Understanding Georgia sales tax nexus determines whether your business must collect and remit sales tax in the Peach State. For e-commerce sellers navigating multi-state compliance, Georgia’s rules create obligations that catch many businesses by surprise.
Georgia’s economic nexus law requires businesses with more than $100,000 in gross revenue or 200 separate transactions in the previous or current calendar year to register and collect Georgia sales tax. Physical presence from offices to remote employees creates immediate obligations regardless of sales volume.
That’s where Hands Off Sales Tax (HOST) becomes essential. We handle nexus analysis, registration in all required states, and ongoing compliance so you can focus on growth instead of tracking thresholds across jurisdictions.
What Is Sales Tax Nexus in Georgia?
Sales tax nexus is the connection between your business and Georgia that creates an obligation to collect and remit sales tax. Once you cross certain thresholds or establish specific activities in Georgia, you’re legally required to register, collect tax from Georgia customers, and file returns with the Georgia Department of Revenue.
Georgia recognizes two nexus types: physical and economic. Both operate independently, meaning you can trigger one without the other. Either creates immediate compliance obligations.
Missing nexus creates significant consequences. Businesses operating without proper registration face back taxes, penalties, and interest, often discovered during audits years later. Understanding where nexus exists and when registration becomes mandatory keeps your business compliant and audit-ready.
Georgia Economic Nexus: The $100,000 Threshold
Georgia’s economic nexus rule, effective since January 1, 2020, requires businesses to collect sales tax once they exceed either:
- $100,000 in gross revenue from sales delivered into Georgia, OR
- 200 or more separate retail sales transactions to Georgia customers
These thresholds apply to the previous or current calendar year. If you exceeded $100,000 in Georgia sales in 2024, you have nexus in 2025. If you cross $100,000 in March 2025, nexus triggers immediately for the remainder of 2025.
What Counts Toward the Threshold?
Georgia’s threshold calculation includes all sales shipped to Georgia customers, both taxable and exempt items. Wholesale transactions with valid resale certificates are excluded. Sales facilitated through marketplace facilitators like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy are excluded from your individual threshold count.
This matters for multi-channel sellers. Sell $150,000 through Amazon and $60,000 through your Shopify store? You haven’t exceeded the threshold for your direct sales ($60,000), though Amazon has separately met the threshold and collects tax on marketplace-facilitated transactions.
When Must You Register?
Once you meet Georgia’s economic nexus threshold, registration must occur within 30 days, with collection obligations beginning immediately. Delayed compliance triggers penalties and potential back-tax assessments.
Registration occurs through the Georgia Tax Center, where businesses receive a state taxpayer identification number and select filing frequency based on expected sales volume.
HOST’s nexus analysis service examines your sales data across all states, identifies where you’ve met thresholds, and handles registration in every required jurisdiction. Ensuring compliance without diverting your focus.
Physical Nexus: Immediate Registration Required
Physical presence in Georgia creates immediate sales tax nexus regardless of sales volume. Physical nexus triggers include:
- Offices, warehouses, or retail locations
- Inventory stored in Georgia facilities (including third-party warehouses)
- Employees working in Georgia full-time, part-time, or remote
- Sales representatives, contractors, or agents operating in Georgia
- Company-owned vehicles or equipment in Georgia
- Temporary presence like trade shows or events
Even remote employees create physical nexus. Your customer service representative working from Atlanta? You have physical presence in Georgia and must register immediately before making your first Georgia sale.
Affiliate and Click-Through Nexus
Georgia’s click-through nexus provision, effective since October 1, 2012, creates nexus for out-of-state sellers earning more than $50,000 in cumulative gross receipts from in-state referrals during the preceding 12 months. If you pay Georgia-based affiliates, influencers, or referral partners commissions for driving sales, track those referral-generated revenues carefully.
Georgia also presumes nexus when you have a related member in Georgia (affiliate nexus) who sells similar products under the same name, uses your trademarks, or maintains offices and warehouses on your behalf. Corporate structures with multiple entities need to understand how related-party relationships trigger nexus independently of your direct activities.
