Who handles sales tax if I sell on my own website?

You do. On TPT or Etsy the marketplace collects and remits sales tax on marketplace sales. On your own website, your store software can calculate and collect the tax at checkout, but you are the one who registers with the state and files the returns.

This post is a plain overview so you know what questions to ask. It is not tax advice. States differ, rules change, and an accountant who knows your state is the right person to confirm any of it.

Why it feels invisible on TPT

Marketplaces such as TPT and Etsy collect sales tax from the buyer and send it to the states themselves. The tax on those sales never passes through your hands, and you do not file returns for it. Most teacher-sellers have never had to think about sales tax for exactly this reason.

When you sell from your own site, there is no marketplace in the middle. You are the seller of record, so the job is yours.

The two questions that matter

1. Does your home state tax digital downloads?

You can owe sales tax in your home state from your very first sale, if your state taxes digital downloads. Some states do, some do not, and some tax certain kinds of digital products and not others. There is no shortcut here. Look at your state revenue department’s website or ask your accountant: “Does our state charge sales tax on digital downloads such as PDF teaching resources?”

If the answer is no, you may have nothing to collect at home. If the answer is yes, you will generally need a sales tax permit from your state, and you will collect tax from buyers in your state and file a return on the schedule the state gives you.

2. Are you selling a lot into any other state?

Other states generally only come into play once you pass a threshold of sales into that state, which is commonly around $100,000 in a year. The exact figure and how it is counted vary by state.

For most teacher-sellers starting a store of their own, that threshold is far away. A store doing $500 a month in total is not close to $100,000 into any single state. That is why, for a small store, the practical question is usually just the home state.

What the store software does

Store software, including WooCommerce, Shopify and others, can work out the right tax for a buyer’s address and add it at checkout. It can also give you a report of how much tax you collected and where.

What it does not do on its own:

• Register you with a state.
• Decide whether your products are taxable in a given state.
• File your returns or send the money in.

There are paid services that will file for you. Whether one is worth it depends on how many states you are registered in. For a seller registered only at home, filing is usually a short online form a few times a year.

What it looks like in practice

For a small store, the usual sequence is:

1. Find out whether your home state taxes digital downloads.
2. If it does, register for a sales tax permit with your state before you start selling.
3. Turn on tax collection in your store for your state only.
4. File on the schedule your state assigns, using the report from your store.
5. Once a year, look at your sales by state to see whether any other state is getting near its threshold.

Again, confirm each step with your accountant. We build stores. We are not tax professionals.

Is this a reason not to have your own store?

For some sellers, yes. Sellers on Reddit’s TPT forum report at least one person closing a Shopify store because of sales tax. That is a legitimate choice. If the paperwork would keep you up at night and your outside sales would be small, the marketplace doing it for you is worth something. Count it as part of what TPT’s cut buys.

For others it turns out to be smaller than they feared: one registration and a short return each quarter. You will not know which group you are in until you ask the home-state question.

How this fits the TPT decision

From January 1, 2027, TPT Exclusive sellers may not sell digital educational resources off TPT, so the sales tax question on those products does not come up for them. It applies to Basic sellers with their own store, and to Exclusive sellers who sell allowed items on their own site, such as physical products or courses. Physical products have their own tax rules, which are older and usually clearer than the rules for downloads.

You can read the membership rules in TPT’s Exclusive Seller announcement, its FAQs and its fees page.

When you compare what you keep, be fair to both sides. On a $10 sale TPT Basic leaves $5.20, Exclusive leaves $7.75 and your own store leaves about $9.41 after card fees. The $9.41 does not include your time spent on tax filing. Put a number on that time, even a rough one.

About us

Up At Last builds and hosts stores for teacher-sellers, from $25 a month. We set up tax collection in the store for the states you tell us you are registered in. We do not register or file for you, and we will tell you to talk to an accountant, as we are doing now.

Up At Last is not affiliated with or endorsed by Teachers Pay Teachers.

What to do next

1. Run the free calculator to see whether a store of your own is even on the table for your numbers.
2. Ask your accountant, or check your state revenue department’s site, whether your state taxes digital downloads.
3. If you already sell on your own site, pull a sales-by-state report for the last twelve months and show it to your accountant.