Georgia Sales Tax Nexus: Thresholds, Marketplaces & Registration

Your business has Georgia sales tax nexus the moment it either sets up any physical footprint in the state or crosses $100,000 in retail sales or 200 separate transactions delivered to Georgia customers in the current or previous calendar year. Either path makes you a “dealer” under O.C.G.A. § 48-8-2 and requires you to register, collect, and remit Georgia sales tax.¹

What Creates Nexus in Georgia

Physical presence is the older and broader trigger. Any office, distribution center, salesroom, or warehouse in Georgia makes you a dealer, whether you own or lease the space. Inventory counts too. If a third-party fulfillment center in Georgia stores your products for faster delivery, that arrangement creates a taxable presence even though the building isn’t yours. The statute treats any place your goods sit as a place of business.¹

People create nexus as well. Sales representatives, independent contractors, or other agents soliciting business in Georgia establish a dealer relationship with the state, and even leasing equipment or renting tangible property for use in Georgia can pull a business under the definition.¹

The economic path, under O.C.G.A. § 48-8-2(8)(M.1), requires no footprint at all. Cross more than $100,000 in gross retail revenue delivered into Georgia during the previous or current calendar year, and you’re a dealer. The same is true if you make 200 or more separate retail sales delivered into Georgia in either year. Either threshold, crossed on its own, creates the obligation.¹

One detail trips people up. The dollar threshold measures retail sales, not gross sales, so true wholesale (sale-for-resale) transactions don’t count toward the $100,000. Sales of items that happen to be exempt but go to Georgia end-users likely do count, even though no tax is collected on them. The duty to register and the duty to collect on a particular sale are separate questions.

Once you cross either threshold, the collection obligation starts immediately. Waiting for quarter-end or year-end isn’t an option, so if your Georgia volume is approaching either line, set up tracking before you hit it rather than after.

The Trade Show Exception

One narrow carve-out exists for businesses whose only Georgia activity is attending conventions or trade shows. The statute excludes attendance of five or fewer days in any 12-month period, provided the business earned less than $100,000 in net income from those activities the prior year. Step outside either limit and the exclusion is gone.¹

If You Sell Through a Marketplace

Georgia puts the collection responsibility on marketplace facilitators, not on the individual sellers on their platforms. Under O.C.G.A. § 48-8-30(c.2), a facilitator that meets the $100,000 threshold (counting all sales it facilitates plus any direct sales of its own) is treated as the dealer for every taxable sale it facilitates and is liable for the full tax.²³ The statute says plainly that a marketplace seller is not obligated to collect or remit tax on sales the facilitator handles.

If every Georgia sale you make runs through a qualifying marketplace, that platform carries the Georgia sales tax burden. The state will audit the facilitator for those transactions, not you.

The problem starts when you sell through both a marketplace and your own website. The marketplace handles tax on its platform; you are fully responsible for collecting and remitting on orders through your independent channels. Those two revenue streams need separate tracking, because mixing them leads to either double-paying or under-reporting.

Registering and Starting to Collect

Registration happens through the Georgia Tax Center online portal. Choose “Register a New Business” and complete the application, which covers multiple tax types including sales and use tax. You will need your Federal Employer Identification Number (or Social Security Number for a sole proprietor), your legal business name as registered with the Secretary of State, the date you began or will begin Georgia activity, and contact information for all officers or partners.⁴

Turnaround is quick. After you submit the application online, the Department of Revenue typically sends your sales tax account number by email within 15 minutes.⁵ As soon as that number arrives, you are authorized to collect and must begin doing so on all taxable sales. Most Georgia taxpayers file monthly; a lower liability can justify a written request to file less often.⁶

Rates and Which Rate to Charge

Georgia’s state rate is 4%, but every county adds local option taxes on top. As of early 2025, combined state-plus-local rates run from 4% in some jurisdictions up to 9% in others, including Clayton and Muscogee counties.⁷ Georgia uses destination-based sourcing, so you charge the rate for the place where the buyer receives the goods, not where your business is located.⁸ The DOR’s quarterly rate charts are the authoritative source, and using the wrong rate is one of the most common audit findings for out-of-state sellers.

Resale Certificates and Exempt Sales

Sales for resale are exempt, but the proof is on you. Georgia uses Form ST-5, the Sales Tax Certificate of Exemption, which the buyer completes with their sales tax registration number, business type, and contact information. You keep it on file. If an auditor asks for the certificate behind a tax-free sale and you can’t produce one, you owe the tax yourself plus penalties.

Georgia also accepts the Multistate Tax Commission’s Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate for purchases by out-of-state buyers.⁹ Retain copies for at least the length of the state’s statute of limitations. Changes to a buyer’s name, address, or ownership can invalidate an existing certificate, so periodic review of your exemption files is worth the time.

Penalties, and a Path if You’re Already Behind

Under O.C.G.A. § 48-8-66, a dealer who fails to file or pay in full owes an added 5% of the tax due (or $5, whichever is greater) for the first 30 days, with another 5% or $5 for each additional 30 days. The penalty for a single violation caps at 25% of the tax due or $25, whichever is greater. A return the DOR finds fraudulent, or willful failure to file to avoid tax, pushes the penalty to 50%.¹⁰ Interest runs on top for the entire period the tax is unpaid.

One narrow waiver exists: if the failure was due to circumstances beyond your control, you attach an affidavit to the return explaining them, and you remit payment within ten days of the due date, the department may waive penalties and interest.¹⁰ The window is short and the standard is high.

If you’ve been selling into Georgia for a while and should have been collecting, the Department of Revenue’s Voluntary Disclosure Agreement program is usually the cleanest fix. The typical look-back period for sales and use tax under a Georgia VDA is 36 months, which can be far shorter than the actual period of non-compliance. If you actually collected tax from customers and failed to remit it, the look-back extends as far back as needed to recover those funds. To qualify, the DOR must not have already contacted you about the obligation, and you must be current on your other Georgia tax obligations.¹¹ The underlying tax and some interest are still due, but a limited look-back can mean the difference between a workable bill and an existential one.

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Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-2 – Definitions
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-30 – Imposition, Rate, and Collection of Tax
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Marketplace Facilitators
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Georgia Department of Revenue. CRF-002
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Tax Registration
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Georgia Department of Revenue. File and Pay
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Sales Tax Rates – General
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Georgia Department of Revenue. What is Subject to Sales and Use Tax
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Multistate Tax Commission. Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-66 – Penalties for Failure to File Return
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Voluntary Disclosure Agreements