How to Fill Out Connecticut Form CERT-119: Sales Tax Exemption Certificate

To fill out Connecticut Form CERT-119, enter your nonprofit’s identifying information and the seller’s, describe what you’re buying, check whether the certificate covers a single purchase or a series, and have an officer sign and date the declaration. Attach a copy of your IRS determination letter and give both documents to the retailer at the time of purchase. The form is not sent to the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services; it stays with the seller as the seller’s justification for not collecting the 6.35 percent sales tax.¹

Confirm Your Organization Can Use This Form

CERT-119 is for organizations that hold an active IRS determination letter under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(13). Most charitable, educational, and religious nonprofits qualify, along with certain nonprofit cemetery companies. If the IRS has revoked your determination, you cannot use this form.²

Government agencies don’t use CERT-119 at all; they file CERT-134 instead.³ Organizations that received a DRS exemption permit before July 1, 1995 may still use CERT-119 on the strength of that permit, so long as it hasn’t been canceled.⁴

Gather Your Information First

Download the current version of the form from the DRS website. Before you start typing, have these items in front of you:

Your IRS determination letter. A copy must be physically attached to every CERT-119 you hand to a retailer. If you’re covered under a group exemption, you’ll also need the IRS group exemption letter issued to the central organization, your written consent to be covered, and the central organization’s notification to the IRS of that consent.⁵
Your Connecticut Tax Registration Number if the organization is registered for sales and use tax. If you don’t have one, you’ll explain that on the form.
Your Federal Employer Identification Number.
The seller’s name, address, Connecticut Tax Registration Number, and FEIN. You fill in the seller block yourself.
Your pre-1995 DRS exemption permit, if that’s what you’re using instead of an IRS letter.⁶

Complete the Form Section by Section

Purchaser and Seller Blocks

In the purchaser block, enter your organization’s full legal name, street address, Connecticut Tax Registration Number (or your explanation for not having one), exemption permit number if applicable, and FEIN. Fill in the equivalent identifying information for the retailer in the seller block. Both sides of the transaction need to appear on the certificate.⁶

Type of Certificate and Description of Purchase

Check whether the form covers a single purchase or serves as a blanket certificate for continuing purchases from the same seller. Check whether you’re buying tangible personal property or taxable services, and describe what you’re buying. Be specific. “Office supplies” or “janitorial services” reads better than a vague label, and the description is what lets the retailer confirm the purchase fits your exempt purposes.

A separate checkbox covers meals purchased for resale at a qualifying fundraising or social event under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-412(94). If you check it, you must also state how many prior fundraising events you have already claimed this exemption for during the current calendar year, because the statute caps the exemption at five events per year.⁵

Officer Signature and Declaration

An officer of the exempt organization signs and dates the form. The declaration above the signature line states the signer has examined the certificate and believes it to be true and correct, and it sets out the penalty for willfully delivering a false certificate to DRS: a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment of up to five years, or both. The purchase must be paid from organization funds. Officers and employees cannot use CERT-119 for personal purchases, even if the item relates to their work.⁴

Meals and Lodging Are Handled Differently

You generally cannot use CERT-119 to buy meals or lodging tax-free. Those purchases require DRS preapproval and either Form CERT-112 for a single purchase or Form CERT-123 as a blanket certificate for recurring meals or lodging from the same vendor.⁶

The one exception is meals bought for resale at a qualifying fundraising or social event under § 12-412(94). For those, CERT-119 works without preapproval, up to five events per calendar year. Beyond the fifth event, you’re back to preapproval and a different form.

Single Purchase or Blanket Certificate

If you buy the same kinds of goods or services from the same retailer repeatedly, a blanket certificate saves you from filling out a new form every time. A blanket CERT-119 stays in effect for three years unless you revoke it in writing before then.⁶

Two limits to keep in mind. A blanket CERT-119 cannot be used for tangible personal property that will be resold at a § 12-412(94) fundraising event; those need a separate single-purchase certificate each time, with the fundraising box checked. And if your organization’s name, tax status, or IRS determination letter changes during the three-year window, the existing blanket certificate is no longer valid and you need to issue a new one.⁵

Give the Form to the Retailer and Keep a Copy

Present the completed, signed certificate and the attached IRS determination letter (or pre-1995 DRS permit) to the retailer before or at the time of purchase. The retailer needs the paperwork in hand to justify not charging the 6.35 percent sales tax. Do not send the form to DRS.

The certificate is only valid if the seller accepts it in good faith. If the purchase is obviously outside your exempt purpose, or the form is incomplete, the retailer can refuse it and collect the tax. Accepted properly, it shifts the audit exposure to the organization: if DRS later determines the transaction was taxable, you owe the tax, not the seller.²

Both you and the retailer must keep a copy of the executed certificate, the attached IRS letter, and related invoices for at least six years from the date the certificate was issued. That six-year window matches Connecticut’s audit period, and a retailer who cannot produce the certificate during an audit can be held liable for the uncollected tax plus interest. Store your copies with the matching receipts so the form and the underlying transaction are easy to pull together.⁶

1
Connecticut State Department of Revenue Services. Sales and Use Tax Information
2
Justia. Connecticut Code 12-412 – Exemptions
3
Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. CERT-134 – Exempt Purchase by Qualifying Governmental Agencies
4
Connecticut State Department of Revenue Services. Managing Exempt Status
5
Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. CERT-119 Instructions
6
Department of Revenue Services. Connecticut Form CERT-119 – Purchases of Tangible Personal Property and Services by Qualifying Exempt Organization