How to Fill Out the PA Exemption Certificate (REV-1220)

To fill out the Pennsylvania Exemption Certificate, Form REV-1220, work top to bottom: mark the tax type, choose unit or blanket, check the one exemption reason block that fits your purchase, write a specific description of what you’re buying, enter your Pennsylvania Sales Tax License ID or exempt-organization number, and sign and date the form. Then get it to the seller within 60 days of the sale. The form is short, but each field has a job, and a blank or wrong entry is what turns a valid exemption into an assessed tax bill during an audit.

What to Have in Front of You Before You Start

Pull your identifying numbers first. If you hold a Pennsylvania Sales Tax License, you’ll need the eight-digit license ID assigned by the Department of Revenue.¹ Exempt organizations — nonprofits, religious institutions, government bodies, volunteer fire companies — use a separate exemption number that begins with the digits “75.” Confirm the number against your registration paperwork before writing anything down. A single transposed digit invalidates the certificate.

You’ll also need the seller’s full legal name and address, your own entity’s legal name exactly as it appears on your state registration, and a clear picture of what you’re buying and why it qualifies. Having this ready avoids the half-filled forms sellers refuse to accept.

Unit or Blanket

The first choice on the form is whether the certificate is a unit certificate or a blanket certificate. Check one. A unit certificate covers a single purchase. A blanket certificate covers all qualifying purchases from the same seller going forward, which saves both sides from repeating paperwork when you order from the same supplier repeatedly.

Each transaction under a blanket certificate is still treated as a separate exemption claim, so the reason you check has to match every purchase the certificate covers.² Start buying items that don’t fit the original reason, and you need a new certificate. Don’t stretch a blanket to cover purchases it wasn’t written for.

Leaving both boxes blank is one of the errors auditors flag most often, so make sure one is checked before you move on. Also check the tax type box (sales, use, or hotel occupancy). A missing tax type is another common and easily avoidable reason certificates get thrown out.

Choosing the Right Exemption Reason

The exemption reason section is the heart of the form. You check one numbered block matching why your purchase is tax-free.

Block 1 covers property or services used directly and predominantly in manufacturing, processing, printing, mining, farming, dairying, or similar qualifying operations. This is the block manufacturers reach for most often, but it has real limits. Equipment used for administration, maintenance, sales, delivery, or warehousing doesn’t qualify, and neither do vehicles required to be registered under the Vehicle Code.¹
Block 2 is for purchases by governments, nonprofit educational institutions, religious organizations, volunteer fire companies, and other entities that hold a Pennsylvania exemption number.
Block 3 applies when you’re buying property or services to resell or rent in the ordinary course of business, either in original form or as a component of another product. Enter your eight-digit PA Sales Tax License ID. If you don’t have one, you’ll explain why under Block 7.¹
Block 4 covers statutory exemptions that don’t fit the other categories.
Block 5 is for property used directly in producing, delivering, or providing public utility services as defined by the Pennsylvania Utility Code.
Block 6 covers nonreturnable containers and wrapping materials used to package goods sold to others.
Block 7 is “Other” and requires a written explanation of the exemption basis. Vague explanations here are a frequent audit problem.

Picking the wrong block doesn’t just create paperwork trouble. Auditors compare the exemption reason against what was actually purchased and how your business operates. If the item doesn’t fit the claimed exemption, the certificate is invalid no matter how neatly it was completed.³

Describing the Property or Service

The form asks you to describe what you’re buying. This is where most people get lazy and where auditors spend a disproportionate share of their time. “Supplies” or “equipment” tells a reviewer nothing about whether the exemption is legitimate. Write with enough specificity that someone reading the certificate years later can connect the item to the reason you checked.

Pennsylvania regulations allow shorthand descriptions when a symbol or department code consistently refers to one class of nontaxable merchandise. A vendor who sells only nontaxable periodicals in “Department P” can use that label. But if a department sells both taxable and nontaxable items, each nontaxable item must be individually identified.⁴ The same logic applies here. “2 bearings (loom)” paired with a manufacturing exemption works. “Office stationery” paired with a public utility exemption does not, because stationery isn’t used directly in producing utility services.

