local tax on all third-party sales, effective October 1, 2019, once its own Texas revenue exceeds the state's $500,000 remote-seller threshold. Washington's version predates both: marketplace facilitators with more than $100,000 in Washington-sourced gross receipts must register, and since July 1, 2019 they must also give each marketplace seller monthly visibility into the gross Washington sales made on that seller's behalf — a reporting duty layered on top of the collection duty itself.
A New York detail worth internalizing because it surprises smaller sellers: the collection duty applies "regardless of whether the marketplace seller is required to register for sales tax purposes" in that state — Amazon collects on your New York-bound sales even if your own sales volume into New York would never have crossed New York's own economic nexus threshold on its own. The facilitator's obligation and your obligation are legally independent; Amazon collecting does not depend on you having nexus.
What "Amazon collects" does not cover: your other channels
Marketplace facilitator collection is transaction-specific, not seller-specific. It covers sales Amazon itself facilitates — items sold through the Amazon marketplace, checked out through Amazon's own payment flow. It says nothing about sales through a Shopify storefront, a wholesale account, Etsy, or any other channel a seller also runs. Once a seller sells through more than one channel into the same state, that state can have Amazon-collected tax on one slice of the seller's revenue and a live, unmet collection obligation on the rest — same seller, same state, two different answers depending on which channel the sale went through.
This is why "I sell on Amazon, so sales tax is handled" is the single most common misconception this guide exists to correct. It is handled for the Amazon slice. Whether it is handled for everything else depends on whether that seller has separately registered, is separately collecting, and is separately filing in every state where the non-Amazon channels have created nexus — physical or economic — under the general framework covered in the companion nexus guide.
FBA inventory: physical-presence nexus you did not choose
Fulfillment by Amazon places inventory in whichever fulfillment centers Amazon's own logistics network decides, redistributing stock across states as it optimizes shipping times — a seller enrolled in FBA typically does not pick which states hold their inventory and can have stock moved into a new state without being notified in real time. In every state that treats inventory physically present within its borders as sufficient for nexus (the majority, following the pre-Wayfair physical-presence rule that never went away), that placement can create nexus on its own, independent of the seller's sales volume and independent of whether Amazon is separately collecting tax on the marketplace sales themselves.
This produces a specific, easy-to-miss gap: nexus from FBA storage can exist in a state before economic nexus would ever be triggered there, and it exists whether or not the seller's Amazon sales into that state are large. Because Amazon is already collecting on the Amazon-facilitated sales in that state, the practical exposure shows up only on the seller's other channels selling into that same state — which is exactly the gap described above, compounding with this one. Reconciling which states currently hold FBA inventory (Amazon's own seller-central inventory reports are the source data) against where the seller also sells directly is a distinct exercise from ordinary economic-nexus monitoring, not a subset of it.
Do Amazon sales still count toward your own nexus threshold?
This is state-specific, and the answer is not uniform. Virginia's tax authority is explicit on its own rule: a marketplace seller's own economic-nexus registration threshold is measured against direct sales made outside the marketplace facilitator's platform — Virginia's guidance states that if a seller "also make[s] sales to Virginia customers outside of a marketplace facilitator's platform... and you meet the $100,000 or 200 transactions threshold for remote sellers, you will need to register to collect sales tax on your direct sales," treating the facilitated and direct totals as answering separate questions. Other states take a different position and fold facilitated sales into the seller's own threshold calculation for some purposes even while the facilitator is the one actually remitting.
Because this varies by state and the treatment can change with a legislative session, the operationally useful habit is keeping Amazon-facilitated revenue and direct-channel revenue as two separate, always-available totals by state — not merged — so that whichever way a specific state answers the question, the data needed to answer it already exists. Reconstructing that split after the fact, from a combined revenue report, is far harder than keeping it separated from the start.
What bookkeeping puts on the table for an Amazon business specifically
An Amazon seller's books need three things a generic e-commerce ledger does not automatically produce: Amazon-facilitated sales and direct/other-channel sales broken out separately by ship-to state (not commingled, for the reason above); a running record of which states currently or recently held FBA inventory, reconciled against Amazon's own inventory-placement reports; and Amazon's remitted-tax detail reports kept as the audit trail proving tax was in fact collected and remitted on the facilitated slice, since a state notice addressed to the seller does not know or care which platform actually held the collection duty unless the seller can show it.
