Businesses that need to collect Pennsylvania sales tax apply for a Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. The license is free and you apply online through myPATH. It renews every five years only if your returns and payments are current. Remote sellers with $100,000 or more in Pennsylvania sales in a calendar year need to start collecting by April 1 of the next year.
You need a Pennsylvania Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License if you maintain a place of business in Pennsylvania and sell taxable goods or perform taxable services. Pennsylvania calls its sales tax permit a license.
Software companies should know that Pennsylvania treats SaaS as a taxable good when the user is in the state.
If you have no physical presence in Pennsylvania, you need a license once you cross the Pennsylvania economic nexus threshold: $100,000 or more in gross sales into Pennsylvania in the previous calendar year. Pennsylvania has no transaction-count threshold.
Marketplace facilitators count both the sales they facilitate and their own direct sales.
You measure the threshold by calendar year. Collection runs from April 1 through March 31 and is based on the previous calendar year's sales.
For example, if your Pennsylvania sales reach $100,000 this year, you need to be licensed and collecting by April 1 of next year.
Remote sellers have one alternative. A seller with no physical presence that uses one of the Department's Certified Service Providers doesn't need its own license or returns as long as it continues to use that provider.
If you crossed the threshold in a past year and never registered, a voluntary disclosure agreement may limit the lookback period and waive penalties.
Warning: Pennsylvania's Voluntary Disclosure Program isn't open to businesses that are or were registered for the tax in question, and participants shouldn't register outside the program. If you collected sales tax but never remitted it, the program requires you to pay all of it, for every year. If you owe back tax, contact the Voluntary Disclosure Office before you register.
Under Pennsylvania's rules, any of these conditions creates physical nexus, regardless of sales volume:
Sellers with a physical presence must apply for a license before making taxable sales. The exception is a marketplace seller that makes no sales outside marketplaces that are required to collect Pennsylvania tax for it.
Inventory held in a marketplace's Pennsylvania warehouse is covered in the next section.
Under Pennsylvania's marketplace facilitator law, a marketplace with Pennsylvania nexus collects the tax on every sale it facilitates, including sales for sellers that have no nexus of their own. Whether you still need a license depends on how you sell:
Pennsylvania says a business with inventory at a Pennsylvania distribution or fulfillment center is subject to Pennsylvania taxes, as with many Amazon FBA sellers. For sales tax, the Department of Revenue says you must register and collect if you have inventory there and either:
Inventory can also create Pennsylvania income tax obligations, separate from sales tax nexus in Pennsylvania.
If you've had unregistered inventory in Pennsylvania, the Department's Voluntary Compliance Program for retailers may limit the lookback to January 1, 2019, and waive penalties. You start by completing its Physical Presence Business Activity Questionnaire.
Pennsylvania won't issue a license until the business has filed every required state tax return and paid its state taxes. Taxes under a timely appeal or an approved deferred payment plan don't count against you.
You register through myPATH, the Department of Revenue’s online system. New businesses can register without a myPATH account. But if the business, or you as a sole proprietor, has ever filed a Pennsylvania tax return, including a personal income tax return, you must log in to myPATH and use Register New Business Tax Accounts from there.
For each owner, officer, or other responsible party, you'll need:
The same application covers most Pennsylvania business taxes, so a few items are particular to this state:
Corporations also need to register with the Pennsylvania Department of State, which handles name clearance and registers them for corporation taxes. That's a separate filing from this application.
You register through the Department of Revenue's myPATH portal. There are two versions: one for new customers (the non-logged-in version) and one for existing customers with a login, and you can't complete the registration in the wrong one.
When an existing customer signs up, myPATH asks for an ID number (such as an SSN or FEIN) and one verification item. That can be an amount from a recent return or payment, a PATH Letter ID, or an Online Business Registration Confirmation Code.
Warning: If you've filed a Pennsylvania personal income tax return, you may already be a customer in PATH. Sole proprietors in that position must use the logged-in version to register the business.
For the non-logged-in version, go to the myPATH homepage and select Pennsylvania Online Business Tax Registration in the Registration panel. On the next screen, select Business Tax Registration.
For the logged-in version, select More... in the menu, then Register New Business Tax Accounts, then Business Tax Registration.
The Overview screen lists the taxes this application covers and what you need to register. If none of the listed accounts apply to you, you don't need to complete the form. Otherwise, select Next.
Tip: myPATH times out after 15 minutes of inactivity, and unsaved work is lost. Select Save Draft to keep your application for 30 business days.
On the Demographics step, the Business Entity Information screen asks for your Legal form, whether the business is for-profit or nonprofit, and whether the IRS has granted it tax-exempt status.
Then select your ID type and enter the ID, your Department of State entity ID, and any Notice of Required Registration letter ID.
Further down the same screen, enter the business's legal name, any DBA, and an establishment location name if it's different. Then enter the physical location, including the county, and select Verify Address.
The screen also asks whether you have other Pennsylvania locations, whether your business address is also your mailing address, and where your records are kept.
