South Carolina says a marketplace-only seller isn't even a South Carolina retailer.

The Bottom Line for South Carolina eBay Sellers

South Carolina gives one of the most direct answers in this cluster to the core question a marketplace-only eBay seller asks: whether any state-level registration applies at all. The Department of Revenue's own guidance says no, in plain terms, regardless of whether you've South Carolina nexus. An LLC doesn't change that answer; it changes who's exposed once you add anything South Carolina's marketplace rule doesn't reach.

South Carolina's Information Letter on marketplace facilitators states, in a footnote worth reading directly rather than paraphrasing, that a person whose products are sold exclusively through a marketplace facilitator isn't a South Carolina retailer, regardless of whether that person has nexus with South Carolina, and isn't required to obtain a retail license because the facilitator is the retailer responsible for remitting tax. That's a stronger and more direct statement than most states in this cluster offer. It isn't conditioned on staying under a threshold, it's conditioned on your sales channel. The moment a second channel enters the picture, South Carolina's ordinary retailer rules apply to that channel specifically, the same as they would for any other business.

If every one of your sales into South Carolina runs through eBay, you do not need your own South Carolina sales-tax registration — eBay is the one collecting and remitting. Your eBay sales count toward South Carolina's $100,000 threshold, so marketplace volume alone can push you over it. South Carolina uses the federal reporting threshold, so eBay issues a 1099-K once you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions.

eBay Collects South Carolina Sales Tax. What Is Still Yours?

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

Read South Carolina's own language rather than a summary of it: a person whose products are sold exclusively through a marketplace facilitator isn't a South Carolina retailer at all, regardless of whether that person has nexus with the state, and isn't required to obtain a retail license, because the marketplace facilitator is the retailer responsible for remitting South Carolina sales and use tax. That's about as unconditional a statement as this cluster contains for the marketplace-only scenario, and it comes straight from the Department of Revenue's own information letter rather than an inference drawn from a broader statute. The condition worth keeping in mind is exactly what the sentence says: exclusively. Add a second sales channel and South Carolina's ordinary rules for that channel apply on their own terms.

Do Your eBay Sales Count Toward South Carolina's Nexus Test?

Your eBay sales count toward South Carolina's $100,000 threshold, so marketplace volume alone can push you over it.

South Carolina's own Revenue Ruling walks through a worked example that matches the eBay fact pattern closely: a remote seller with both direct website sales and marketplace-facilitated sales, where the marketplace itself has South Carolina nexus and collects tax on the facilitated portion. The Ruling states unconditionally that the marketplace-facilitated revenue still counts toward the seller's own economic-nexus threshold determination, even though the seller isn't the one obligated to collect and remit tax on that facilitated portion. That's an unconditional inclusion rule, different from the facilitator-status-dependent approach some neighboring states in this cluster use. Your eBay sales count toward whether you've crossed South Carolina's threshold regardless of eBay's own collection status, even though the retailer-status relief above still applies to a marketplace-only seller separately.

South Carolina's 1099-K Threshold

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

South Carolina's own upload guidance for state 1099 filings enumerates the specific form types it collects, and Form 1099-K is absent from that list, consistent with South Carolina relying entirely on the federal Form 1099-K regime rather than defining its own separate threshold or filing duty. The state's withholding statute addresses wage statements, nonresident seller withholding and pass-through entity returns, with no provision reaching third-party settlement organizations. None of that changes what you owe South Carolina income tax on regardless of which forms the state separately collects a copy of.

Buying Inventory to Resell in South Carolina

South Carolina accepts a resale certificate issued by another state, so you can buy inventory for resale without registering here first.

SC Revenue Procedure #08-2 (SCDOR guidance on resale certificates, implementing S.C. Code § 12-36-950) lists the required elements of a valid resale certificate and states element 5 is 'the purchaser's South Carolina retail license number OR, if the purchaser operates a retail business in another state, the state and retail license number of the state in which the purchaser operates the retail business.' The same guidance confirms Form ST-8A is not mandatory -- 'a letter from the purchaser to the seller or a resale certificate from another state is acceptable' provided it contains the same required information. No South Carolina registration is required for an out-of-state reseller to buy tax-free from an SC seller.

South Carolina's own guidance on resale certificates is generous to an out-of-state reseller: its required elements explicitly allow a purchaser's out-of-state retail license number, from whichever state that business actually operates in, in place of a South Carolina number, and the Department's own guidance confirms a resale certificate from another state is acceptable as long as it carries the same information South Carolina's own form would require. No South Carolina registration is needed just to buy tax-free from a South Carolina wholesaler using your existing out-of-state license. South Carolina's secondhand-goods statutes reach only precious-metals and gem dealers and pawnbrokers specifically, both administered locally but under a uniform statewide scheme; no broader statute reaching general resale of ordinary used goods by an online reseller was located.

South Carolina has no statewide second-hand dealer licence reaching general resale. South Carolina's two statewide used-goods-adjacent licensing statutes are both carve-outs: S.C. Code Title 40, Chapter 54 licenses precious-metals/gem dealers ('any person ... who buys precious metal or precious or semiprecious stones or gems from the general public ... with an intent to obtain a monetary profit'), with permits issued by local police/sheriff under a state-mandated uniform scheme that preempts conflicting local ordinances (§ 40-54-90); Title 40, Chapter 39 licenses pawnbrokers (pledge-secured loans) separately. Neither reaches general resale of ordinary used goods (clothing, books, electronics, etc.) by an online reseller. No South Carolina statute imposing a general secondhand-dealer license was located.

Setting Up to Sell on eBay from South Carolina

1. Confirm eBay is genuinely your only South Carolina sales channel

   South Carolina's retailer-status relief is unconditional for a marketplace-only seller, but the word 'exclusively' is doing real work. Verify your actual channels before relying on it.

2. Track any direct South Carolina sales toward the nexus threshold

   South Carolina's ruling counts marketplace-facilitated revenue toward your own threshold unconditionally, even though you don't collect on that portion yourself.

3. Form the LLC even though South Carolina's paperwork is light

   South Carolina's favorable retailer-status answer doesn't change the underlying case for separating personal and business liability before your volume grows.

4. Use your existing out-of-state resale license for wholesale purchases

   South Carolina's own guidance accepts a purchaser's out-of-state retail license number in place of a South Carolina number, so separate registration usually isn't necessary.

5. Check your own county or municipality for business license tax

   South Carolina's business license tax is entirely local, administered by counties and municipalities under standardized rules, so the answer depends on where your business is actually based.

Who to Ask in South Carolina

The South Carolina Department of Revenue handles the marketplace-facilitator information letter, the economic-nexus Revenue Ruling, and resale-certificate guidance discussed above. The South Carolina Secretary of State's office forms and maintains your LLC as a separate filing. South Carolina's business license tax is a local matter administered by individual counties and municipalities under standardized statewide procedures, so a business-license question specific to your location belongs with your own county or municipal office rather than the Department of Revenue.

Sources

• https://dor.sc.gov/resources-site/lawandpolicy/Advisory%20Opinions/IL19-14.pdf
• https://dor.sc.gov/resources-site/lawandpolicy/Advisory%20Opinions/RR18-14.pdf
• https://dor.sc.gov/withholding/w-2-1099-upload
• https://dor.sc.gov/sales-use-tax-resale-certificates-0
• https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t40c054.php
• https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t06c001.php
• 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.