Louisiana has a real, statewide license for reselling used goods, and an active eBay seller can cross its trigger without noticing.

The Bottom Line for Louisiana eBay Sellers

Louisiana is a state where the secondhand-goods question, not the marketplace-collection question, is what should shape how a reselling LLC operates. Louisiana law defines anyone who buys, sells, or trades used property more than once a month as engaged in the business of a secondhand dealer, and requires a license before doing business as one anywhere in the state, a bar an active eBay reseller of used merchandise can cross without realizing a state law, not just a city ordinance, is now the one that applies.

Most states in this cluster leave secondhand-dealer licensing to individual cities, which means it's a location-specific question a seller has to research locally. Louisiana instead writes the licensing requirement directly into state law, covering a broad list of used-goods categories, furniture, art, tools, clothing, and more, not just pawn or precious-metal items, and ties the trigger to frequency of dealing rather than dollar volume. The application and bonding mechanics still run partly through your local city or parish, but the underlying legal requirement to be licensed at all comes from the state, meaning it applies uniformly rather than depending on whether your particular municipality happens to regulate the activity.

If every one of your sales into Louisiana runs through eBay, you do not need your own Louisiana sales-tax registration — eBay is the one collecting and remitting. We could not confirm whether Louisiana counts marketplace-facilitated sales toward its remote-seller threshold. Louisiana uses the federal reporting threshold, so eBay issues a 1099-K once you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions.

eBay Collects Louisiana Sales Tax. What Is Still Yours?

If every one of your sales into Louisiana runs through eBay, you do not need your own Louisiana sales-tax registration — eBay is the one collecting and remitting.

Louisiana's own Remote Sellers Commission states plainly that a seller whose only Louisiana sales run through a marketplace facilitator isn't required to register, because a seller in that position has no direct sales of their own to measure against Louisiana's registration threshold. The marketplace sales are excluded from that calculation entirely. That answer is about sales-tax registration specifically. It doesn't touch the secondhand-dealer licensing question above, which is a completely separate state law triggered by the nature and frequency of what you're selling, not by how Louisiana's sales tax gets collected.

Do Your eBay Sales Count Toward Louisiana's Nexus Test?

We could not confirm whether Louisiana counts marketplace-facilitated sales toward its remote-seller threshold.

This page isn't able to state how Louisiana treats marketplace-facilitated sales when a seller is calculating their own economic-nexus threshold, Louisiana's Department of Revenue publishes no working index of its bulletins on this specific point, and the state's underlying statutes weren't independently confirmed during research for this page. Rather than guess at an answer the state hasn't clearly published, the honest approach is to keep detailed records of both your marketplace and any direct Louisiana sales, and to raise the specific question directly with the Department of Revenue or the Remote Sellers Commission if your volume is significant enough that the answer matters to you.

Louisiana's 1099-K Threshold

Louisiana uses the federal reporting threshold, so eBay issues a 1099-K once you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions.

Louisiana's own regulations tie its state information-return filing obligation to whatever a business already had to file with the IRS, rather than setting an independent dollar or transaction figure specifically for third-party settlement organizations, a search of the Department of Revenue's full bulletin index for anything naming Form 1099-K or third-party settlement organizations came back empty. That means the federal test is what's effectively driving when eBay reports your Louisiana activity. When the form arrives, it's a gross-volume figure, not your tax bill, reconcile it against your actual records of fees, refunds, and cost of goods before treating any number on it as income.

Buying Inventory to Resell in Louisiana

Louisiana will not accept an out-of-state resale certificate, buying inventory tax-free here means holding a Louisiana permit of your own.

Louisiana Department of Revenue's own FAQ states that to 'qualify for a Louisiana Resale Certificate,' a business must '[b]e registered with LDR for Louisiana sales tax' and that certificates are obtained/renewed through LaTAP using the holder's Louisiana account number. Across the LDR's full resale-certificate FAQ hub (9 linked Q&As reviewed), there is no mention of any alternate path for an out-of-state reseller to buy tax-free using another state's registration or an MTC-style certificate instead of Louisiana registration. This CONFIRMS the commonly-reported position that Louisiana does not accept another state's resale certificate in lieu of its own LDR-issued certificate.

Louisiana's own resale-certificate program requires the purchaser to be registered with the Louisiana Department of Revenue for Louisiana sales tax before a resale certificate will be issued. There's no alternate path found in the department's published FAQ hub for an out-of-state or Louisiana-unregistered buyer to claim the resale exemption using another state's paperwork instead. A Louisiana wholesaler is likely to ask for that registration directly rather than accept a home-state certificate. Layer the secondhand-dealer license on top of that: if what you're buying and reselling is used merchandise rather than new inventory, and you're doing it more than occasionally, Louisiana's frequency test for "engaged in the business of a secondhand dealer" is easy to cross without a large operation. Check your specific parish's application and bonding requirements before that volume becomes a compliance gap.

