Excite Tax's answer for Utah: under Utah Code 59-12-107, a seller based here collects from its first taxable sale; a remote seller once Utah sales top $100,000 in a calendar year.
From the first taxable sale. There is no dollar threshold for a seller with a place of business or a stock of goods in Utah, and the license comes first: it is unlawful to do business without first obtaining one. The Tax Commission issues it without a license fee. Excite Tax's reading of who counts as "based here" is below.
Sales into Utah of more than $100,000 of gross revenue in the previous or the current calendar year. Dollars are the only test now; the 200-transaction test ended on July 1, 2025, so an older article that still cites it is out of date. A worked example is below.
Usually not. A marketplace collects once its own and facilitated Utah sales exceed $100,000, and then the marketplace seller may not collect on those sales. Your own website and in-person sales are a separate question, covered below.
Only for the services Utah taxes. Sales tax reaches goods and certain services, and the Tax Commission's list includes repair and cleaning labor on goods, laundry, admissions and stays of less than 30 consecutive days. Excite Tax's advice: if a service is not on that list and nothing else is sold with it, there is usually nothing to collect, but read the Tax Commission's list before deciding.
Yes. Once registered, a seller must file a return every period, even when no tax is due. A skipped zero return is still a late return.
Probably not. Utah exempts isolated or occasional sales by someone who does not typically sell that type of product. It stops being occasional when selling becomes a regular activity, and the exemption never covers goods bought for resale.
Utah splits sellers into two groups. A seller with a presence in the state collects from the start. A seller with no presence collects only after its Utah sales cross a dollar line. The two rules sit side by side in the same section of the Utah Code.
each seller shall pay or collect and remit ... if within this state the seller: (i) has or utilizes: (A) an office; ... (D) a warehouse; ... (ii) maintains a stock of goods; (iii) regularly solicits orders
Excite Tax reads Utah Code 59-12-107(2)(a) as the in-state test, and it has no dollar amount in it. A storefront in Orem, a home office in Lehi that ships inventory, a Salt Lake City maker who works the same weekend market all summer or a van that delivers to Utah customers each puts a seller inside it. Advertising alone does not, and neither does selling only by mail, email or website while shipping by carrier.
in either the previous calendar year or the current calendar year, receives gross revenue from the sale of ... for storage, use, or consumption in the state of more than $100,000.
This is the remote-seller test. It counts gross revenue from sales into Utah of more than $100,000, and it looks at two years at once: the year before and the year so far. Revenue here means sales of goods, products transferred electronically and services delivered for use in Utah, not profit.
It is unlawful for any person required to collect a tax under this chapter to engage in business within the state without first having obtained a license to do so.
The order matters. A seller the first test catches gets the license before the first sale, not after the first return is due. Collecting without one is a criminal violation under Utah Code 59-1-401, and the license itself costs nothing: the Tax Commission issues it without a license fee. A seller with a Utah presence applies online through Taxpayer Access Point, choosing the TC-69 business registration.
When a small business starts collecting Utah sales tax
| Your situation | When collecting starts | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A shop, office, warehouse or other place of business in Utah | Before the first taxable sale, with the license in hand | Utah Code 59-12-107(2)(a) has no dollar threshold. |
| Inventory kept in Utah, including goods stored with a third party here | Before the first taxable sale | Keeping a stock of goods in the state is enough. |
| Regular sales calls, deliveries in your own vehicle, or leasing or servicing property in Utah | Before the first taxable sale | Each is on the in-state list; carrier or mail delivery is not. |
| Out of state, selling online and shipping by carrier | Once Utah sales pass $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year | The economic-nexus test. |
| Out of state, but tied to a Utah business under the same or a similar name | From the first taxable sale | A related seller with more than a 10 percent ownership link has nexus. |
| Selling only through a marketplace that collects | The marketplace collects instead | The seller may not collect on those sales. |
| No presence and under the threshold | Not required | A seller in this position may register voluntarily; otherwise the buyer owes use tax. |
One misreading shows up often: an owner in Provo selling mostly online assumes the remote-seller dollar test applies because the sales are online. It does not. Excite Tax's reading is that the dollar test is only for sellers that fail every part of the in-state test, and a Utah home base that holds inventory passes it on day one.