For manufacturing exemptions, name the equipment and the production process it’s used in. For resale, identify the goods and note that they’ll be resold in original form or incorporated into another product. Thirty seconds of specificity now can save thousands in assessed tax later.

If You’re an Out-of-State Buyer

If your business is based outside Pennsylvania and you don’t hold a PA Sales Tax License, you can still use Form REV-1220. For resale purchases (Block 3) and wrapping supply purchases (Block 6), you’ll complete Block 7 with an explanation of why you don’t have a Pennsylvania license number.¹ Typically that means stating your business operates and resells goods entirely outside Pennsylvania, so no PA license is required. Include your home state’s sales tax registration number to show you’re a legitimate reseller.

Sellers are cautious about accepting certificates without a PA number because they carry the liability if the exemption turns out to be invalid. A clear, detailed Block 7 explanation is what gets your certificate accepted.

Signing and Dating

The signature block requires the name and title of an authorized representative of the purchasing entity, and the date. This isn’t a formality to hand off to whoever placed the order. The person signing certifies under penalty of law that the information is accurate.²

Pennsylvania recognizes electronic signatures as equivalent to original signatures under the Commonwealth’s electronic signature policy, which follows the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. An electronic signature must meet four criteria: data integrity, attribution to a specific person, non-repudiation, and reliability.⁵ A typed name in an email doesn’t meet that standard. A digitized signature image with password-based authentication, or a signature captured through a platform that logs the signer’s identity and timestamp, will.

The signature date matters because of the delivery rule that follows. Whatever method you use, make sure it records when the signing actually happened.

Getting the Certificate to the Seller Within 60 Days

You don’t file REV-1220 with the Department of Revenue. You give it to the seller. The seller keeps it as proof the sale was legitimately tax-free. Here’s the trap: the seller must have the completed certificate in their possession within 60 days of the sale.¹ Miss that window and the certificate no longer protects the seller during an audit, which means the seller has every reason to bill you for the tax after the fact or refuse the exemption up front.

Four conditions have to be met for a valid certificate to shield the seller: it’s properly completed, the seller has it within 60 days, it doesn’t contain knowingly false information, and the purchased property is consistent with the claimed exemption and the purchaser’s actual business.² Keep a copy for your own records. The seller keeps the original.

Common Mistakes That Get Certificates Rejected

Revenue auditors work from a checklist. The audit manual identifies the errors that will get a certificate thrown out:³

Tax type left blank.
Neither unit nor blanket box checked.
Exemption reason missing, or Block 7 checked without an attached explanation.
Seller name that doesn’t match the actual seller’s legal name. This trips people up when a parent company and subsidiary have different names.
Missing or late signature date. Auditors use it to test the 60-day window.
Purchases inconsistent with the exemption claimed or with the purchaser’s line of business.

When a certificate gets disallowed, the auditor copies it into the audit report and assesses the underlying transactions at the full tax rate plus interest and penalties. Run the list above against your form before you hand it over.

The Line Between Mistake and Fraud

Honest errors on a certificate don’t trigger criminal prosecution. Knowingly issuing a false or fraudulent exemption certificate does. It’s a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in prison, or both, plus the evaded tax, interest, and civil penalties.⁶ Buying a television for your living room on a resale certificate, or claiming a manufacturing exemption for office furniture that never touches production, is where a completed form becomes a criminal problem. The Department of Revenue sees these patterns in audits and refers the clear cases for prosecution.

1
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Exemption Certificate REV-1220
2
Cornell Law Institute. Pennsylvania Code 61 Pa. Code 32.2 – Exemption Certificates
3
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – Department of Revenue. Sales and Use Tax Audit Manual
4
Cornell Law Institute. Pennsylvania Code 61 Pa. Code 34.2 – Keeping of Records
5
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Electronic Signature Policy
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Statutes Title 72 P.S. Taxation and Fiscal Affairs 7268