Trade Show Exemption
Attending conventions or trade shows in Georgia doesn’t automatically create nexus. Georgia provides an exemption when trade show activities represent your sole physical presence in the state, you don’t attend for more than 5 days during any 12-month period, and you didn’t derive more than $100,000 in net income from Georgia trade shows in the prior calendar year.
Even with the exemption, you must still collect sales tax on any orders taken or sales made during the event using Georgia’s Miscellaneous Sales Event form. The exemption only prevents permanent nexus registration, not the obligation to tax trade show sales.
Third-Party Fulfillment and FBA
Using Amazon FBA or third-party logistics creates physical nexus in every state where inventory is stored. Amazon rotates inventory across fulfillment centers nationwide based on demand algorithms. Your products might sit in Georgia’s fulfillment centers even if you never intended presence there.
This catches many e-commerce sellers off guard. You might discover Amazon moved inventory into Georgia overnight, creating immediate registration obligations you didn’t anticipate.
Georgia Marketplace Facilitator Law
Georgia’s marketplace facilitator law, effective April 1, 2020, requires platforms like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Walmart to collect and remit sales tax on behalf of third-party sellers when the marketplace meets the $100,000 threshold.
This creates significant relief for marketplace sellers. You don’t collect tax on sales facilitated through these platforms. The marketplace handles collection, remittance, and filing.
Multi-Channel Sellers: Your Obligations
Marketplace facilitator laws don’t eliminate all obligations. If you sell through multiple channels, track each separately. Amazon collects and remits tax on marketplace sales. You must collect and remit tax on Shopify sales if you have physical or economic nexus.
Since Amazon’s inventory in Georgia creates physical nexus for your business, you must register and collect tax on all non-marketplace Georgia sales, regardless of whether those sales alone meet economic nexus.
This complexity requires careful tracking. HOST manages these multi-channel obligations, tracking which sales require collection, handling registration where needed, and ensuring proper filing across all states and channels.
Georgia Sales Tax Rates
Georgia imposes a 4% state sales tax rate on most retail transactions. Local jurisdictions add between 0% to 5%, creating combined rates ranging from 4% to approximately 9%.
Georgia requires destination-based sourcing. You charge the rate applicable to the customer’s location, not your business location. Selling to customers in Atlanta, Savannah, and Augusta requires calculating three different combined rates.
The Georgia Department of Revenue updates rates quarterly, with changes effective January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1. Businesses must track these changes and update systems accordingly.
Managing accurate rate calculations across thousands of Georgia jurisdictions requires automation. HOST works with sales tax software like TaxJar and Avalara, optimizing configurations to calculate correct rates at checkout. Learn more about our Free Sales Tax Software Review.
How to Register for a Georgia Sales Tax Permit
Registration occurs through the Georgia Tax Center (GTC). The process requires your business legal name, Federal Employer Identification Number, business structure, physical address, date you established nexus, and estimated monthly Georgia sales.
Georgia assigns filing frequency (monthly, quarterly, or annually) based on expected tax liability. Higher-volume businesses file more frequently.
The registration process appears straightforward, but mistakes like incorrect nexus dates, wrong business classification, or incomplete information delay permits and create compliance gaps. HOST handles registration in all required states, completing applications correctly and managing follow-up with state authorities.
Filing Requirements and Deadlines
Georgia requires businesses to file sales tax returns matching their assigned frequency. Monthly filers submit by the 20th of the following month. Quarterly filers submit by the 20th of the month following quarter end. Annual filers submit by January 20th.
Businesses with tax liability exceeding $60,000 annually must make monthly accelerated payments equal to 50% of their estimated monthly liability. This prepaid tax requirement ensures adequate cash flow for state operations and applies to high-volume sellers.
Georgia requires zero-dollar returns even with no sales. Failing to file, even with zero tax, triggers penalties and can result in account deactivation.
