In Texas, crossing the filing line and owing tax are two different moments, not one.

The Bottom Line for Texas eBay Sellers

Texas's franchise tax has a filing trigger and a tax trigger, and they sit far apart. An LLC crossing the lower figure owes the Comptroller a report, typically showing zero tax due, well before it crosses the much higher figure that would actually produce a bill. An LLC doesn't change either number. It changes who's responsible for filing on time once the lower one is crossed.

The Texas Comptroller's own franchise-tax rule sets economic nexus at a specific revenue figure with no physical-presence requirement at all, and 'gross receipts' for that test explicitly includes marketplace-facilitated sales, eBay's collection of sales tax on your behalf does nothing to remove this filing trigger. But the Comptroller's separate No Tax Due Threshold, the figure that determines whether any franchise tax is actually owed, sits substantially higher than the nexus figure. A seller who crosses the lower line but stays under the higher one must still file a report, typically a Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report, even though the tax due on that report will usually be zero. 'You don't owe anything' and 'you don't need to file anything' are two different claims here, and only one of them is safe to rely on once you're past the lower figure.

If every one of your sales into Texas runs through eBay, you do not need your own Texas sales-tax registration — eBay is the one collecting and remitting. Your eBay sales count toward Texas's $500,000 threshold, so marketplace volume alone can push you over it. Texas uses the federal reporting threshold, so eBay issues a 1099-K once you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions.

eBay Collects Texas Sales Tax. What Is Still Yours?

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

Texas's own Comptroller FAQ answers the sales-tax permit question unconditionally for a marketplace-only seller: no permit is required as long as you've received and accepted in good faith a certification that the marketplace provider is collecting and remitting sales tax on your behalf. That answer doesn't depend on your revenue crossing any threshold at all. It's a flat exemption for anyone selling exclusively through a certifying marketplace. The one condition attached is recordkeeping: you're still expected to retain records of your marketplace sales for several years, even though you're not the one filing sales-tax returns on them.

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

Your eBay sales count toward Texas's $500,000 threshold, so marketplace volume alone can push you over it.

Texas's remote-seller safe harbor is a rolling twelve-month figure, not a fixed calendar year, and the Comptroller's own FAQ resolves the marketplace question with a worked numeric example: a seller with sales split between their own website and a marketplace must include the marketplace revenue when calculating whether they've crossed the safe harbor, even though the marketplace is the one collecting and remitting tax on that portion. Crossing the safe harbor only obligates the seller to remit on their own non-marketplace sales going forward. It doesn't retroactively make them responsible for what eBay already collected. This is a separate threshold from the franchise-tax nexus figure discussed above; the two use different dollar figures and don't move together.

Texas's 1099-K Threshold

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

Texas has no personal income tax, and nothing in current Comptroller guidance or Texas Tax Code establishes a state-level 1099-K reporting duty layered on top of the federal one. Texas also isn't among the states the IRS forwards federal 1099 data to under its interstate data-sharing program, reinforcing that the state isn't independently tracking this figure. Whatever triggers eBay to send you a 1099-K federally is the only trigger that matters in Texas. There's no separate state number to watch for, and no duplicate filing to worry about.

Buying Inventory to Resell in Texas

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

Texas's own official Sales and Use Tax Resale Certificate (Form 01-339) has a dedicated field for the 'Out-of-state retailer's registration number' as an alternative to a Texas Sales and Use Tax Permit Number, so an out-of-state reseller can complete the form using their home-state registration rather than registering in Texas.

Texas's own official resale certificate, Form 01-339, has a dedicated field built for exactly this situation: an out-of-state retailer's registration number, offered as an explicit alternative to a Texas sales-tax permit number. A supplier here shouldn't need you to hold Texas registration before extending resale pricing, provided you supply your home-state number on that form. On secondhand goods, Texas's two statewide dealer-registration regimes are both scope-limited, pawnshop licensing covers collateralized-loan transactions, and metal-recycling regulation covers a defined list of scrap metals. Neither reaches an ordinary reseller of used electronics, clothing, or collectibles on eBay. General secondhand-dealer regulation in Texas is handled at the municipal level, not statewide.