An Idaho business sells kitchenware online and ships every order by carrier. It has no presence in Utah, so only the dollar test applies: more than $100,000 of Utah sales in the previous or current calendar year.
Utah sales of a remote seller against the $100,000 test
| Period | Utah sales | Over the line? |
|---|---|---|
| All of 2025 | $62,000 | No: not more than $100,000 |
| January to August 2026 | $97,500 | No: still not more than $100,000 |
| January to September 2026 | $101,200 | Yes: over $100,000 in the current calendar year |
| All of 2027 | Any amount | Yes: the previous calendar year was over the line |
The September order that carries 2026 past $100,000 brings the obligation. The statute's text reads the current year, so Excite Tax's advice is to register as that total approaches, not after the year ends. Because the test also looks back one year, 2027 is covered even if Utah sales fall to $40,000 that year (the previous-year test). A remote seller registers through Taxpayer Access Point or the Streamlined Sales Tax registration and files TC-62M, the return for sellers with no Utah location.
Under the rule before July 1, 2025, 200 small orders could create nexus well below the dollar line. That test is gone, so a seller of many cheap items now counts only dollars.
A candle maker opens a studio in Provo in July. It is a Utah seller from day one, so it registers before the first sale and collects on every taxable sale. A sale of goods in Utah is taxed at the rate of the seller's fixed place of business, and Provo's combined rate is 7.45% as of July 1, 2026.
One quarter of sales tax for a Provo shop at 7.45%
| Line | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable sales, July to September | $8,000.00 | The shop's register totals, sourced to the studio's address |
| Combined rate in Provo | 7.45% | The Tax Commission's rate chart in effect as of July 1, 2026 |
| Sales tax collected and owed | $596.00 | $8,000.00 × 7.45% |
| Return | TC-62S | The return for a seller with one fixed Utah location |
| Due | Monday, November 2, 2026 | The last day of the month after the quarter, moved to the next business day when it falls on a weekend; October 31, 2026 is a Saturday. |
A shop this size files quarterly: the Tax Commission assigns quarterly filing at $50,000 or less of annual sales-tax liability. The same $8,000 of sales from a studio in Salt Lake City would carry 8.45%, or $676.00, which is why the rate follows the location and not the customer's home for over-the-counter sales.
A marketplace that crosses $100,000 of its own and facilitated Utah sales collects on every sale it makes for its sellers, and the seller may not collect a second time on those orders. That covers most small sellers on the large platforms.
The rest of the business is counted separately. A marketplace seller collects on its own Utah sales made outside the marketplace once those sales exceed $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year. A Utah-based seller is different again: its home base already meets the in-state test, so its website, market-stall and direct sales need the license from the first one, whatever the marketplace does.
Sales tax collected is not revenue. Utah law says it is held in trust for the state until it is paid, so it belongs in a sales-tax-payable account on the balance sheet, never in income. Excite Tax's rule of thumb: that account should equal the next return to the cent at every month end, and a month-end close that ties the two catches a missed register batch before the Tax Commission does.
Online sellers have one more reconciliation: marketplace payouts arrive net of the tax the platform collected and remitted, so the books should show that tax as neither income nor a liability of the seller. The online-seller bookkeeping guide walks through that entry.
The tax does not disappear because it was never charged. A seller that should have collected owes it from its own pocket, a late return costs the greater of $20 or 2%, 5% or 10% of the unpaid tax, depending on how late the return is, and late payment costs the greater of $20 or up to 10 percent of the tax due, with interest from the original due date until paid. The sooner the license is in place, the fewer periods that math applies to.
A buyer of a business should check too. Unpaid sales tax follows the sale: a buyer becomes personally liable for the former owner's sales tax still unpaid 30 days after the purchase. For the cost of rebuilding the records behind missed periods, see what catch-up bookkeeping costs.
Hand the books over when keeping them costs more hours than the business can spare, or when they stop agreeing with the bank.
Filing the Utah sales-tax return itself is not a service Excite Tax lists yet; you, or whoever you authorise, file it with the Utah State Tax Commission.
Excite Tax keeps these books; the return they feed is reviewed and signed by a licensed CPA at TBD CPA LLC.
Ranked and explained on the sources page.