Montana has no state sales tax, and nothing standing behind it either.

The Bottom Line for Montana eBay Sellers

Montana is about as simple as this cluster gets: no state sales tax, no economic-nexus threshold, no resale-certificate mechanism, and, unlike a few of its fellow no-sales-tax states, no separate gross-receipts or business-activity tax standing behind that gap. An LLC here does the same job it does everywhere else in this cluster: it moves liability from you personally to the entity. It just isn't competing with a parallel state tax question the way it would in a state that runs a business-activity tax instead of a sales tax.

Montana never adopted a general sales or use tax, so there's no Wayfair-style economic-nexus regime, no facilitator-collection rule, and no resale-certificate paperwork to track, several sections of the more elaborate discussion this cluster runs in sales-tax states simply don't apply. What sets Montana apart from some of its no-sales-tax peers is that it also has no standalone business-activity tax filling that gap: no revenue-based levy measured on destination sales, no enterprise tax measured on compensation and dividends. The Department of Revenue's own published index of business taxes lists only industry-specific levies (contractors, coal, metal mines), none of which reaches an ordinary reseller of consumer goods.

Montana has no statewide sales tax, so there is no state-level registration to hold. Local rules can still reach you. Montana has no statewide sales tax and so no remote-seller threshold to cross. Montana uses the federal reporting threshold, so eBay issues a 1099-K once you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions.

eBay Collects Montana Sales Tax. What Is Still Yours?

Montana has no statewide sales tax, so there is no state-level registration to hold. Local rules can still reach you.

There's no state sales-tax permit question to answer, because Montana doesn't operate a state sales tax for one to attach to. That single fact resolves what would otherwise be several separate sections in most other states in this cluster: no registration threshold, no marketplace-facilitator exception to qualify for, no resale certificate to present to a supplier. An eBay seller shipping from Montana doesn't need to revisit this question the way a seller in a sales-tax state would if they added a second sales channel, since there's no state sales-tax regime for a second channel to trigger.

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

Montana has no statewide sales tax and so no remote-seller threshold to cross.

Because there's no state sales tax, there's no economic-nexus threshold measuring your Montana sales, and no facilitated-versus-direct distinction to draw the way most of this cluster does. This is a genuine structural gap, not an exemption a seller has to qualify for. It simply isn't a live question for a Montana-based eBay business the way it's almost everywhere else covered in this cluster.

Montana's 1099-K Threshold

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

Montana's own guidance on 1099 filing ties itself to federal due dates and federal forms without laying out an independent state dollar or transaction figure for third-party settlement organizations like eBay. The state's practice is to follow the federal government's own filing calendar for these forms rather than run a separate state-specific test. So the federal threshold is doing all the practical work here; Montana simply isn't adding anything underneath it. When the form does arrive, it's still reporting gross payment volume rather than your actual profit, and reconciling that against fees, refunds and cost of goods is worth doing inside your LLC's own books regardless of which state you're in.

Buying Inventory to Resell in Montana

Montana has no statewide sales tax, so there is no resale certificate to present.

Montana is one of the states with no general state or local sales/use tax, so there is no resale-certificate mechanism at all - an eBay seller sourcing inventory simply pays no sales tax on the purchase regardless of registration anywhere.

With no state sales tax, Montana has no resale-certificate framework for a wholesale supplier to check against. That question genuinely doesn't come up the way it does almost everywhere else in this cluster. On secondhand goods, Montana's only licensing statute in this space ties itself to lending against collateral, the classic pawnbroker arrangement, not to outright buying and reselling merchandise without a loan component. No broader Montana statute reaching general secondhand-goods resale could be found, so a reseller flipping thrifted or estate-sale inventory isn't layering a state licensing requirement on top of anything else here.

Montana has no statewide second-hand dealer licence reaching general resale. MCA 31-1-401 licenses the combined 'pawnbroker or junk dealer' business, but the licensed activity as defined by the statute's own operative text is 'receiving goods pawned or in pledge for loans at any rate of interest above 10% a year' - i.e. the license attaches to pawn-loan lending, not to outright buying and reselling used merchandise without a loan component. No separate Montana statute reaching general secondhand-goods resale (buy-and-resell, no lending) was located, so under the scoping rule this pawnbroker/junk-dealer carve-out is 'none' rather than a general license.

Setting Up to Sell on eBay from Montana

1. Confirm you've no state sales-tax question to answer

   Montana has no state sales tax, so there's no permit, threshold, or resale certificate to track the way there would be almost anywhere else in this cluster.

2. Form the LLC for the same liability reasons it matters everywhere

   Montana's lighter tax paperwork doesn't change the underlying case for separating personal and business liability once you're running a real eBay operation.

3. Rule out Montana's narrow industry taxes rather than assume they apply

   The state's business-activity taxes are scoped to contractors, coal, and metal mines, none of which reaches an ordinary reseller, but confirm that stays true if your business ever changes shape.

4. Track your federal 1099-K exposure since Montana adds nothing underneath it

   Montana follows the federal filing calendar with no separate state figure, so the federal threshold is the only number actually governing when eBay reports your activity.

5. Revisit the secondhand-dealer question only if you start lending against collateral

   Montana's only licensing statute in this space is a pawnbroker law tied to lending, not outright resale, so ordinary buy-and-resell activity stays outside it.

Who to Ask in Montana

The Montana Department of Revenue is the office for anything involving the state's actual tax types, corporate income tax, the narrow industry-specific levies, and 1099 filing questions, and its published index is thorough enough to confirm what does and doesn't apply to an eBay reseller. The Montana Secretary of State's office is where your LLC itself is filed and maintained. Neither office administers a secondhand-dealer license for general resale, since Montana's only statute in that space is scoped to pawnbroking specifically.

Sources

• https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/
• https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/withholding-tax/1099-without-withholding-due-dates
• https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0310/chapter_0010/part_0040/section_0010/0310-0010-0040-0010.html
• https://mtrevenue.gov/taxes/
• https://mtrevenue.gov/taxes/general-sales-tax
• 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.