Pennsylvania's answer turns on one fact: is the facilitator actually collecting?

The Bottom Line for Pennsylvania eBay Sellers

Pennsylvania gives a marketplace-only seller a clear answer built around a concrete condition: whether the facilitator is actually collecting and remitting on the seller's behalf. Get that right and Pennsylvania's state-level paperwork mostly stays out of your way. A Philadelphia-based seller has a separate city-level answer layered on top that the state-level answer doesn't touch at all.

Pennsylvania's Department of Revenue draws a specific line for a marketplace seller with no physical presence in the state: use only your own direct sales and any sales made through a facilitator that isn't collecting Pennsylvania tax on your behalf to determine whether you've crossed the state's threshold. Sales through a facilitator that's collecting drop out of that calculation entirely, which for an ordinary eBay-only seller usually means never tripping the registration requirement through those sales at all. That state-level clarity doesn't reach the city level, though, and Philadelphia's own gross-receipts tax has recently dropped an exemption that used to shield small operators, which matters directly to a reader of this page if that's where the business is based.

If every one of your sales into Pennsylvania runs through eBay, you do not need your own Pennsylvania sales-tax registration — eBay is the one collecting and remitting. Pennsylvania counts marketplace sales toward the $100,000 threshold only in some circumstances: PA Dept. of Revenue Sales and Use Tax Bulletin 2019-01 states verbatim: 'A marketplace seller with no physical presence in Pennsylvania should use only its direct sales and those sales made through a marketplace facilitator that does not collect sales tax on its behalf, to determine whether it has exceeded the economic nexus threshold.' So sales made through a facilitator that DOES collect/remit on the seller's behalf are excluded from the seller's own $100,000 threshold; sales through a facilitator that does NOT collect are included (along with the seller's own direct sales).. Pennsylvania uses the federal reporting threshold, so eBay issues a 1099-K once you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions.

eBay Collects Pennsylvania Sales Tax. What Is Still Yours?

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

Pennsylvania's own bulletin states the rule for a marketplace seller with no physical presence directly: use only direct sales and sales made through a facilitator that doesn't collect Pennsylvania tax on the seller's behalf to determine whether the state's economic-nexus threshold has been crossed. Read that carefully, because it means sales made through a facilitator that's collecting are excluded from the calculation altogether, for an ordinary eBay-only seller with eBay actually remitting Pennsylvania tax, that typically means no registration duty arises from those sales at all. The bulletin closes by saying it doesn't affect marketplace sellers for whom facilitators collect and remit on their behalf, which is about as direct a statement as this cluster offers. Verify that eBay is in fact collecting on your Pennsylvania sales rather than assuming it, since the entire relief here depends on that fact holding.

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

Pennsylvania counts marketplace sales toward the $100,000 threshold only in some circumstances: PA Dept. of Revenue Sales and Use Tax Bulletin 2019-01 states verbatim: 'A marketplace seller with no physical presence in Pennsylvania should use only its direct sales and those sales made through a marketplace facilitator that does not collect sales tax on its behalf, to determine whether it has exceeded the economic nexus threshold.' So sales made through a facilitator that DOES collect/remit on the seller's behalf are excluded from the seller's own $100,000 threshold; sales through a facilitator that does NOT collect are included (along with the seller's own direct sales)..

Pennsylvania's own threshold is measured on gross sales into the Commonwealth over the preceding twelve months, with no separate transaction count, and the state deliberately treats a marketplace facilitator's own threshold calculation differently from a marketplace seller's. A facilitator has to count both its facilitated and direct sales; a seller counts only direct sales plus any sales through a non-collecting facilitator. That asymmetry is the whole mechanism behind why an eBay-only seller, with eBay collecting on their behalf, generally doesn't accumulate anything toward Pennsylvania's own threshold through those marketplace sales at all, the facilitator absorbs that side of the calculation.

Pennsylvania's 1099-K Threshold

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

Pennsylvania's information-return statute and the Department of Revenue's own implementing guidance are scoped to specific federal forms, and neither one mentions Form 1099-K, third-party settlement organizations, or third-party network transactions anywhere in the documents reviewed for this page, a genuine absence rather than an inference from silence elsewhere. Pennsylvania's own myPATH upload specifications list a small, specific set of 1099 types it accepts for state filing, and 1099-K isn't among them. That doesn't change what you owe Pennsylvania personal income tax on regardless of which forms the state does or doesn't separately collect a copy of.

