Shopify Tax Exempt Customers With a Resale Certificate

A resale certificate is a state-issued US document that lets a business buy goods it will resell without paying sales tax. To sell to that buyer tax free on Shopify, collect the certificate, check it, then set the customer or company location to Don’t collect tax or Collect tax unless exemptions apply. Shopify applies the setting. Collecting, storing and renewing the certificate is your job.

BSS B2B Solution

Collect resale certificates with your wholesale application

Add a file upload and tax ID fields to a registration form, review each application, then approve and tag the buyer. Free on development stores, 14-day trial on paid plans.

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Last updated October 8, 2026. BSS B2B Solutions makes BSS B2B Solution, the app used in the registration section, so Shopify’s own setup comes first and we say where the app stops. This is general information for US sellers, not legal or tax advice: certificate forms and sales tax rules differ by state, so confirm what you must collect with a tax adviser. Part of our tax and compliance hub and complete guide to Shopify B2B.

Key takeaways

A resale certificate is issued by a US state. Each state sets its own rules, and some accept a multistate form (Shopify blog).
Shopify lets you set a customer or B2B company location to not be charged tax. The tax page we read does not mention certificates, so checking and storing them is up to you (Shopify Help Center).
An EIN is not a resale certificate. See EIN.
In BSS B2B Solution a registration form can take the certificate as an upload up to 10 MB. The form’s auto-exempt option marks every approved applicant exempt, so use it only if you check each file first.
On tax-included pricing, a tax-exempt Shopify customer still pays the full listed price.

What is a resale certificate?

A resale certificate lets a business buy goods without paying sales tax because it will resell them. Shopify’s guide describes it as a state-issued document: each state’s tax authority sets the eligibility rules, and the buyer usually needs a seller’s permit or sales tax registration number first. It generally covers goods bought for resale, not items the business uses itself (Shopify blog: reseller certificate, dated April 22, 2026, read October 8, 2026). See the glossary entry.

Validity differs by state. Some states do not expire a certificate while the buyer’s permit stays valid, and others require renewal every year, every two years or when the business structure changes (same source). Some accept a multistate form, others require their own.

What it is not

Not an EIN. An EIN identifies a business to the IRS and gives no exemption. Ask for the certificate as well.
Not a wholesale price. A buyer can have a trade discount and still owe sales tax. Pricing and tax are separate settings.
Not proof by itself. It is a document the buyer gives you. Checking that it is complete, current and from the right state is your process.

What Shopify does and does not do

Shopify has two places to say a buyer pays no tax: the customer record and the tax details of a B2B company location. Both offer Collect tax, Don’t collect tax, and Collect tax unless exemptions apply, where you pick exemptions from a list. Exempt customers are not charged tax at checkout and must check out with the same email as their account (Shopify Help Center: tax overrides and exemptions, read October 8, 2026).

The page does not mention resale or exemption certificates or describe collecting them, and the company locations page does not describe uploading one. Treat the Shopify setting as the switch, and the certificate as the paperwork that justifies flipping it.

	Customer	Company location	BSS B2B Solution
Where	Customers, then Manage tax settings	Customers, Companies, location, Edit tax details	Registration form option, or bulk tax exempt
Applies to	One customer account	One location, set separately	Customers it creates, or those you pick by tag or name
Certificate	None described	None described	Upload on the form, preview, you decide

Three ways to mark a US buyer tax exempt (Shopify Help Center, read October 8, 2026; BSS user guide)

Two limits come from Shopify. With tax-included pricing, an exempt customer still pays the full listed price. If “include or exclude taxes based on your customer’s country” is on, prices are dynamic and tax may drop out of the displayed price unless you set fixed prices in a catalog or market. Test one exempt checkout before you tell buyers they are tax free.

How to mark a customer tax exempt in Shopify

Do this only after you hold the certificate.

In the Shopify admin, open Customers and click the customer.
In the Customer section, click the horizontal menu icon, then Manage tax settings.
Choose Don’t collect tax, or Collect tax unless exemptions apply and pick the exemptions that match the certificate. The Help Center page does not list the options, so check them in your admin.
Click Save, then place a test order as that customer, using the account email, and confirm the tax line is zero.

For a company with locations

If the buyer is a company in Shopify B2B, set tax on the location. Go to Customers, then Companies, open the location, click the horizontal menu, then Edit tax details, enter the tax ID and choose a tax setting. It needs a plan that supports Shopify B2B. Tax IDs and exemptions are location-specific (company locations), so a retailer with three shops needs the setting, and ideally a certificate, for each.

Collect the certificate at registration with BSS B2B Solution

Chasing PDFs by email does not scale past a few buyers. A wholesale application can ask for the certificate up front, so you review a complete file and approve once. For general form setup, see the Shopify B2B registration form guide and wholesale application form fields.

Fields for a US resale application

Field	Type	Note
Legal business name, address	Text, address	Must match the certificate
US EIN	Tax ID field	Checks the XX-XXXXXXX pattern, then an EIN lookup as the buyer types. Certain paid plans. A screen, not proof
State, certificate number, expiry date	Dropdown, text, date	Lets you search records and set renewals
Resale certificate	File upload	Up to 10 MB per file, one file per field. Ask for PDF or JPEG

Suggested fields (BSS user guide and code review, October 2026)

The full field list is in the BSS user guide. Conditional logic, such as showing the upload only after a checkbox, runs on certain plans, so test the live form. See the use case for conditional logic and uploads.