Texas has no statewide second-hand dealer licence reaching general resale. Texas's two statewide dealer-registration regimes for used property remain scope-limited as previously found: (1) Finance Code Chapter 371 (Pawnshops), a statewide license from the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner, covers pawn (collateralized-loan) transactions, not outright buy-to-resell activity; (2) Occupations Code Chapter 1956 regulates 'metal recycling entities' and a defined list of regulated scrap/construction metals (aluminum, bronze, copper/brass, lead, catalytic converters, manhole covers, etc.), a scrap-metal carve-out, not general secondhand goods. General secondhand/used-merchandise dealer regulation in Texas is handled at the municipal level.

The Texas Tax eBay Does Not Handle

Texas levies franchise tax, which can still reach you even though eBay handles the sales tax: Texas franchise tax is measured on a margin computed from total revenue, not net profit. A foreign (out-of-state) taxable entity has 'economic nexus' and is subject to Texas franchise tax even with zero physical presence once its gross receipts from business done in Texas reach $500,000 (34 Tex. Admin. Code § 3.586); 'gross receipts' for this test is all revenue reportable on the entity's federal return, which includes marketplace-facilitated sales, so eBay's tax collection does not remove this filing trigger. However, hitting the $500,000 nexus threshold only creates a filing obligation (a Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report, per the Comptroller's own franchise-tax filing-requirements page, plus a No Tax Due determination). Actual tax is owed only if annualized total revenue exceeds the No Tax Due Threshold, which is $2,650,000 for reports due in 2026 and 2027 (comptroller.texas.gov 2026 franchise tax forms page). So a marketplace-only seller with $500,000 to $2,650,000 in Texas-sourced receipts must register/file but will typically owe $0; above $2,650,000 the margin tax applies.

Setting Up to Sell on eBay from Texas

1. Track your Texas-sourced gross receipts, including eBay sales

   Texas's franchise-tax nexus test includes marketplace-facilitated revenue in gross receipts, so your eBay volume counts toward the filing trigger even though eBay is handling sales tax separately.

2. Know that crossing the lower figure means filing, not necessarily owing

   Once your Texas-sourced receipts cross the nexus figure, expect a franchise-tax report to be due, typically showing zero tax owed, unless your total revenue also crosses the much higher No Tax Due figure.

3. Confirm you don't need a Texas sales-tax permit for marketplace-only sales

   The Comptroller's own FAQ makes this unconditional as long as the marketplace certifies it's collecting. No threshold has to be crossed for this specific exemption to apply.

4. Form the LLC before your filing obligations multiply

   Once both a franchise-tax filing and eventual tax liability are in play, having the entity in place before that happens is simpler than retrofitting one onto a business with existing Texas filing history.

5. Use Form 01-339's out-of-state field for Texas wholesale buys

   Texas's own resale certificate lets an out-of-state retailer list their home-state registration number instead of a Texas permit, so don't assume Texas registration is a prerequisite to buying wholesale here.

Who to Ask in Texas

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts administers both the sales-tax and franchise-tax questions this page covers, and its Remote Sellers and franchise-tax filing-requirements pages are the right starting points for a fact pattern specific to your business. The Texas Secretary of State's office is the office that forms and maintains your LLC. Because the franchise-tax filing obligation can apply even when zero tax is owed, missing that filing is the more common mistake than miscalculating an actual tax bill, build the filing date into your calendar the moment your Texas-sourced receipts approach the lower figure.

Sources

• https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/remote-sellers-marketplace-faq.php
• https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/remote-sellers.php
• https://web.archive.org/web/2023/https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TX/htm/TX.151.htm
• https://web.archive.org/web/2023/https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TX/htm/TX.171.htm
• https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/franchise/filing-requirements.php
• https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1220.pdf
• https://comptroller.texas.gov/forms/01-339.pdf
• https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/faq/resale.php
• http://web.archive.org/web/20201205154750/https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/OC/htm/OC.1956.htm
• https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/franchise/forms/2026-franchise.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.