Louisiana runs a statewide second-hand dealer licence that can reach general resale. Unlike most states in this batch, Louisiana has a genuinely statewide 'secondhand dealer' occupational license that reaches general resale of ordinary used goods, not just pawn/precious-metal items. R.S. 37:1861(A)(1) defines 'secondhand dealer' broadly to include anyone dealing in 'junk or used or secondhand property, including but not limited to jewelry, silverware, diamonds, precious metals... furniture, pictures, objects of art, clothing, mechanic's tools, carpenter's tools...' and explicitly deems anyone who 'buys, sells, trades in, or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person' to be 'engaged in the business of a secondhand dealer', a frequency threshold an active eBay reseller would likely exceed. R.S. 37:1862(A) states: 'No person shall do business as a secondhand dealer in this state without having first obtained the occupational license required by law.' The license application process runs partly through the local city/parish (a bond payable to the city or parish, an application co-signed by local property taxpayers), but the licensing REQUIREMENT itself is imposed uniformly by state statute across Louisiana, not left to local option.

Setting Up to Sell on eBay from Louisiana

1. Check whether your resale activity crosses Louisiana's frequency test

   Louisiana's secondhand-dealer definition triggers on dealing in used property more than occasionally, not on a dollar figure. An active reseller of used goods should assume this applies rather than assume it doesn't.

2. Form the LLC before applying for the secondhand-dealer license

   The license application process typically runs through your city or parish and may ask about the business entity applying. Having the LLC in place first keeps the paperwork consistent.

3. Register with Louisiana Revenue before expecting resale pricing

   Louisiana ties its resale certificate to its own registration, with no confirmed alternate path for out-of-state paperwork. Budget the time to register directly rather than assuming a supplier will accept anything else.

4. Keep marketplace and direct Louisiana sales in separate records

   This page couldn't confirm how Louisiana treats marketplace sales for nexus purposes. Detailed, separated records put you in the best position to answer the question correctly once you've a definitive answer.

5. Apply for your parish's secondhand-dealer license before, not after

   Bonding and application requirements are handled locally even though the licensing duty is statewide. Start that process before your resale volume crosses the trigger, not after a question arises.

What We Could Not Confirm for Louisiana

These pages only state what a primary source establishes. For Louisiana we could not confirm the following, so this page does not answer it:

• whether marketplace sales count toward the economic-nexus threshold

Who to Ask in Louisiana

The Louisiana Department of Revenue is the office for sales-tax registration and resale-certificate questions, though its site's lack of a working search index means a direct phone or written inquiry is often faster than searching online. The Louisiana Secretary of State's office handles LLC formation itself. For the secondhand-dealer license, the application and bond typically run through your local city or parish clerk even though the underlying requirement is set by state law. Start with that office rather than the state revenue agency, since it administers the licensing mechanics directly.

Sources

• https://remotesellers.louisiana.gov/FAQ
• https://dam.ldr.la.gov/lawspolicies/LAC%2061.I.1515%20(Current%20Regulation)%20(2-22).pdf
• https://dam.ldr.la.gov/lawspolicies/RIB%2023-006%20State%20Filing%20Requirements%20for%20IRS%20Form%201099-NEC.pdf
• https://revenue.louisiana.gov/businesses/general-resources/resale-certificate/
• https://revenue.la.gov/tax-education-and-faqs/faqs/louisiana-resale-certificate/who-qualifies-for-a-louisiana-resale-certificate/
• https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=93498
• https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=93501
• https://revenue.louisiana.gov/tax-education-and-faqs/faqs/income-tax-reform/is-the-corporation-franchise-tax-repealed/
• https://revenue.louisiana.gov/businesses/widely-used-tax-types
• https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099k

Federal 1099-K threshold: IRC § 6050W(e), as amended by § 70432(a) of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21, July 4, 2025). A third-party settlement organization such as eBay must file Form 1099-K only if BOTH tests are met for the calendar year: gross payments exceed $20,000 AND the number of transactions exceeds 200. These are the figures for tax year 2026. There is no forward phase-in: § 70432(a) takes effect "as if included in section 9674 of the American Rescue Plan Act," so the same $20,000 / 200 figures apply retroactively to calendar years after 2021 (tax years 2022 through 2026 alike). The $600 threshold enacted by ARPA § 9674 (P.L. 117-2) was repealed before it operated, and the IRS transition-relief thresholds previously announced for 2024 and 2025 are superseded. A platform may issue a 1099-K below these figures, and a state may set a lower TPSO threshold, in which case a seller can receive a 1099-K without meeting the federal test.. Verified 2026-08-08.