To fill out the Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate, enter the seller’s name and address at the top, add your own business name and address, list your active sales tax registration number in the row for every participating state where you claim the exemption, check the box for your type of business, describe the goods you intend to resell, mark whether the certificate covers a single purchase or serves as a blanket certificate, and sign and date it. The form is a single page published by the Multistate Tax Commission (MTC), sometimes called Form A-1, and is accepted by 38 states in place of each state’s separate resale certificate.
What to Gather Before You Start
Missing information is what usually gets a certificate rejected, so pull everything together before you open the PDF:
- The seller’s full legal name and address.
- Your business’s legal name and principal address, exactly as they appear on your state tax registrations. A DBA that doesn’t match your permit records can flag an audit later.
- Your sales tax permit number, resale number, or equivalent registration ID for every state where you want the exemption to apply. Confirm each one is currently active. An expired or revoked number invalidates the certificate for that state.
- The category that describes your operation: wholesale, retail, manufacturing, construction, accommodation, or professional services.
- A concrete description of the goods you plan to buy for resale.
Seller and Purchaser Information
The top block has two fields. Put the seller’s name and address in the first. Put your business’s legal name and address in the second. Use the name on your state tax registration, not a trade name.
The Multijurisdiction Table
This table is the core of the form and the field most rejections turn on. It lists every participating state with a blank next to it. In each row where you hold an active registration, write the state-issued registration number, seller’s permit number, or ID number.1Multistate Tax Commission. Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate – Multijurisdiction Leave the row blank for any state where you are not registered. Do not write a federal EIN in these fields, and do not enter a number from a state that is not on the form; neither will satisfy the seller’s due-diligence obligation.
Read the state-specific notes that follow the form. Some states attach conditions to their acceptance. Illinois, for example, does not apply a “good faith” standard and instead expects the seller to verify that your registration number is valid at the time of purchase. Kentucky accepts the form only as a resale certificate, not as a general exemption certificate. If you listed a number for a given state, read that state’s footnote.
Nature of Business and Description of the Goods
Check the box that best fits your operation: retailer, wholesaler, manufacturer, or one of the other listed categories. Then describe what you are buying. Write something specific enough that the seller can see the connection between the goods and your business, like “electronic components for assembly into consumer products” or “clothing and accessories for retail resale.” Vague entries such as “miscellaneous goods” give sellers legitimate reason to refuse the certificate, because a seller accepting it in good faith is expected to see that the property is the kind of thing your business would reasonably resell.1Multistate Tax Commission. Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate – Multijurisdiction
Single Purchase or Blanket Certificate
The form asks whether this certificate covers a single transaction or serves as a blanket certificate for an ongoing purchasing relationship. A single-purchase certificate applies only to the transaction described on the form and expires after that sale. A blanket certificate covers all future qualifying purchases from that seller, so you don’t have to hand over a fresh form with each order. If you buy from this seller regularly, the blanket option saves paperwork on both sides.
Signature and Date
An authorized person, typically an owner, officer, or someone with signing authority for the business, signs and dates the form. Print the name, title, and date next to the signature. The signature line carries a declaration that the information is true and correct under penalty of perjury.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury Signing a resale certificate for goods you intend to consume yourself instead of reselling exposes you to civil penalties and, in some states, criminal prosecution.
Giving the Certificate to the Seller
The completed certificate goes to the seller, not to any government agency. Hand it over, or email a signed PDF, at or before the time of purchase. The seller reviews it for completeness and then does not charge sales tax on the qualifying items. Nothing is filed with the state. The signed original stays in the seller’s records.
When to Issue a New Certificate
A blanket certificate stays valid as long as the information on it remains accurate and you keep making qualifying purchases from the seller. No universal expiration applies. Some states treat blanket certificates as indefinite, while others set renewal windows: Florida requires annual renewal, Connecticut requires renewal every three years, and states such as California, Idaho, and Nebraska treat the certificate as valid indefinitely unless the information changes.
Issue an updated certificate to the seller whenever your legal name changes, your business address changes, your tax registration number is updated or reissued, or the nature of your business shifts in a way that affects what you buy for resale. The seller can also request a fresh certificate at any time.
States the Form Doesn’t Cover
Thirty-eight jurisdictions accept the MTC certificate: Alabama, Alaska (ARSSTC), Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.1Multistate Tax Commission. Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate – Multijurisdiction
Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and Wyoming have a general sales tax but do not accept the MTC form; each requires its own state-specific resale certificate. Alaska (at the state level), Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon have no statewide sales tax, so a resale certificate is irrelevant. States in the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement also accept the SST Exemption Certificate, which covers 24 SST member states; for sellers in SST-only states, the SST form may be the one you need.
Where to Get the Form
The current version of the Uniform Sales & Use Tax Resale Certificate — Multijurisdiction is a free fillable PDF on the Multistate Tax Commission’s website.3Multistate Tax Commission. Uniform Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate It was last revised in October 2022. Many state revenue department websites also link to the same PDF.