Sellers register for a free Georgia Sales and Use Tax Certificate of Registration with the Georgia Department of Revenue, online through the Georgia Tax Center. Your account number should arrive by email within 15 minutes. Remote sellers need one after more than $100,000 in Georgia retail sales or 200 or more retail sales in the previous or current calendar year.
You need a Georgia Sales and Use Tax Certificate of Registration if you meet Georgia's definition of a dealer. That's true even if all your sales are online, wholesale, or exempt.
Georgia taxes tangible goods and a short list of services, such as hotel rooms, admissions, and taxi or limo rides within the state. If nothing you sell is taxable, you likely don't need to register.
Since Jan. 1, 2024, Georgia has also taxed some digital products, such as e-books, music, movies, video games, and digital codes, when the buyer gets permanent use of them.
There is no sales tax on SaaS in Georgia, and it doesn't tax prewritten software delivered electronically. Both are excluded from the digital products tax.
If you have no physical presence in Georgia, you must register once you cross the Georgia economic nexus threshold in the previous or current calendar year. Either of these triggers it:
Georgia counts retail sales of tangible personal property delivered to a Georgia location, whether the goods are delivered physically or electronically.
You can leave out marketplace sales that a marketplace facilitator made for you. For example, if you sold $120,000 into Georgia and $110,000 of it went through a marketplace, only your $10,000 in direct sales counts.
A seller that has met either threshold in the previous or current calendar year must collect and remit Georgia state and local tax on its taxable sales delivered there. Georgia's remote seller bulletin doesn't set a start date, so the safe approach is to register as soon as you cross a threshold.
For example, if you pass $100,000 in Georgia retail sales in May, register and start collecting right away. Because the test also looks at the previous calendar year, the obligation carries into the next year.
If you crossed the threshold in the past and never registered, a voluntary disclosure agreement may help. Georgia's VDA program generally waives penalties, though you still owe interest.
The sales tax look-back period is usually 36 months, but it goes back as far as needed for tax you collected and didn't remit.
You can't use the program once the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) has contacted you about the tax for enforcement purposes. You must also comply with your other Georgia tax obligations.
Out-of-state vendors with a contract over $100,000 with a Georgia state agency must register, even with no presence in Georgia. Contracts with counties, cities, and local authorities don't count.
Physical nexus in Georgia has no sales threshold. If your business is physically located in Georgia and sells taxable products, you must register unless all your sales go through a marketplace.
Out-of-state sellers whose only Georgia presence is a short convention or trade show may not need to register. The FAQs below cover the conditions.
Georgia's marketplace facilitator law makes a marketplace a dealer once the Georgia retail sales it facilitates, plus its own, reach $100,000 or more in the previous or current calendar year. The marketplace then collects and remits Georgia state and local tax on the sales it facilitates.
You're not required to collect or remit tax on those sales. Whether you still need your own certificate depends on where you're based and how you sell:
Storing inventory in a marketplace’s Georgia warehouse makes you a dealer in Georgia. Georgia’s dealer definition includes anyone who uses a warehouse in the state, whether they own it or someone else does.
That covers Amazon FBA sellers with stock in a Georgia fulfillment center.
Corporations, LLCs, and partnerships should first check their Secretary of State requirements. Sole proprietors can register with DOR as individuals.
DOR's registration checklist asks for:
You'll also need contact information for the person who will use the Georgia Tax Center login.
An officer is someone the corporation has chosen as an officer. A responsible party is anyone who controls or supervises collecting trust taxes like sales tax, and the same person can be both.
Corporate officers must give their SSNs because officers who willfully fail to collect and remit sales tax can be personally liable.
The Sales & Use Tax screen asks:
Some dealers must also register for a separate account:
You can register for these in the same application.
These steps follow DOR's new business registration guide. You don't need a login to start. You create one near the end of the application.
Go to the Georgia Tax Center (GTC). Under Registration, select Register a New Business.
If your business already has a Georgia tax account, log in instead. Select More…, then Register a New Tax Account, and choose Sales & Use Tax.
The Register New Business screen lists the tax types you can register for and what you'll need. Select Next.
On Taxpayer Information, choose your business type from Select Business Type from list. More fields appear based on your choice.
For example, an LLC enters its FEIN, LLC type, legal name, and any DBA name. A sole proprietor enters an SSN or ITIN and their own name.