Review, approve, then exempt

Applications arrive in Registration management, where you can preview an uploaded file without downloading it (BSS user guide). Compare the name, address, state and date with the application, then approve. On approval the app creates or updates the Shopify customer, applies your tag and saves custom fields, such as certificate number and expiry, as customer metafields. How the buyer ends up exempt is a choice:

Route	How it works	Risk
Manual in Shopify	Approve, then set Manage tax settings yourself	Easy to forget a step
Form option: auto exempt tax	Marks customers approved through that form as tax exempt in Shopify. Not on the Free plan	Everyone you approve becomes exempt. If the email already belongs to a Shopify customer, approval replaces that customer’s tax setting with the form’s
Bulk tax exempt	Marks existing customers exempt, chosen by tag or name	The app cannot undo it

Ways to apply the exemption after review (BSS user guide, read October 8, 2026)

If you use auto exempt, put certificate holders on their own form, keep approval manual and make “certificate checked” part of the approval step. Do not combine it with auto-approval: the Shopify customer is then created straight away, before anyone has opened the file. See approval workflows.

The Tax Exempt cart module is not a certificate check

BSS B2B Solution also has a Tax Exempt module: the buyer enters a tax ID on the cart page and the app creates a draft order without tax (BSS user guide). It suits ID-based cases such as EU VAT, and for a US resale program it has limits:

It checks an ID, not a certificate. A valid EIN does not show the buyer holds a resale certificate in your state.
The box is on the cart page, not in Shopify checkout. A buyer who opens a checkout link directly skips it and is taxed, and so is a buyer whose draft order step fails.
The tax ID is not re-checked on the app’s server, and the module needs the Advanced or Platinum plan.

We have not verified that a cart entry marks the customer exempt for later orders, so do not promise that. For a certificate program, approve on the form and set the exemption on the record. For EU cases see the EU VAT exemption guide and tax ID validation guide.

Store and renew certificates

Keep the file. The form stores the upload with the application, and the registration list exports to CSV or Excel for backup and audits (BSS user guide). Keep your own copy too, so evidence does not depend on one app.
Record the facts on the customer. Shopify supports custom data on customers through metafields. Keep state, number and expiry together.
Tag the status. A tag such as resale-cert-on-file lets staff filter customers. A tag does not change tax; the tax setting does.
Diary the renewal 30 to 60 days before the recorded date. If a buyer does not renew, set the customer or location back to Collect tax in Shopify.

How long you must keep certificates depends on your state. Ask your adviser and write the period into your process.

Common mistakes

Exempting before checking. Without a valid certificate on file, the tax on an exempt sale may fall to you (California and New York say so in their guidance, see Sources), so ask your adviser how your state treats it.
Treating an EIN lookup as the certificate. A green tick shows the number matches a lookup, not that an exemption exists.
Ignoring tax-included pricing or the checkout email. Both can leave an exempt buyer paying tax in Shopify. Test an order.
Setting the person, not the location. The exemption is location-specific, so a missed location is taxed.
Exempting everything a buyer orders. A certificate generally covers goods for resale, and the Shopify page does not describe item-level exemptions for a customer, which merchants ask about in the Shopify Community. If buyers mix resale and own-use items, ask your adviser.
Assuming one state’s form covers all. Confirm which forms you must accept for the states you ship to.

Shopify tax exempt customers and resale certificates: frequently asked questions

What is a resale certificate?

A resale certificate is a state-issued US document that lets a business buy goods for resale without paying sales tax. Each state sets its own rules, and some accept a multistate form. The seller keeps a copy as proof. Confirm your state’s rules with a tax adviser.

How do I make a customer tax exempt on Shopify?

Go to Customers, open the customer, click the horizontal menu, then Manage tax settings. Choose Don’t collect tax, or Collect tax unless exemptions apply and select the exemptions, then Save. The customer must check out with the email on their account.

Does Shopify check or store resale certificates?

The Shopify Help Center tax pages we read on October 8, 2026 do not mention resale or exemption certificates or describe collecting or storing them. Shopify applies the exemption you set. You collect, check, store and renew the certificate yourself.

Does a tax-exempt customer pay no tax if my prices include tax?

Not necessarily. Shopify says that if a customer is tax exempt but you use tax-included pricing, the customer is still charged the full listed product price. Check your price settings and test an exempt order.

Can a registration form collect a resale certificate in BSS B2B Solution?

Yes. Add a file upload field, up to 10 MB per file, and ask for PDF or JPEG. You preview the upload in Registration management, then approve or reject. Custom fields such as certificate number and expiry date are saved to the customer as metafields.

Does BSS B2B Solution verify a resale certificate?

No. It checks tax ID types such as a US EIN against a lookup service as the buyer types, and the EIN field is limited to certain paid plans. That does not confirm a resale certificate, so open the file and compare it with the application before you approve.

Should I turn on auto exempt tax on the registration form?

Only if every applicant you approve should be exempt and you check each certificate first. Use manual approval, and do not combine it with auto-approval, or the account is created before anyone has opened the file.

Next steps

Write down the states and forms you accept, build the application with an upload field and test one exempt order end to end. Related reading: tax exemption, verify a business tax ID at registration and onboard tax-exempt buyers with net terms. To open the account to new buyers first, see how to set up a wholesale store on Shopify.

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Review certificates before you approve a buyer

Put a certificate upload and tax ID on your wholesale application, then approve and tag buyers once you have checked the file. Free on development stores.

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Sources

Shopify pages read on October 8, 2026. State tax pages read on October 9, 2026. BSS facts: BSS user guides and our code review of October 2026. Not tax or legal advice.