Taxes / Seller's permits by state / Kentucky
Do I need a seller's permit to sell on eBay or Poshmark in Kentucky?
Generally no: Kentucky's entry in the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board's marketplace seller chart says a seller who only sells through a marketplace doesn't have to register if the marketplace is registered with Kentucky and filing returns, and KRS 139.450 relieves the seller of all liability for tax on sales the marketplace facilitates. Selling direct (your own site, Facebook, a flea market) means collecting Kentucky's 6% tax yourself, which takes a sales and use tax permit applied for on the Department's MyTaxes portal; the pages we checked don't state a fee.
Kentucky calls it a sales and use tax permit, issued by the Kentucky Department of Revenue.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Check with a tax professional about your own situation.
Checked against the official pages listed below on .
Kentucky in short
- Sell only on marketplaces that collect the tax:
- No: the state says registration is not required
- Also sell direct (own site, Facebook, flea market):
- Yes: the state says to register; fee not stated as one figure (see below)
- Resale certificate:
- Resale Certificate (51A105)
- Garage and occasional sales:
- Exempt: the first $1,000 of garage or yard sales of household items in a calendar year
- Where to register:
- Kentucky MyTaxes portal (mytaxes.ky.gov), or Form 10A100
If you sell only on eBay, Poshmark and other marketplaces
Kentucky's answer in the Streamlined Sales Tax marketplace seller chart (updated October 20, 2020) is that a seller who only sells through a marketplace doesn't register and file, if the marketplace facilitator is registered with Kentucky and filing returns. KRS 139.450 says the marketplace retailer is relieved of all liability for collecting and remitting tax on sales the provider facilitates. A registered retailer includes its marketplace sales in gross receipts and deducts them, naming the provider and its Kentucky account number.
The rule: KRS 139.450(4)(b) (effective August 1, 2026).
"No, if the marketplace facilitator is registered with KY and filing returns."
"The marketplace retailer shall be relieved of all liability for the collection and remittance of the sales or use tax on sales facilitated by the marketplace provider."
Kentucky's sales and use tax is 6% statewide, with no local sales taxes. Kentucky calls marketplaces marketplace providers and their sellers marketplace retailers; under KRS 139.450 as amended effective August 1, 2026, a provider whose own and facilitated sales into Kentucky exceed $100,000 registers and collects tax on every facilitated sale.
Sources: Marketplace Seller State Guidance; KRS 139.450, Presumption regarding property shipped ... Duties of marketplace provider (effective August 1, 2026); Sales & Use Tax; 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 161 (HB 757).
If you also sell direct: your own site, Facebook, flea markets, consignment
The Department says it is the seller's responsibility to collect the sales tax from customers and remit it. Retailers register for a sales and use tax account on the MyTaxes portal (which replaced the One Stop portal on March 14, 2025), or with the Kentucky Tax Registration Application, Form 10A100; the permit comes in the correspondence mailed to every new registrant.
- Fee:
- The Department pages we checked don't state a registration fee.
Sources: Retail Packet: Frequently Asked Questions, Retailers (51RETAIL-PKT, 11-17); Kentucky Sales Tax Facts, Winter 2025/2026; Kentucky Tax Registration Application and Instructions, Form 10A100 (4-25); Sales & Use Tax.
Resale certificate: buying inventory without paying sales tax
- The form:
- Resale Certificate (51A105)
- Do you need your own permit to give one?
- Yes: the state ties the certificate to the buyer's own permit or account number
A Kentucky retailer gives Form 51A105 to a supplier to buy inventory for resale without paying tax, marked blanket or single purchase. The Department says that to use a resale certificate a Kentucky retailer must apply for and keep an active sales tax account and put the account number on the form. Anything bought on it and used other than for retention, demonstration or display while held for sale is taxable to the buyer.
Also accepted: 103 KAR 31:111 and the Department also accept the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement Certificate of Exemption (Form 51A260) and the Multistate Tax Commission's Uniform Sales and Use Tax Exemption/Resale Certificate; a nonresident buyer not required to register in Kentucky may use 51A260 or 51A105 noted as such.
Thrift stores, estate sales and yard sales
The state pages we checked don't say anything specific about using a resale certificate at a thrift store, estate sale or yard sale. A certificate is given to a seller who would otherwise charge you tax, so whether a particular store takes one is between you and that seller; ask before you buy.
Misusing a certificate
Form 51A105 is signed under penalties of perjury, and a seller that doesn't get a completed certificate within the 120 days KRS 139.270 allows carries the burden of proving the sale was for resale.
"To use a resale certificate, a Kentucky retailer must apply for and maintain an active sales tax account."
Sources: Resale Certificate, Form 51A105 (1-23); 103 KAR 31:111, Sales and purchases for resale; Kentucky Sales Tax Facts, Winter 2025/2026.
Garage sales, yard sales and other occasional sales
Exempt: the first $1,000 of garage or yard sales of household items in a calendar year. Kentucky's sales and use taxes don't apply to the first $1,000 of sales a calendar year by individuals not in the business of selling, limited to garage or yard sales of household items by an individual or family that have nothing to do with a business. The exemption doesn't apply when all or substantially all of a person's household goods are offered for sale.
The rule: KRS 139.496 (effective June 27, 2019).
"The taxes imposed in this chapter do not apply to the first one thousand dollars ($1,000) of sales made in any calendar year by individuals not engaged in the business of selling."