Buying Inventory to Resell in Pennsylvania

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

Pennsylvania is not a Streamlined Sales Tax member state. Its own Form REV-1220 (Pennsylvania Exemption Certificate) is the required document for a resale claim: box 3 on the form reads 'Property will be resold under License ID ___ (If purchaser does not have a PA Sales Tax License ID, include a statement under Number 8 explaining why a number is not required)' -- i.e. the certificate is built around a PA Sales Tax License ID, with an explanatory workaround (not a foreign-state ID field) for purchasers who lack one. PA Department of Revenue guidance separately states other states' exemption forms are not recognized in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania isn't a Streamlined Sales Tax member state, and its own exemption certificate reflects that: the resale box on Pennsylvania's Form REV-1220 is built around a Pennsylvania Sales Tax License ID, with an explanatory-statement workaround for a purchaser who doesn't have one. There's no dedicated field for an out-of-state registration number the way ND's or OK's Streamlined certificates provide. Pennsylvania doesn't recognize another state's exemption certificate as a substitute; its own form is the operative document either way. For sellers based in Philadelphia specifically, the city's Business Income & Receipts Tax reaches gross receipts and net income both, and its own current guidance states the exemption that used to shield small businesses no longer applies, a Philadelphia eBay LLC owes this from its first dollar of gross receipts, entirely apart from anything the state-level analysis above covers, and apart from Philadelphia's separate Net Profits Tax, which can apply on top of it.

Pennsylvania leaves second-hand dealer licensing to cities and counties, so check your own. Pennsylvania's secondhand-dealer licensing is fragmented by municipal/city classification rather than a single statewide statute. Example: 53 P.S. § 25252 (part of PA's Second Class City Code, applicable only to Pittsburgh, PA's sole 'city of the second class') requires 'every person ... desiring to become a second-hand dealer' to 'procure a license from the director of public safety' of that city, with fees paid to the city treasurer -- a city-level license, not a state one. Philadelphia (first-class city) separately licenses secondhand dealers under its own Philadelphia Code (Title 9). Pennsylvania's Pawnbrokers License Act of 1937 and its precious-metals dealer statute (73 P.S. § 1932, a per-county sheriff license) are further carve-outs limited to pledge-loan and precious-metals transactions. No single PA statute imposing a uniform statewide license on general secondhand resale was located.

Setting Up to Sell on eBay from Pennsylvania

1. Confirm eBay is actually collecting Pennsylvania tax on your sales

   Pennsylvania's registration relief for a marketplace-only seller depends entirely on the facilitator collecting and remitting on your behalf. Verify this rather than assuming it.

2. Form the LLC regardless of how light the state-level paperwork is

   Pennsylvania's favorable state-level answer doesn't change the underlying case for separating personal and business liability.

3. Check whether Philadelphia's BIRT applies to you

   If your business is based in Philadelphia, the city's gross-receipts tax applies from the first dollar with no small-business exemption anymore, entirely apart from the state-level analysis.

4. Use Pennsylvania's own REV-1220, not another state's certificate

   Pennsylvania doesn't recognize out-of-state exemption certificates. Its own form, built around a Pennsylvania license number, is the required document for a resale claim.

5. Track any non-marketplace or non-collecting-facilitator sales separately

   Only those sales count toward Pennsylvania's own threshold. Keep that column separate from your eBay totals to know where you actually stand.

Who to Ask in Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue handles state sales tax registration, the economic-nexus bulletin discussed above, and Form REV-1220. The Pennsylvania Department of State's Corporation Bureau forms and maintains your LLC as a separate filing. If you're based in Philadelphia, the city's Department of Revenue is a separate contact entirely for the Business Income & Receipts Tax and Net Profits Tax, neither of which the state-level Department of Revenue administers.

Sources

• https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/revenue/documents/taxlawpoliciesbulletinsnotices/taxbulletins/sut/documents/st_bulletin_2019-01.pdf
• https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/revenue/documents/formsandpublications/formsforbusinesses/employerwithholding/documents/rev-415.pdf
• https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/mypath/multi-import/employer-withholding-file-upload-specs.html
• https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/revenue/documents/formsandpublications/formsforbusinesses/sut/documents/rev-1220.pdf
• https://codes.findlaw.com/pa/title-53-ps-municipal-and-quasimunicipal-corporations/pa-st-sect-53-25252/
• https://codes.findlaw.com/pa/title-73-ps-trade-and-commerce/pa-st-sect-73-1932/
• https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-types-and-information/corporation-taxes/gross-receipts-tax
• https://www.phila.gov/services/payments-assistance-taxes/business-taxes/business-income-receipts-tax-birt/
• 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.