Your business has Georgia sales tax nexus, and therefore has to register and collect Georgia sales tax, if any of three things is true: you have a physical footprint in the state (an office, inventory, or people working on your behalf), you delivered more than $100,000 in retail sales or 200 or more separate orders into Georgia in the previous or current calendar year, or you have certain in-state referral or affiliate relationships that meet the state’s thresholds.1Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-2 – Definitions Combined state and local rates run from 4% up to roughly 9% depending on the county, so miscalculating nexus is expensive.2Georgia Department of Revenue. Sales Tax Rates – General Georgia’s dealer definition under O.C.G.A. § 48-8-2 is broad enough to catch brick-and-mortar retailers, online sellers who have never set foot in the state, and platforms that never take title to the goods they help sell.
Physical Presence in Georgia
The clearest way to establish nexus is a tangible footprint. You are a dealer if you maintain or use an office, warehouse, distribution center, salesroom, or any other place of business in Georgia, whether you own the space or not.1Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-2 – Definitions Inventory sitting in a third-party fulfillment center counts. If your products are on shelves in a Georgia warehouse, you have nexus even if you’ve never visited the facility.
People also create nexus. Sending employees, sales representatives, or independent contractors into Georgia to solicit business makes you a dealer.1Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-2 – Definitions Payroll status doesn’t matter; what matters is whether someone is acting on your behalf inside the state.
Trade Show Exception
Georgia carves out a narrow exception for businesses whose only in-state activity is attending conventions or trade shows. You avoid dealer status only if all three conditions hold: the show is your sole physical presence in Georgia, you (including your agents or contractors) attend no more than five days in any 12-month period, and you earned less than $100,000 in net income from those Georgia activities in the prior calendar year.3Georgia Department of Revenue. Out-of-State Sellers Exceed any one of those limits and the exception disappears.
Economic Nexus for Remote Sellers
You don’t need to touch Georgia to owe Georgia sales tax. Since January 1, 2020, a remote seller is a dealer if it meets either of two benchmarks in the previous or current calendar year: more than $100,000 in gross revenue from retail sales delivered into Georgia, or 200 or more separate retail sales delivered into the state.1Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-2 – Definitions One threshold is enough; you don’t have to hit both.
The revenue test counts gross revenue from all retail sales of tangible personal property shipped to Georgia, not only sales of taxable items. Exempt sales still push you toward the $100,000 mark. If you sell a mix of taxable and exempt goods and your total Georgia revenue crosses the threshold, you have to register and collect tax on the taxable portion.1Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-2 – Definitions
Once you cross either threshold, plan on registering with the Department of Revenue within about 30 days and beginning collection. The “previous or current calendar year” language matters. If you exceeded $100,000 last year, you have collection obligations for the entirety of this year, even if this year’s sales are running well below the line.
Click-Through and Affiliate Relationships
Georgia recognizes two relationship-based forms of nexus that have been in effect since October 2012.
Click-through nexus applies when an out-of-state seller pays a Georgia resident for referrals, typically through a website link or online ad that sends buyers to the seller’s site. If those referrals produce more than $50,000 in gross receipts during the preceding 12 months, the seller is a dealer with a collection obligation. This is what catches affiliate-marketing arrangements where Georgia-based bloggers or influencers earn commissions driving traffic to out-of-state retailers.
Affiliate nexus works on corporate structure rather than payments. It applies when your business has a related entity operating in Georgia that sells a similar line of products under the same or a substantially similar brand, trademark, or trade name. The presumption is rebuttable. If you can show the in-state entity’s activities aren’t meaningfully connected to your ability to build and keep customers in Georgia, you can push back.
Selling Through Amazon, eBay, or Etsy
If you sell through a marketplace, the platform itself is responsible for collecting and remitting Georgia sales tax on those transactions. A marketplace facilitator becomes a dealer when the combined sales price of taxable retail sales it facilitates on behalf of sellers, plus its own direct sales, reaches $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year.1Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-2 – Definitions Every major platform clears that bar without difficulty.
One technical distinction to be aware of: the marketplace facilitator’s threshold is based on taxable retail sales, while a remote seller’s economic nexus threshold counts gross revenue from all retail sales regardless of taxability.1Justia. Georgia Code 48-8-2 – Definitions The practical difference rarely matters because platforms exceed both benchmarks by orders of magnitude.
Sales that a marketplace facilitator handles for you do not count toward your own $100,000 or 200-transaction threshold.4Georgia Department of Revenue. Marketplace Facilitators You track only your direct sales through your own website or other non-facilitated channels. So if you sell $150,000 through Amazon and $40,000 through your own site, only the $40,000 counts against your personal nexus threshold. The rule prevents the same transactions from being counted twice.
What Happens Once You Have Nexus
Every business that meets the dealer definition has to register for a Georgia sales tax number and certificate of registration, whether the sales are online, out of state, wholesale, or exempt. Registration is free and runs through the Georgia Tax Center. Your registration doesn’t expire; it stays active as long as the business exists without a change in ownership or structure, so if you close down or restructure, you have to cancel or update the account.5Georgia Department of Revenue. Tax Registration
Most filers are assigned a monthly schedule, with returns due on the 20th of the month following the reporting period.6Georgia Department of Revenue. File and Pay Even a period with zero taxable sales requires a return. Skipping a filing because you owe nothing is a common way to trigger penalties.
Ignoring nexus gets expensive quickly. Georgia treats collected sales tax as money held in trust for the state. Under O.C.G.A. § 48-2-44, willfully failing to remit collected sales tax triggers a 10% penalty on the amount owed, plus interest running from the original due date until you pay.7Justia. Georgia Code 48-2-44 – Willful Failure to File Return or Pay Tax Interest is set at the federal short-term rate plus three percentage points and compounds. The “willfully” language sounds protective, but if you’ve been collecting tax from Georgia customers and not sending it in, arguing you weren’t willful is a hard sell.
Georgia can also revoke your certificate of registration, which means you cannot legally sell in the state until you resolve the balance and get reinstated. If you’re a seller who realized nexus started some time ago and you have back liability, contacting the Department of Revenue before the state finds you is usually the better play. Georgia has participated in voluntary disclosure programs that can reduce penalty exposure for sellers who come forward on their own.