Enter your business location address and select Verify your address. If GTC suggests a verified address, choose Select this address. If none is listed, you can select the address you entered.
Add a separate mailing address if you use one, then select Next.
Select Sales & Use Tax, then Next. Enter the date of your first Georgia sales, your fiscal year end, and your accounting method, then answer the yes/no questions about your account.
Tip: Marketplace facilitators answer Yes to the last question only for an account that reports facilitated sales. Sales a marketplace makes directly go on a separate sales and use tax account.
In Additional Business Information, enter your NAICS code and select Next. If you don't know it, select Enter or Click to Select Primary NAICS Code to search by keyword.
Select Add Officer/Responsible Party and enter each person's information. Repeat for each person, then select Next.
Sole proprietors don't see this step.
Enter a login, password, secret question, and secret answer, plus contact information for the person who will use the login. Select Next.
Review the summary, select Submit, and then select OK to confirm. A confirmation page shows your confirmation number, so print it or write it down.
Once DOR processes the registration, you'll get an email from "No Reply" with your GTC login information and your new Georgia tax account number.
Your certificate of registration is available to view and print in GTC after you log in. DOR also mails the certificate unless you've opted in to electronic correspondence.
Display the certificate in a conspicuous place at the location it was issued for.
A Georgia Sales and Use Tax Certificate of Registration is free. There's no fee for the original certificate, and the registration doesn't need to be renewed.
The only fee is $1 to renew or reissue a certificate that the Commissioner has suspended or revoked.
You should get your sales tax account number by email within 15 minutes of submitting your online registration.
Georgia has been a full member of the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) agreement since July 1, 2011.
Remote sellers registering in several member states can use the SST Registration System instead of GTC. It's free, and one application covers every member state you select.
Allow about 15 days for Georgia to mail your registration number. You then collect, file, and remit directly with Georgia from your registration date, including returns for periods with no sales.
Warning: Registering through the SST system obligates you to collect and remit tax in every state you select, even states where you don't have nexus.
Once you're registered, charge Georgia sales tax on taxable sales: the 4% state rate plus local taxes. Remote sellers use the local rate for the delivery location.
New registrants file monthly for the first six months. After that, you can ask DOR in writing to change your frequency based on your average tax liability over six consecutive months:
If your state tax liability for the previous calendar year was more than $60,000, you must also remit prepaid estimated tax.
You file Georgia sales tax returns in GTC by the 20th of the month after each period. When the 20th falls on a weekend or holiday, the due date moves to the next business day.
You must file a return even when no tax is due, or you made no sales. Once you owe more than $500 on a sales tax return, you must file and pay electronically from then on.
The certificate doesn't require renewal. It stays in effect as long as the business exists, and there are no changes in ownership or structure.
If you move to another county or change your business type, return the certificate for cancellation with a new application. A new trade name or a move within the same county also requires you to return it so DOR can issue an updated one.
Registration rules differ by state, and several require renewal.
No. An EIN, or FEIN, is a federal tax ID from the IRS. Your Georgia sales tax number comes from DOR when you register and authorizes you to collect Georgia sales tax.
If a utility or other business asks for your State Taxpayer Identification Number (STIN), it's on your certificate of registration.
No. The Certificate of Registration lets you collect and remit sales tax. To buy inventory tax-free for resale, you give your supplier a completed Form ST-5, Sales Tax Certificate of Exemption.
For resale purchases, the form requires your Georgia sales and use tax number, so you need to register first.
Yes. Anyone who meets Georgia's definition of a dealer must register, even if all sales will be wholesale or exempt.
Yes. Dealers apply for a certificate of registration for each place of business in Georgia, and a certificate can't be used at a different location.
The application also asks whether you have four or more Georgia locations. If you answer yes, your sales tax account is set up as a master account that reports under one consolidated number.
It depends. Out-of-state sellers don't need to register when all of these apply:
You still have to collect tax on sales made at the show and on orders taken there. Report it on Form FS-32, Miscellaneous Sales Event, and pay DOR the tax you collected.
Yes. A certificate of registration isn't transferable, and registration stays in effect only as long as ownership and structure don't change. Register the business under your name, even if it's at the same address.
Numeral is an end-to-end sales tax compliance platform for ecommerce and SaaS businesses. Top brands like Ridge, Muddy Bites, Graza, and Grüns spend less than five minutes a month on sales tax.
Learn more
