Do you need a seller's permit to sell on eBay or Poshmark? State by state

If every sale goes through a marketplace: at a glance

Say a seller who sells only through marketplaces doesn't have to register (18)

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin

Say that seller still registers, usually when it is based in the state (12)

Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington

Make it depend on something the state names (2)

North Carolina, West Virginia

Don't say either way on the pages we checked (12)

District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wyoming

Have no general sales tax (4)

Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon

Each state's page quotes the rule and says what changes for a seller based outside the state. Where a state's own pages don't answer it, its page uses the state's entry in the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board's marketplace seller chart and says so.

State by state

Not on this table yet: Colorado, Massachusetts and Michigan. A state is added only when its own official pages can be read and checked.

Thrift stores, estate sales and yard sales: what the states say

A resale certificate goes to a seller who would otherwise charge you sales tax. The pages we read for 37 of the 48 places don't mention secondhand sources; these 11 do, in their own terms. Elsewhere, whether a store takes your certificate is between you and that store.

• Arkansas: Arkansas's rules don't name thrift stores or estate sales, but they say sales by churches and charitable organizations are exempt unless the organization is in business for profit or sells new goods in competition with for-profit businesses, and that a one-time sale by someone not in an established business is exempt. A permit holder who buys regularly from a supplier must tell that supplier which purchases are not for resale and pay the tax on them.
• Idaho: The Commission's small seller rules turn on this: an Idaho resident who pays sales or use tax on everything it buys, keeps gross sales at $5,000 or less in the calendar year and meets the other conditions doesn't need a permit, but buying untaxed products to resell disqualifies you. So a small reseller who pays tax at the thrift store or estate sale can be a small seller; one who buys inventory tax-free on a resale certificate cannot.
• Indiana: The Department says items sold at garage sales are generally exempt casual sales when the seller isn't in the business of selling and already paid sales or use tax on the item, and that an auction held at the owner's home is a casual sale; sales at auction houses are taxable. Its example of someone buying at garage sales to resell at monthly garage sales says that person must register and collect tax.
• Iowa: The Department says tax must still be collected when used items are sold at events, even though tax may have been paid when they were first bought for your own use, and that tax paid on items bought for your own use isn't refunded even if they are sold later.
• Kansas: The Department lists estate sales, farm sales, garage sales and some auctions as sales that usually meet its isolated or occasional sale criteria, at which no sales tax is collected.
• Maine: Maine's definition of retail sale excludes any casual sale and any sale by a personal representative settling an estate, unless that sale is made through a retailer or in continuing a business (36 M.R.S. § 1752(11)(B)).
• Maryland: A seller may not accept a resale certificate for a purchase under $200 paid by cash, check, credit card, debit card or electronic transfer unless it delivers the goods to the buyer's retail place of business; a reseller who pays tax on such a purchase claims it back as a credit on the next return or files a refund claim. Small cash or card buys at a thrift store or estate sale fall under that rule.
• Minnesota: The Department says sales of personal items between individuals are usually exempt isolated or occasional sales, including garage sales and estate sales of household goods that meet its conditions; its example of used books sold on consignment at a retail store that sets the price is a taxable sale, and whoever collects the payment charges the tax.
• North Carolina: NCDOR says owners making occasional and isolated sales of household items on which tax was paid at purchase are not required to collect sales and use tax on the sale.
• Virginia: Virginia's regulation says a person who buys an item in a transaction that is an occasional sale is not liable for use tax on that purchase.
• West Virginia: TSD 300 says sales of tangible personal property may be made at yard sales without collecting sales tax if the sales are held no more than four times a year and last no longer than 48 hours each.