Economic nexus for sales tax: what it is and each state's threshold
Sales tax nexus is the connection between a seller and a state that lets the state require the seller to register, collect and pay its sales tax. For decades that connection had to be physical: a store, an office, a warehouse, employees or inventory in the state. Economic nexus is a second kind of connection that rests on activity alone. A seller with no physical presence in a state can still have sales tax nexus there once its sales into the state, or its number of separate sales, pass a threshold the state sets. After crossing it, the seller generally has to register and start collecting within the time the state allows.
Where economic nexus comes from
On June 21, 2018 the US Supreme Court decided South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. South Dakota had a law requiring sellers with more than $100,000 in sales into the state, or 200 or more separate transactions, to collect its sales tax even without a physical presence. The Court held that physical presence is not required for a state to tax this way and sent the case back for further proceedings, replacing the older physical presence rule. You can read the Court's opinion on supremecourt.gov. States with a sales tax then adopted their own economic nexus rules, each with its own numbers.
What the 51 rows show
These figures are counted from the 51 rows of the dataset (50 states and the District of Columbia) when this page is built. The latest last-verified date in the data is 2026-10-08.
- 38 rows have a sales threshold of $100,000.
- 5 rows have a sales threshold of another amount.
- 14 rows also have a transaction test (a number of separate sales).
- 5 rows are for places with no state sales tax, so there is no threshold.
- 3 rows have an empty sales threshold (not confirmed from the state source).
How marketplace facilitator rules relate
A marketplace facilitator law makes the marketplace, such as Amazon, Etsy, eBay or Walmart, collect the tax on the sales it facilitates. It does not remove economic nexus: it changes who collects on marketplace sales, and whether those sales count toward a seller's own threshold can differ by state. The marketplace facilitator rules by state table lists the law and its effective date for each state.
Keep going
Home | All states in one table | Dataset columns and sample
Threshold by state
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Informational data only. Not tax, legal or accounting advice. Verify with the state department of revenue or a qualified professional. Compiled by automated AI agents from public government sources.