A Rhode Island resale certificate is a one-page form you give to a supplier so you can buy inventory without paying the state’s 7% sales tax at the time of purchase. The tax gets collected later, when you sell the goods to the final customer. To use the certificate, you need an active Rhode Island Permit to Make Sales at Retail, and you need to fill out every field on the form before handing it over.
Get Your Sales Tax Permit First
You can’t issue a resale certificate without a Rhode Island Permit to Make Sales at Retail. The permit is free, and you register through the Division of Taxation’s Combined Online Registration Service at ri.gov/taxation/BAR.
The application asks for your legal business name, address, federal employer identification number, and type of business. Once the Division processes it, you get a permit with a unique permit number. That number goes on every resale certificate you issue, so keep it where you can find it. The permit itself must be displayed at your place of business and cannot be transferred to another person or location.
If your permit already exists and just needs renewing, don’t use the new-business registration form. Renewals run through the Division of Taxation’s Tax Portal at taxportal.ri.gov.
Filling Out the Form, Field by Field
Download the Resale Certificate from the Division of Taxation’s website. Rhode Island’s regulation on resale certificates lists exactly what a properly completed form has to contain: the purchaser’s name and address, the purchaser’s permit number, a description of the property being purchased, the general character of the purchaser’s business, and the purchaser’s signature.
Here is what belongs in each field.
- Name of Purchaser. Your business’s legal name, matching the name on your sales tax permit.
- Address. Your business’s physical address.
- Permit Number. The number from your Rhode Island Permit to Make Sales at Retail. If you are a wholesaler who sells only non-taxable property and are not required to hold a retail permit, note that on the certificate in place of a permit number.
- Business of Selling. A short description of what your business normally sells, such as “retail furniture,” “restaurant supplies,” or “electronic components.” This tells the seller, and any auditor who looks at the certificate later, that the items you’re buying fit what you actually resell.
- Description of Property to Be Purchased. What you’re buying. For a one-time order, list the specific items. For a blanket certificate covering ongoing purchases, use a general description of the category of goods you regularly buy for resale.
- Signature and Date. Sign and date it. Your signature is a legal attestation that everything on the form is true and the goods are genuinely for resale.
The form has a signature line and a date field but no separate printed-name field. Fill in every section. An incomplete certificate gives the seller no protection and will likely be rejected, which means you pay the full 7% on the spot.
Single-Purchase or Blanket
Rhode Island recognizes two types of resale certificate, and the choice matters when you buy from the same supplier again and again.
A single-purchase certificate covers one transaction. Under the property description, you list the specific items — for example, “24 oak dining tables” — and the certificate applies only to that order. That’s fine for a one-off purchase from a supplier you rarely use.
A blanket certificate covers a continuing line of purchases from the same supplier. Instead of itemizing, you write a general description of the kind of property you regularly buy for resale, like “furniture and home décor.” Mark the form clearly as a “Blanket Certificate.” It stays valid until you revoke it in writing, and you don’t need a fresh form for each order as long as the goods fit the description.
Giving the Certificate to Your Supplier
Hand the completed certificate to the seller at the time of the transaction, or as close to it as you can. The seller keeps it on file and leaves sales tax off your invoice. Delivery can be physical or digital. Emailing a signed PDF is fine, as long as the seller ends up with a properly completed copy.
Sellers are expected to accept the certificate in good faith, and under Rhode Island’s regulation a seller who accepts a properly completed resale certificate is relieved of liability for the tax, provided there’s no fraud or collusion. That is why sellers care about getting the form right: Rhode Island law presumes every sale is taxable, and without a valid certificate on file the seller owes the tax personally. A supplier who has obvious reason to doubt a purchase is for resale, such as a restaurant trying to buy a personal laptop on a resale certificate, can and should refuse the form.
When an SST Certificate Works Instead
Rhode Island is a full member of the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board. Because of that, Rhode Island sellers may accept either the state’s own Resale Certificate or the Streamlined Sales Tax Certificate of Exemption from a purchaser buying for resale. The SST form is available at streamlinedsalestax.org.
The SST certificate is useful if you buy from suppliers in several states. One form can document resale purchases across more than 20 SST member states instead of a different state-specific form for each. The Multistate Tax Commission also publishes a Uniform Sales & Use Tax Resale Certificate, which Rhode Island sellers generally accept, though the state’s regulation names only the SST certificate and the Rhode Island form as recognized options. When in doubt, use the Rhode Island form or the SST certificate.
If you are an out-of-state retailer who is not registered in Rhode Island and has no obligation to be, you can usually provide your home-state resale certificate, the SST certificate with your home-state registration number, or the MTC Uniform Certificate instead of the Rhode Island form.
Keep a Copy
Both you and the seller should retain a copy of every certificate. Rhode Island General Laws § 44-19-27 requires sales tax records, including certificates, to be preserved for at least three years and made available for inspection by the Tax Administrator on demand. The Tax Administrator can require longer retention in specific cases.
Organize your certificates so you can produce them quickly. During an audit, the Tax Administrator will ask to see the certificate backing any tax-exempt sale. A blanket certificate that is still in effect covers every qualifying purchase from that buyer for its entire duration, so one well-kept blanket certificate can support years of transactions, but only if you can actually find it when asked.
What You Can’t Use It For
A resale certificate is only valid for goods you intend to resell in the regular course of business. Buying office supplies, furniture, fixtures, or anything else for your own use on a resale certificate violates Rhode Island tax law. The Division of Taxation’s FAQ is explicit on that point.
If you misuse the certificate, you owe the 7% sales tax that should have been paid at purchase, plus interest. The form itself contains a statement that if any property bought under the certificate is used for a purpose other than holding it for sale in the regular course of business, the purchaser is required to report and pay the tax measured by the purchase price. Deliberate misuse can bring additional penalties on top of the back tax and interest.
The certificate defers the tax; it doesn’t erase it. Rhode Island still collects its 7% when the goods reach a final consumer. Using the form for your own purchases just shifts the bill back to you, with interest.