Returns must report sales by jurisdiction, breaking out state, county, and city taxes separately. This reporting complexity grows exponentially for businesses selling across Georgia’s 159 counties and hundreds of cities.
HOST’s filing service handles all Georgia returns: monthly, quarterly, annually, including all local and special district returns, ensuring everything stays current without consuming your team’s time.
Voluntary Disclosure Agreements: Resolving Past Nexus
Discovered you’ve had nexus in Georgia for months or years without collecting tax? Voluntary Disclosure Agreements (VDAs) limit lookback periods and reduce or eliminate penalties for businesses coming forward voluntarily.
Georgia typically allows a three-year lookback through VDA programs, compared to unlimited lookback periods for businesses discovered through audits. VDAs also often waive penalties that would otherwise apply.
The VDA process requires careful navigation. Disclosing enough to satisfy the state while protecting your business from excessive liability. HOST’s VDA services handle negotiations with Georgia authorities, preparing documentation and minimizing total exposure.
HOST: Your Partner for Georgia Sales Tax Compliance
Managing Georgia sales tax compliance from determining nexus to calculating rates, filing returns, and handling notices, creates a significant administrative burden. Every hour spent researching rules or preparing returns is an hour not spent growing your business.
What HOST Delivers:
- Nexus Analysis: We determine precisely where you’ve met Georgia’s thresholds and identify all compliance obligations
- Sales Tax Registration: We handle registration with the Georgia Department of Revenue, managing all state communications
- Automated Filing: We file your Georgia returns, including all local jurisdictions, keeping everything current
- Rate Management: We optimize software configurations to calculate correct Georgia rates at checkout
- Notice Management: We handle confusing notices from Georgia tax authorities
- Audit Defense: We’re your trusted partner in resolving audits, organizing documentation and defending your position
- VDA Support: We file voluntary disclosure agreements to limit lookback periods and minimize penalties
Through our parent company TaxMatrix, we’ve helped North America’s largest companies manage sales tax requirements for over 25 years. Now we bring that expertise to e-commerce businesses of all sizes.
Ready to Take Georgia Sales Tax Off Your Plate?
Understanding Georgia sales tax nexus determines whether you’re operating compliantly or accumulating hidden liability. Whether you’re crossing economic nexus thresholds, dealing with physical presence complications, or managing multi-channel sales, the right partner ensures compliance supports growth.
HOST combines deep technical expertise with transparent communication and personalized support. We handle the entire process so you can focus on running your business.
Contact us today to discuss your Georgia sales tax needs or schedule a free consultation. Let us handle the tax so you can focus on sales.
Want to learn more? Get our “10 Sales Tax Mistakes E-Commerce Sellers Make” e-book.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Georgia’s economic nexus threshold?
Georgia’s economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in gross revenue or 200 separate transactions to Georgia customers in the previous or current calendar year. Meeting either threshold creates an obligation to register and collect sales tax.
Do remote employees create nexus in Georgia?
Yes. Remote employees working from Georgia create immediate physical nexus regardless of sales volume, requiring registration before making Georgia sales.
How do marketplace facilitator laws affect my Georgia obligations?
Marketplace facilitators like Amazon collect and remit tax on sales made through their platforms. However, if you have physical or economic nexus in Georgia, you must still collect tax on non-marketplace sales.
What sales tax rate should I charge Georgia customers?
Georgia’s state rate is 4%, but combined state and local rates range from 4% to approximately 9% depending on the customer’s location. You must charge the rate applicable to the delivery address.
What happens if I discover I should have been collecting Georgia sales tax?
Consider filing a Voluntary Disclosure Agreement (VDA) to limit lookback periods and reduce penalties. VDAs typically restrict liability to three years compared to unlimited lookback for businesses discovered through audits.
How often must I file Georgia sales tax returns?
Georgia assigns filing frequency based on expected tax liability monthly, quarterly, or annually. All businesses must file returns even with no sales, with due dates on the 20th of the month following the reporting period.
