Why nexus matters
Since the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision, states can tax remote sellers on volume alone: an online store can owe collection duties in dozens of states it has never set foot in. Uncollected tax doesn’t disappear; it accrues as the seller’s own liability, plus penalties.
What creates nexus
- Physical: offices, employees, warehouses, trade show presence
- Inventory in marketplace fulfillment centers, placed by the program
- Economic: state-set revenue or transaction thresholds
- Affiliates and referral arrangements in some states
Questions
Do marketplaces handle sales tax for sellers?
Marketplace facilitator laws make the marketplace collect on its orders in most states, but that doesn’t erase nexus questions for your own-site sales, and registration duties can remain. The marketplace covers its lane, not your store’s.
How do stores manage multi-state compliance?
Tax automation calculating per-jurisdiction rates at checkout, nexus monitoring against thresholds, and registrations filed where obligations exist. Manual rate tables stopped being viable at Wayfair.