Alaska has no statewide sales tax or state permit, so registration happens locally. Remote sellers with $100,000 in Alaska sales that deliver into a taxing member community register online for free with the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission (ARSSTC), which covers all of its member cities and boroughs. Businesses with a location in a taxing community register directly with that city or borough.
You need to register if you sell into or within an Alaska city or borough that levies a sales tax and you meet that jurisdiction's registration rules. The state of Alaska doesn't levy a sales tax, so you don't need to register with a state agency or obtain a state sales tax permit.
Where you register depends on how you sell:
Taxability, including whether SaaS in Alaska is taxed, depends on each member jurisdiction's own sales tax code, not a state rule.
You must register with ARSSTC once you cross the Alaska economic nexus threshold: $100,000 in statewide gross sales delivered into Alaska in the current or previous calendar year. ARSSTC repealed its 200-transaction test effective Jan. 1, 2025.
A remote seller has no physical presence in the member jurisdiction it delivers to. That includes Alaska businesses shipping to other Alaska communities.
ARSSTC counts all sales into Alaska, not only taxable sales:
Alaska-based sellers count only remote sales delivered outside their home jurisdiction. Sales made where they have a physical presence don't count.
Register with ARSSTC within 30 calendar days of meeting the threshold. For example, if you cross $100,000 on May 10, you need to register by June 9.
You only need to register once you deliver into a taxing member jurisdiction. A seller over the threshold that only delivers to non-taxing communities doesn't need to register yet.
A seller that only delivers non-taxable products into taxing communities still must register because it must report those exempt sales.
If you crossed the threshold in the past and never registered, a voluntary disclosure agreement can limit back taxes and penalties. ARSSTC runs its own Voluntary Disclosure Program with a 36-month lookback and a waiver of late payment penalties and late filing fees. Interest isn't waived, and you only qualify if you've never registered with ARSSTC or been contacted by it for enforcement.
An office, warehouse, storefront, inventory, sales or service agent, or rented equipment or property in a community creates physical nexus there. You then register with that city or borough directly and report those sales to it, not to ARSSTC.
That includes remote sales you deliver into a community where you have a physical presence.
The $100,000 threshold doesn't apply to local registration. Each city or borough sets its own rules. For example, Juneau requires any person or business to register before making sales, rendering services, or renting in the City and Borough of Juneau.
Physical presence carries over to the next year. Under the ARSSTC Uniform Code, if you have a physical presence in a member jurisdiction at any point during a calendar year, you’re treated as still having one there for all of the following year.
That means you keep reporting local sales directly to that jurisdiction, not through the Commission, until the carryover year ends.
Under the ARSSTC marketplace facilitator rules, a marketplace that meets the threshold must register and collect tax on all sales into Alaska for all of its sellers. Whether you also need your own registration depends on how you sell:
The Uniform Code excludes some marketplaces, such as those for short-term lodging and travel agency services, from collecting through ARSSTC. Those report to the member jurisdiction instead.
Numeral’s Alaska sales tax nexus guide covers these rules in more detail.
You need an email address you can verify, because ARSSTC sends a verification link before you can set up a business. If you run more than one business, each one is registered separately under your user profile.
The ARSSTC application asks for:
The application asks:
Local registrations ask for more. For example, the Juneau Business Registration Form asks for your Alaska business license number, NAICS code, federal tax ID or owner SSN, and each owner's SSN, date of birth, and driver's license number.
Remote sellers register online through the ARSSTC filing portal. ARSSTC provides a step-by-step Seller Registration guide. Those steps are covered here in steps 1 through 5.
Step 6 covers local registration for sellers with a physical presence.
Go to the ARSSTC filing portal. Under New Users (Register), select Go, then enter your email address.
Open the verification link ARSSTC emails you. Fill in your user profile and select the Save button in the upper right corner.
Select Individual Business registering for the first time. Enter the business name, pick the business type and your role, and choose Inside AK or Outside AK for business location. Then select Continue.
Use Bulk Filer only if you file for several businesses by XML upload. If the business already has an ARSSTC account, connect to it with its 6-digit account number and activation code instead of registering it again.
Read the information page and select the Submit button.
On the Remote Seller System Registration Form, enter your business information, physical and mailing addresses, remitter contact, and FEIN. Sign electronically with your name and title, then select Submit at the bottom of the page.
Read the final information page and select Submit. Your business is now registered, and the account is active.
ARSSTC doesn't mail a paper certificate. Print your registration from the portal instead. Your account number and activation code appear under your remittance accounts in the Business Center, and other users need both to connect to the business.
For screenshots of each screen in this process, see ARSSTC’s Seller Registration guide.
For each city or borough where you have a location, register with its sales tax office. ARSSTC doesn't accept sales tax from businesses with a physical presence, so this is a separate account with its own forms and due dates.