Sources: KRS 139.496, Exemption of certain sales.
Worked examples
Marketplace-only seller in Louisville
Every sale goes through marketplace providers registered with Kentucky and filing returns. Under Kentucky's Streamlined chart entry you don't register, and KRS 139.450 relieves you of liability for tax on those facilitated sales.
A registered seller with $3,000 of marketplace sales and $1,000 direct
On the return you report $4,000 of gross receipts and deduct the $3,000 the marketplace collected on, naming it and its Kentucky account number; at 6%, tax on the $1,000 of direct sales is $60.
Two yard sales of household things
$700 in spring and $500 in fall is $1,200 for the year: the first $1,000 is exempt under KRS 139.496, and the statute's exemption stops there, so the remaining $200 isn't covered by it. Selling off all or substantially all of your household goods isn't covered at all. Ask the Department or a tax professional how to handle the amount over $1,000.
Edge cases and details
- Coins and currency that have been used as legal tender, and bullion, are exempt since August 1, 2024 (KRS 139.480(37)), but the Department says jewelry, sterling silverware and other collectibles containing gold, silver, platinum or palladium are taxable, even if bought as an investment.
- A blanket resale certificate covers future purchases of the kind usually bought for resale as long as the character of the buyer's business doesn't change; a single-purchase certificate covers only that sale.
- Contractors and others registered under a consumer number in the 900,000 series may not issue a resale certificate.
- Items bought for resale but used instead are subject to tax; a person without a permit who occasionally owes use tax can pay it on Form 51A113(O).
- Anyone buying an existing retail business should ask the seller for a sales tax clearance letter; otherwise the buyer can be liable for the predecessor's sales and use tax.
What to do
- Marketplace-only: keep each marketplace's records showing it collected Kentucky tax; ask the Department or a tax professional if you also have a physical location or inventory in Kentucky.
- Selling direct: register for a sales and use tax account on MyTaxes before you start, and report marketplace sales as an other deduction on your return.
- Buying inventory for resale: give suppliers Form 51A105 (or 51A260 or the MTC certificate) with your active account number.
- Holding several yard sales a year: keep a tally against the $1,000 KRS 139.496 figure.
Common questions
What is Kentucky's sales tax rate?
6% statewide. Kentucky has no local option sales tax.
Do I need a Kentucky sales tax account to use a resale certificate?
Yes. The Department says a Kentucky retailer must apply for and maintain an active sales tax account to use Form 51A105.
Are garage sales taxable in Kentucky?
The first $1,000 a calendar year of garage or yard sales of household items, by individuals not in business, is exempt under KRS 139.496.
Are coins and silver collectibles taxable in Kentucky?
Coins and currency used as legal tender and bullion are exempt since August 1, 2024; the Department says jewelry, sterling silverware and other precious-metal collectibles are taxable.
Related
- Seller's permits by state: marketplace-only sellers, resale certificates and garage sales on one table
- Kentucky: marketplace sales tax and 1099-K rules
- Kansas: do you need a seller's permit?
- Louisiana: do you need a seller's permit?
- Form 1099-K for resellers: the federal test
- Do eBay's fees apply to the sales tax a buyer pays?
- Where each selling app keeps its sales report
General information, not tax or legal advice
This page summarizes Kentucky's own published pages, rules and statutes as read on . It doesn't say whether you must register, what you should file or whether you owe tax: that turns on your own sales, where you sell and what you buy. Rules change. Check with a tax professional, or ask the Kentucky Department of Revenue directly.
Sources
Official pages this page is built from, with the day each was read.
- Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board: Marketplace Seller State Guidance, dated ; read . Kentucky entry: no registration if the marketplace is registered and filing; how registered sellers report marketplace sales.
- Kentucky Legislative Research Commission: KRS 139.450, Presumption regarding property shipped ... Duties of marketplace provider (effective August 1, 2026), dated ; read . Provider threshold, registration, collection; marketplace retailer relieved of liability.
- Kentucky Legislative Research Commission: 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 161 (HB 757); read . Amendment of KRS 139.450 effective August 1, 2026, removing the facilitator’s 200-transaction test.
- Kentucky Department of Revenue: Sales & Use Tax; read . 6% rate, no local sales tax, business registration link.
- Kentucky Department of Revenue: Retail Packet: Frequently Asked Questions, Retailers (51RETAIL-PKT, 11-17); read . Seller's duty to collect; permit mailed to new registrants; use tax on items bought for resale but used.
- Kentucky Department of Revenue: Kentucky Tax Registration Application and Instructions, Form 10A100 (4-25); read . Paper registration for a sales and use tax account.
- Kentucky Department of Revenue: Kentucky Sales Tax Facts, Winter 2025/2026; read . Resale certificates need an active account; MyTaxes portal; collectible items; successor liability.
- Kentucky Department of Revenue: Resale Certificate, Form 51A105 (1-23); read . Form text: permit account number, use other than resale, 900,000-series numbers.
- Kentucky Legislative Research Commission: 103 KAR 31:111, Sales and purchases for resale; read . Accepted certificates, blanket and single purchase, nonresident buyers, 120 days.
- Kentucky Legislative Research Commission: KRS 139.496, Exemption of certain sales, dated ; read . First $1,000 of garage or yard sales exempt.
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