Some states have implemented laws that require marketplace facilitators to collect and remit sales tax on behalf of people using their marketplace to sell goods and services. What does that mean to you?
A marketplace facilitator is a business or organization that lets others sell goods and services on their platform. Think of the Amazon Marketplace or the Apple App Store. Those are places where a seller can list and sell their products. That makes Amazon and Apple marketplace facilitators. They run the platform and other folks use it to sell their stuff.
Are you a marketplace facilitator?
You very well could be considered one if you use our Community Tickets add-on (in combination with Event Tickets, Event Tickets Plus and Community Events). That’s because Community Tickets works with Community Events to let people submit events and sell tickets on your WordPress website calendar. In other words, your calendar is the marketplace and you are facilitating the transactions that make it possible for people to sell tickets.
Are you affected by marketplace facilitator laws?
It depends on the state you and your ticket sellers are in. Each state has its own way of defining and handling the rules, so you may or may not have to conform.
How do you know if you are impacted by marketplace facilitator laws? TaxJar has an excellent article that outlines the laws for each state. That’s a great place to start.
What you can do about the laws
The best thing you can do is read up on marketplace facilitator laws and get sound advice from a tax professional. Here are some other ideas and resources to get you started.
- Read a bit more on the topic. We linked to a TaxJar post earlier and they have three other posts that are worth checking out, including economic nexus laws, a definition of sales tax nexus, and use tax notice and report laws. We have some information on economic nexus as well.
- Find out what laws are in effect in the states you are selling in. Again, this TaxJar article is a great deep-dive on which states are impacted and how.
- Keep an eye on your per-state sales.
- Stay up to date on the frequent changes on rules and thresholds.
- Use TaxJar’s sales and transaction checker
- Integrate TaxJar’s WordPress plugin with WooCommerce to automate things and gain some peace of mind.
- Consult with a sales tax expert.