Taxes as non-US shopify seller using US-based print on demand facilities

Accounting & Taxes
1

I’m based in Spain and I´ve been selling to the US market on Etsy’s Marketplace, using various Print on Demand facilities based in the US (Printify, Printful, etc). Now, using these same US-based printing facilities, I´m about to launch my own website (using Shopify) to sell in the US market.

I’m having some difficulty finding a definitive answer as to what my tax obligations are in the US, given that I myself don´t have any physical or economic nexus to any US state, but the various printing facilities which send the products to my US customers are also based in the US and therefore have physical nexus.

My questions:

  1. If I start using Shopify, do I need to start collecting sales taxes on US orders myself?

  2. I read in a Shopify information page about US taxes ((https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/taxes/us ) that ¨If you don’t have nexus in your customer’s state, but your dropshipping vendor does, then your vendor might ask you for a resale certificate or charge you the appropriate tax.” How can I get a resale certificate? From whom I should get it?

Thanks in advance!

2

Hi, @EitanF .

That is a great question! However, due to the complex nature of US sales tax, these sorts of questions are always best left to tax professionals. You want to make sure you are following the laws set out by the US tax nexus exactly, to prevent you from landing in any hot water. Thus, a discussion with a tax professional is necessary.

We have US tax professionals in the Experts’ Marketplace. I strongly recommend you get in touch with one if you haven’t already: Tax Setup.

In the meantime, as you mentioned you are migrating from Etsy to Shopify, I recommend taking a peek at our Etsy to Shopify migration guide. You can migrate your products, customers, and order data from Etsy to Shopify and this will provide you full instructions to make it a smooth process!