CapEasy's bookkeeping and financial reporting support builds and maintains that channel-and-state breakdown from Amazon Seller Central and Payments reports. Determining whether a specific FBA storage footprint or a specific state's direct-sales total has crossed that state's current nexus threshold, and what follows from it, is a determination made by the business's CPA or a state and local tax (SALT) attorney working from that data — the same division of labor described in the nexus overview guide, applied to Amazon's specific mechanics.
The figures, and when we checked them
These numbers change by year or by notification. Each one shows the date we last verified it against the source — if that date looks old, check the source before relying on it.
Questions on this
Do I need to collect sales tax on my Amazon sales myself?
No. In every state with a marketplace facilitator law — which is effectively every state that taxes sales — Amazon is required to collect and remit sales tax on sales it facilitates, and the seller is not the liable party for that transaction.
If Amazon collects sales tax for me, do I still need to register in any states?
Possibly, for reasons unrelated to your Amazon sales: FBA inventory can create physical-presence nexus in a state on its own, and sales through any other channel (your own website, another marketplace, wholesale) are not covered by Amazon's collection at all. Registration decisions turn on those factors, not on whether Amazon is already collecting.
Does Amazon's tax collection cover my Shopify store or other sales channels too?
No. Marketplace facilitator collection is transaction-specific to sales made through that marketplace. A seller running Amazon plus a direct website plus another marketplace can have Amazon-collected tax on the Amazon slice and a live, separately unmet obligation on the rest, in the same state, at the same time.
Can FBA inventory create nexus even though I never chose where Amazon stores my stock?
In states that treat physically present inventory as sufficient for nexus — the majority, under the pre-Wayfair physical-presence rule that Wayfair added to rather than replaced — yes. Amazon's own logistics network places FBA inventory, and the seller usually is not notified in real time when it moves into a new state.
Do my Amazon sales count toward my own state-by-state economic nexus threshold?
It depends on the state, and the answer is not uniform. Virginia, for example, measures a seller's own registration threshold against direct (non-facilitated) sales only. Other states can treat the question differently, so the safest practice is keeping facilitated and direct revenue as two separate running totals by state rather than assuming either treatment.
What data do I need before an Amazon-specific nexus review can start?
Amazon-facilitated sales and other-channel sales broken out separately by ship-to state, plus a record of which states have held FBA inventory recently or currently, reconciled against Amazon's own inventory-placement reports. Without that split, a CPA or SALT attorney has nothing state-specific to test.
Does Amazon tell me which states it is collecting tax in on my behalf?
Amazon Seller Central provides tax collection and remittance reports at the transaction level, and Washington's law specifically requires facilitators to give sellers monthly visibility into gross sales made on their behalf. Retaining these reports is the audit trail proving Amazon, not the seller, held the collection duty on those transactions.
Does CapEasy determine which states my Amazon and FBA activity has created nexus in?
No. CapEasy's bookkeeping support organizes Amazon-facilitated sales, direct-channel sales, and FBA inventory placement by state so the question can be tested. Determining whether a specific footprint has crossed a specific state's current nexus threshold, and what to do about it, is a determination made by the business's CPA or a state and local tax attorney.
Is this guide about income tax on Amazon profits too?
No. This guide covers state sales tax collection mechanics specific to selling on Amazon. Federal and state income tax on the business's profits is a separate obligation, unaffected by whether Amazon is collecting sales tax on the underlying sales.
Primary sources
- Washington Department of Revenue — Marketplace Facilitators
- California CDTFA — Tax Guide for Marketplace Facilitator Act
- Texas Comptroller — Marketplace Providers
- New York State Department of Taxation and Finance — Sales tax requirements for marketplace providers
- Virginia Tax — Remote Sellers, Marketplace Facilitators, and Economic Nexus
Last reviewed 2026-08-16. Statutes and schedules change — the sources above are authoritative, this page is orientation.
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