The local sales tax registration section below lists where to register in several of Alaska's larger taxing communities.
Registering with ARSSTC is free.
Local registration fees are set by each city or borough. For example, the City of Kodiak registers businesses for city sales tax through a city business license, which is $50 for two years.
The Alaska state business license is a separate cost, covered below.
ARSSTC registration takes effect when you submit it. Your account is active once you submit the last information page, and you can print your registration from the portal.
Local sales tax offices set their own processing times. Contact the office directly if you need your local account by a certain date.
Local sales taxes in Alaska are run by individual cities and boroughs. ARSSTC handles remote sales for its members, but physical presence sales and remote sales into non-member communities go to each jurisdiction directly.
More than 50 cities and boroughs have adopted ARSSTC's Uniform Code. The member jurisdictions list shows each one's tax type, rate, and the date collection began, plus pending members that haven't adopted the code yet.
Membership doesn't always mean a general sales tax. For example, Anchorage is listed only for its alcoholic beverage tax, and ARSSTC shows the Municipality of Anchorage's communities at 0% general tax.
When a new community joins, collection starts on the first day of the month after 30 days have passed since it adopted the code. Registered sellers get at least a 30 days' notice and don't need to change any account settings.
Some taxing communities haven't joined ARSSTC. If you have transactions in a jurisdiction that hasn't adopted the code, check with that jurisdiction about whether you need to register with them. The ARSSTC portal can't accept filings for non-members.
If you're a remote seller, your ARSSTC registration satisfies a member jurisdiction's business license requirement. This only applies when you don't have a physical presence in that jurisdiction.
Alaska's state business license from the Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing isn't a sales tax registration. It costs $50 per year and expires Dec. 31 of the licensing period you buy.
The license is based on business activity in Alaska, not physical presence. Local sales tax offices may ask for it. For example, the Juneau registration form has a field for your Alaska business license number.
Start charging Alaska sales tax on sales delivered into member jurisdictions, using the rate for the delivery address. ARSSTC provides a tax map lookup with official rates and exemptions, and warns that ZIP+4 isn't accurate for deciding whether an Alaska buyer is taxable.
If you can't start collecting right away, contact ARSSTC to set a timeline. The Uniform Code allows up to a 90-day extension for software updates or other technical needs.
ARSSTC assigns monthly filing by default. You can request a less frequent schedule under its Filing Frequency Change Guidelines:
Changes start at the beginning of a quarter. If you file late, ARSSTC moves you back to monthly filing.
ARSSTC returns are due by midnight on the last day of the month after the filing period. You file one template that covers every member jurisdiction and pay electronically by ACH debit, credit card, or ACH credit.
You have to file every period, even with no sales. Enter 0 for communities you didn't sell into. A late return costs $25 per month, up to $100, plus penalties and interest.
Local accounts follow local schedules. For example, Juneau requires a return every period, even with no sales, due on the last day of the month after the period ends.
ARSSTC doesn't list a renewal for remote seller registrations. Your account stays open until you close it, and you may close it once you haven't met the threshold in either the current or prior calendar year.
To close it, submit the ARSSTC Account Closure Form. You keep collecting and filing until ARSSTC cancels the registration.
Local registrations follow local rules. Kodiak's city business license, for example, runs for two calendar years. Sales tax registration rules vary by state, and several states require regular permit renewals.
No. Alaska has no state sales tax, so it doesn't require a state permit. You register with ARSSTC for remote sales and with each city or borough where you have a physical presence.
ARSSTC is an independent intergovernmental body, not part of the State of Alaska. You can't reach it through the state's MyAlaska website.
No. An Employer Identification Number (EIN), or Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN), is a federal tax ID issued by the IRS. Your ARSSTC registration gives you a separate portal account number, but the form does ask for your FEIN.
No. You don't need to register with ARSSTC as long as every Alaska sale goes through a marketplace. You will submit a Marketplace Seller Affidavit instead.
If you also sell through your own website, those sales and your Amazon sales both count toward the $100,000 threshold. Inventory stored in a member jurisdiction, as with some Amazon FBA sellers, can also create physical presence there.
Yes. A seller below the threshold may register and collect voluntarily.
No. Even if you're over the $100,000 threshold, you don't need to register until you deliver into a taxing member jurisdiction.
Once you have a customer in a taxing community, you need to register, even if everything you sell there is exempt.
Yes. An ARSSTC registration is non-assignable and non-transferable, so the new owner registers its own account.
The buyer also takes on the seller's unpaid ARSSTC sales tax. Before the transfer, the buyer gets an estimate of the seller’s unpaid tax, penalties, and interest from ARSSTC. The buyer withholds that amount from the purchase price until the seller provides a receipt showing it was paid. A buyer who doesn’t withhold becomes liable for the seller’s unpaid tax, up to the amount it should have withheld.
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