How to Get a Resale Certificate in Maryland: Registration and Use

To get a resale certificate in Maryland, first register with the Comptroller for a sales and use tax license, then create your own certificate carrying your eight-digit registration number, your business details, and a signed statement that the purchase is for resale. Maryland does not print or issue the certificate itself. You draft it, sign it, and give it to your vendor before or at the time of the purchase.

Register for a Sales and Use Tax License

You cannot use a resale certificate in Maryland until you hold an active sales and use tax license from the Comptroller. Maryland Tax-General § 11-701 defines this license as the authorization to operate as a retail vendor, out-of-state vendor, or marketplace facilitator, and the Comptroller will not recognize a resale certificate from an unregistered buyer.¹

You apply through the Combined Registration Application, which bundles your sales and use tax license with other state tax accounts like income tax withholding and unemployment insurance into a single filing.² File it online through the Maryland Tax Connect portal at mdtaxconnect.gov.³ There is no fee for a Maryland sales and use tax license.

Once the Comptroller processes your application, you receive an eight-digit registration number. That number is the key to the entire resale certificate system. Maryland registration numbers always begin with either a zero or a one. Numbers from other states, federal employer identification numbers, Social Security numbers, and anything containing letters are not valid on a Maryland resale certificate.⁴ Every person in your company who places orders should know it.

Build the Certificate

Maryland does not require a specific printed form. The Comptroller publishes a suggested blanket resale certificate as a template, but you can draft your own document or adapt a vendor’s form as long as it contains the required elements.⁵ Every resale certificate needs four things:

Your legal business name as registered with the state.
Your permanent physical business address on file with the Comptroller.
Your eight-digit Maryland sales and use tax registration number, starting with 0 or 1.
A signed statement that the tangible personal property, digital product, digital code, or taxable service is being purchased for resale.

The signed statement is the part that carries legal weight. By signing, you are certifying under penalty that the purchase is genuinely for resale or will be incorporated into a product or service you sell.⁶ A physical signature or authorized digital signature from a company officer works. Date the certificate so both you and the vendor have a clear record of when the exemption claim was made.

What You Can Actually Buy With It

The resale exclusion under Maryland Tax-General § 11-408 applies only to items you buy with the genuine intent to resell them or incorporate them into a product or service for sale.⁷ The line that trips people up sits between resale inventory and the supplies you consume running the business.

A clothing retailer buying shirts from a wholesaler is a textbook resale purchase. If that same retailer buys office furniture, cleaning supplies, or a computer for the back office, those are consumables, not inventory, and you owe the standard 6% sales and use tax on them. Using a resale certificate to skip that tax is fraud. The description of goods on the certificate should be specific enough that anyone reading it can see the items are ordinary inventory for your kind of business.

The certificate is not limited to physical goods. Maryland’s regulations explicitly cover digital codes, digital products, and taxable services purchased for resale.⁴ If you resell software licenses, digital subscriptions, or certain services, the certificate works the same way.

Blanket Certificates for Repeat Vendors

If you buy from the same supplier regularly and every purchase is for resale, you do not need to hand over a new certificate each time. Maryland allows blanket resale certificates that cover all future purchases from a single vendor. Once the vendor has your blanket certificate on file, later purchase orders only need to include your eight-digit registration number.⁶

The catch is that a blanket certificate covers only purchases made for resale. If you occasionally buy consumables from the same vendor, pay tax on those orders separately. Mixing tax-exempt resale orders with taxable supply orders under a single blanket certificate is exactly the kind of thing that creates trouble in an audit.

Give the Certificate to the Vendor

The vendor must have a valid resale certificate in hand before or at the time of the sale. That is a hard rule under COMAR 03.06.01.14, not a suggestion.⁴ Most vendors accept a clear PDF sent by email or uploaded to their procurement portal. Some traditional wholesalers still want a physical copy mailed or faxed. Ask what format they need before the first order so you don’t delay the transaction.

Vendors have their own duty here. A seller who accepts a resale certificate when they know or should know the purchase is not actually for resale cannot rely on the certificate as a defense during an audit.⁴ Expect questions about your business. That is not the vendor being difficult; it is the vendor following the law.

Maryland gives sellers a free way to check that your number is real. Through the Maryland Tax Connect portal, a vendor can look up any eight-digit registration number or exemption certificate number and confirm it is active.⁸ The tool does not accept federal employer identification numbers. Vendors keep accepted certificates on file for at least four years, matching the Comptroller’s audit lookback period.⁹

Out-of-State Buyers

If your business is located outside Maryland and you are buying inventory from a Maryland supplier for resale, you can use either a Maryland-format resale certificate or the Multistate Tax Commission’s Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate. Maryland accepts the MTC form, but only as a resale certificate, not as a general exemption certificate.¹⁰

Whichever form you use, it must include a valid Maryland sales and use tax registration number. Certificates without one will not be honored. An out-of-state buyer who is not registered in Maryland has two choices: register with the Comptroller for a Maryland number, or pay the tax and apply for a refund using Form ST-212.⁶ One narrow exception exists for religious organizations, whose exemption numbers (always starting with “29”) may substitute for a registration number on the MTC form.

Drop Shipping Into Maryland

Drop shipping is a specific trap. When an out-of-state buyer directs a Maryland vendor to ship goods to a customer located in Maryland, the Maryland vendor has two choices: require the out-of-state buyer to register for Maryland sales and use tax and provide a proper resale certificate carrying a Maryland registration number, or charge sales tax on the sale price to the out-of-state buyer.⁴ The fact that the out-of-state buyer is genuinely reselling does not change that. If you run a drop-shipping operation that uses Maryland suppliers, getting a Maryland registration number is worth the paperwork.

Consequences of Misuse

Using a resale certificate to buy things you plan to keep and use in the business is fraud, not a strategy. The Comptroller’s sales and use tax audit lookback runs four years, and auditors are trained to compare the types of goods listed on resale certificates against the type of business the buyer actually operates. A landscaping company buying lawn mowers for resale makes sense. That same company buying office chairs and a flat-screen TV on a resale certificate does not.

If the Comptroller determines that you improperly used a resale certificate, you will owe the unpaid sales tax plus interest and penalties. Vendors who knowingly accept improper certificates share the liability. The safest approach is straightforward: use the certificate only for goods and services you will actually resell or physically incorporate into products for sale, keep thorough records of what you bought and how you sold it, and never let employees use the certificate for personal purchases.

1
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Tax – General Code Section 11-701 – Definitions
2
Comptroller of Maryland. Maryland Form CRA Combined Registration Application
3
Maryland Tax Connect. Maryland Tax Connect
4
Library of Maryland Regulations. COMAR 03.06.01.14 – Resale Certificates
5
Comptroller of Maryland. Suggested Blanket Resale Certificate
6
Comptroller of Maryland. Business Tax Tip #4 – Resale Certificates
7
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Tax – General Code Section 11-408 – Resale
8
Maryland Tax Connect. Verify Sales Tax Exemption
9
Comptroller of Maryland. Business Tax Tip #2 – What Sales Records Do I Need to Keep
10
Multistate Tax Commission. Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate – Multijurisdiction