Do I need a seller's permit to sell on eBay or Poshmark in Vermont?

If you sell only on eBay, Poshmark and other marketplaces

The Department's pages don't separately address registration for a Vermont-based seller whose only sales go through marketplaces; they say Vermont businesses register for a Business Tax Account and license before collecting the tax, and that once a facilitator notifies a seller that it collects, the seller doesn't need to collect and remit on those sales. A remote seller with at least $100,000 of sales or 200 transactions into Vermont in the preceding 12 months is required to register unless the marketplace is collecting and remitting Vermont sales tax on its behalf.

The rule: 32 V.S.A. § 9701(9)(F).

Vermont's sales and use tax is 6% (7% where a sale is subject to a local option tax), charged by businesses selling taxable tangible personal property. Since June 1, 2019, a marketplace facilitator collects and remits sales tax on retail sales made through its marketplace and must tell its sellers it is doing so.

Sources: Sales Tax and Wayfair: Frequently Asked Questions; Marketplace Facilitators; Sales and Use Tax: Getting Started.

If you also sell direct: your own site, Facebook, flea markets, consignment

A business selling taxable tangible personal property in Vermont must charge, collect and remit sales tax, and must register for a Vermont Business Tax Account and license before collecting the tax. Each location gets its own license, which must be displayed where customers can see it.

Fee:

No fee: the Department says registration is free and there is no charge for a license.

Register:

myVTax

Sources: Sales and Use Tax: Getting Started; Register Your Business.

Resale certificate: buying inventory without paying sales tax

The form:

Vermont Sales Tax Exemption Certificate for Purchases for Resale, by Exempt Organizations, and by Direct Pay Permit (S-3)

Do you need your own permit to give one?

Yes: the state ties the certificate to the buyer's own permit or account number

To buy items for resale tax-free you give the seller a Form S-3, entering your Vermont Sales & Use Tax Account Number for the resale exemption, and the Department says you must also have a Vermont sales and use tax account. The seller keeps it; if it isn't available at the sale, the seller has 90 days to get a complete certificate accepted in good faith.

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

S-3's instructions say that if the seller can prove the buyer's exemption claim was false, the Department will seek to collect the tax from the buyer; property bought for resale with an exemption certificate and then used by the business owes use tax.

Sources: Form S-3, Vermont Sales Tax Exemption Certificate for Purchases for Resale, by Exempt Organizations, and by Direct Pay Permit (Rev. 07/21); Sales and Use Tax: Getting Started.

Garage sales, yard sales and other occasional sales

Exempt: as a general rule, sales activity no more than three times per calendar year, held on a total of no more than six calendar days. A casual sale (isolated or occasional, by someone not regularly in the business of selling that type of property, of property obtained for their own use) is not subject to Vermont sales tax; moving, garage or yard sales of things originally bought for your own use are the Department's first example. A seller whose sales are sufficient in number, scope and character must collect, and sales through consignment stores, craft fairs, antique malls or recurring flea market selling beyond the regulation's limits are not casual.

The rule: Vt. Reg. §§ 1.9741(4)-1 to 1.9741(4)-3.

Sources: Vermont Sales and Use Tax Regulations (effective 1/1/19).

Worked examples

Common questions