North Carolina Marketplace Facilitators

Last Updated on September 5, 2024

On Nov. 6, 2019, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed Senate Bill 557 requiring market facilitators to calculate, collect, and remit sales tax on their third-party sellers’ sales starting February 1, 2020.  A marketplace facilitator will have established nexus in North Carolina when they have gross sales in excess of $100,000; or have 200 or more separate transactions.  A marketplace facilitator that meets these economic nexus thresholds must register with the North Carolina Department of Revenue; and collect and remit sales and use taxes. 

A “marketplace facilitator” is a person that, directly or indirectly and whether through one or more affiliates, does both of the following:

• lists or otherwise makes available for sale a marketplace seller’s items through a marketplace owned or operated by the marketplace facilitator; and
• does one or more of the following: (1) collects the sales price or purchase price of a marketplace seller’s items or otherwise processes payment; (2) makes payment processing services available to purchasers for the sale of a marketplace seller’s items.

A “marketplace-facilitated sale” is the sale of an item by a marketplace facilitator on behalf of a marketplace seller that occurs through a marketplace.

A “marketplace” is a physical or electronic place, forum, platform, application, or other method by which a marketplace seller sells or offers to sell items, the delivery of or first use of which is sourced to North Carolina.