Continue through the form, completing the required fields and selecting Next on each screen. Required fields are marked with a red asterisk. Have the information from What you need before registering ready, including details for each owner, officer, or other responsible party.
At the end of the form, select Submit. There's no fee for a sales tax license.
Keep your confirmation code and the confirmation email. You need the code and your email address to check your status, and the email has what you need to sign up for myPATH.
The Department of Revenue emails your account number once it processes the application. To check progress, select What's the Status of my Registration? on the myPATH homepage and enter your confirmation code and email address.
Your license shows an 8-digit Sales License ID and an expiration date. Display it prominently at your principal place of business, and display a copy at each other Pennsylvania location.
A Pennsylvania sales tax license is free. There's no fee for additional locations, and renewal is free.
The Department of Revenue doesn't publish a processing time for online registrations. It emails your account number once the application is processed.
Until then, you can track your application with What's the Status of My Registration? in myPATH. To avoid delays, the Department says to make sure every item is complete before you submit.
A Pennsylvania sales tax license expires and renews every five years. Renewal is free and automatic, but only if the business has no outstanding filing obligations or tax liabilities.
That makes missed returns a renewal problem. Pennsylvania requires a return for every period, even when you had no sales, so a zero return is still an outstanding filing obligation.
Warning: The Department won't renew a license while returns or payments are outstanding, and it can suspend or revoke a license for failing to file or pay. Selling without a valid license is a summary offense, with fines of $300 to $1,500 per offense and/or imprisonment.
Check myPATH for any unfiled periods well before the expiration date.
Pennsylvania has two local sales taxes: 2% in Philadelphia and 1% in Allegheny County. You don't need a separate license for either one. Report your local tax on your regular sales tax return under the same account.
You do need to add each local tax to your account. If you sell in Philadelphia or Allegheny County and didn’t add the local tax when you registered, you can add it in myPATH or with Form REV-1705R, which has an Add Local Sales Tax section.
Under Act 21 of 2026, the local tax is based on where the product or service is delivered, not where the seller is located. Any vendor that must collect Pennsylvania's 6% state tax also collects the local tax on taxable sales delivered to customers in Philadelphia or Allegheny County.
The change applies to tax years after December 31, 2025. The Department of Revenue began enforcing it on October 1, 2026.
This is a city business license, not a sales tax registration. Philadelphia requires a Commercial Activity License (CAL) from anyone doing business in the city, including businesses located outside the city limits.
Philadelphia treats a business outside the city as having BIRT nexus once it has at least $100,000 in Philadelphia gross receipts in any 12 months ending in the current year.
Charge Pennsylvania sales tax once you're licensed: the 6% state rate, plus 2% on deliveries into Philadelphia or 1% on deliveries into Allegheny County.
Remote sellers over the threshold must be collecting by April 1 of the year after they crossed it.
New licensees start as quarterly filers. Each year, the Department reviews your third-quarter tax and notifies you in writing if your frequency changes:
You file Pennsylvania sales tax online in myPATH by the 20th of the month after each period. Semi-annual returns are due August 20 and February 20.
You have to file every return, even for periods with no sales. Filing and paying on time earns a 1% discount on the tax collected, capped at $25 for monthly filers, $75 for quarterly filers, and $150 for semi-annual filers.
Your license renews every five years if your returns and payments are current, as covered in the renewal section above. Tell the Department in writing within 30 days if anything on your registration changes. You can update most details in myPATH or with Form REV-1705R, but a change in ownership needs a new registration.
Registration rules in other states differ, and permits in several states never expire.
Yes. Pennsylvania calls it a Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License, and the license itself is titled "Sales Tax License." Other states call it a seller's permit or sales tax permit.
No. An EIN is a federal tax ID from the IRS. Your Pennsylvania license carries its own 8-digit License ID, and the Department of Revenue also assigns an Account ID that you use when you file.
No, but you need a Wholesaler Certificate instead. It's for businesses that only sell for resale, and you apply for it through the same myPATH registration.
Wholesalers have no filing obligation. Give your suppliers a Pennsylvania Exemption Certificate (REV-1220) with your Account ID to buy for resale without tax.
It depends on your business. Out-of-state sole proprietorships and partnerships with no permanent Pennsylvania location need a Transient Vendor Certificate to sell taxable items in person in Pennsylvania.
Transient vendors must notify the Department in writing at least 30 days before the event, or register through myPATH. Like license holders, they file returns even for periods with no sales.
Other businesses selling taxable items at the event need a Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License.
Yes. A Pennsylvania sales tax license can't be assigned or transferred, and a new entity acquiring all or part of an existing business registers through the same myPATH application.
If you're buying 51% or more of a business's assets, the Department must get 10 days' notice before the transfer is completed. Without a bulk sale clearance certificate from the seller, you can be held liable for the seller's unpaid taxes.
No. The Department of Revenue directs businesses to the Pennsylvania Online Business Tax Registration in myPATH. Form PA-100 isn't among the business registration forms it currently publishes.
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