Virginia's state tax answer is clean. Your city or county may have a different one.

The Bottom Line for Virginia eBay Sellers

Virginia's state-level rules treat a marketplace-only eBay seller well: no independent sales-tax registration, and marketplace sales excluded from the seller's own economic-nexus math. What the state answer leaves out is local: many Virginia cities and counties run a gross-receipts business license tax that can reach a home-based LLC regardless of how clean the state picture looks.

Virginia Tax's own guidance is direct: a seller whose Virginia sales all run through a marketplace facilitator isn't required to register, and a marketplace seller's own economic-nexus threshold is measured only on direct sales made outside the facilitator's platform. Neither of those state-level rules changes with an LLC. But Virginia's business-license tax, commonly known by its old acronym, is a local levy administered by individual cities and counties, not the state, and Virginia's own code defines a person's residence as a definite place of business when no other location exists, which describes most home-based eBay LLCs. Localities do have gross-receipts floors below which the actual license tax isn't imposed, but those floors don't apply to the flat license fee some jurisdictions charge, and there's no floor at all in Virginia's smallest localities. Whether this applies to you depends on your specific city or county's ordinance, which the state's own guidance won't tell you.

If every one of your sales into Virginia runs through eBay, you do not need your own Virginia sales-tax registration — eBay is the one collecting and remitting. Virginia excludes marketplace-facilitated sales when measuring your own $100,000 or 200 transactions threshold — your eBay sales do not count against it. Virginia sets its own 1099-K threshold at $600, well below the federal $20,000 and 200 transactions — so a Virginia seller can get a 1099-K on volume that would trigger nothing federally.

eBay Collects Virginia Sales Tax. What Is Still Yours?

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

Virginia Tax's current guidance is unconditional on this point: if all of your Virginia sales run through a marketplace facilitator's platform, you're considered a marketplace seller and don't need to register to collect Virginia sales tax, because the facilitator is responsible for that tax. That relief holds regardless of your sales volume, as long as every Virginia sale genuinely goes through the marketplace. It says nothing about the local business-license question addressed elsewhere on this page, which is a separate, locality-administered obligation.

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

Virginia excludes marketplace-facilitated sales when measuring your own $100,000 or 200 transactions threshold — your eBay sales do not count against it.

Virginia's guidance draws the same distinction other favorable states do, but states it in unusually direct language: a marketplace seller's own registration threshold is based on direct sales made outside the marketplace facilitator's platform, not on combined sales including what eBay facilitates. A seller with no non-eBay Virginia sales effectively has nothing counting toward that threshold. This is specifically about the state economic-nexus test for sales-tax registration. It doesn't speak to the local business-license question, which uses a completely different measure and a completely different administering authority.

Virginia's 1099-K Threshold

Virginia sets its own 1099-K threshold at $600, well below the federal $20,000 and 200 transactions — so a Virginia seller can get a 1099-K on volume that would trigger nothing federally.

Virginia's published guidance hasn't been refreshed since a 2025 federal law change, and the state ties its figure to that same federal number. That means this threshold may move once Virginia updates its guidance, so it's worth re-checking before relying on it.

Virginia sets its own dollar figure for state 1099-K duplicate filing rather than simply deferring to the federal number, and Virginia Tax's current live guidance still states that figure plainly. That said, Virginia's own bulletin ties this figure to a federal reference point that a 2025 federal law changed, and the Department hasn't visibly refreshed its guidance since. Treat Virginia's currently published figure as its last stated position rather than a fully settled 2026 number, and confirm directly with Virginia Tax before assuming it hasn't moved.

Buying Inventory to Resell in Virginia

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

Virginia Tax Commissioner Ruling 97-329 states plainly that sellers may accept Virginia's Form ST-10 'that references the out-of-state registration number of the buyer,' and further that 'resale certificates issued by other states' are acceptable 'if they contain the same information found on the Virginia Form ST-10.' No Virginia registration is required.

Virginia's Tax Commissioner has ruled directly on this: a seller may either complete Virginia's own resale certificate referencing their out-of-state registration number, or present a resale certificate issued by another state outright, as long as it carries equivalent information. Either path avoids the need to register in Virginia just to buy for resale here, and a Virginia wholesaler asking for proof of resale intent should accept either form without pushing an in-state registration as a precondition. On secondhand goods, Virginia's only statewide dealer statute is the Precious Metals Dealers Act, which is scoped narrowly to secondhand precious metals and gems and administered locally by county, not by a state agency, an eBay reseller of general used merchandise, electronics, or collectibles sits outside that category entirely and isn't layering a state license on top of the tax and local-license questions above.

Virginia has no statewide second-hand dealer licence reaching general resale. Virginia's only statewide secondhand-goods-adjacent statute located, the Precious Metals Dealers Act (Va. Code § 54.1-4100 et seq.), was read directly on Virginia's official code portal. Its 'Dealer' definition covers only a person 'engaged in purchasing secondhand precious metals or gems; removing precious metals or gems from manufactured articles; or buying, selling precious metals or gems removed from manufactured articles' -- explicitly excluding ordinary retail trade-ins and general secondhand goods. The chapter is also codified under the Title 54.1 subtitle 'Occupations Regulated by Local Governing Bodies,' confirming permits are issued locally (e.g., by county), not by a state agency. No separate Virginia statute reaching general resale of ordinary used goods (electronics, clothing, collectibles) was found, so this is coded 'none' per the precious-metals carve-out rule.

Setting Up to Sell on eBay from Virginia

1. Check your own locality's business-license ordinance

   This is the finding Virginia's state guidance doesn't surface. A home-based LLC generally counts as having a definite place of business in its own locality, so contact your city or county's Commissioner of the Revenue directly.

2. Confirm your marketplace-only status keeps you out of state registration

   Virginia's guidance is unconditional for a seller whose Virginia sales all run through eBay. No state registration is required on that basis alone.

3. Form the LLC before the local license question becomes urgent

   Whatever your locality decides about the business-license tax, having the entity in place first gives you a clean structure to register it under rather than adding one later.

4. Use Virginia's out-of-state resale pathway for wholesale purchases here

   A Virginia Tax Commissioner ruling confirms either Virginia's own form referencing your home-state number, or another state's resale certificate outright, works without Virginia registration.

5. Re-confirm Virginia's 1099-K figure directly with the Department

   Virginia's published figure is tied to a federal reference point that recently moved, and the Department's guidance hasn't visibly caught up. Don't treat the current published number as permanently settled.

Who to Ask in Virginia

Virginia Tax administers the state-level sales-tax and 1099-K questions this page covers. The local business-license tax, by contrast, is administered by your own city, county, or town's Commissioner of the Revenue, not by Virginia Tax, so rates, floors, and even whether a locality imposes the tax at all vary by jurisdiction. Check with your specific locality directly rather than assuming the state's silence on the topic means nothing applies. The Virginia State Corporation Commission is the office that forms and maintains your LLC, and neither office automatically notifies the other when you file with it.

Sources

• https://www.tax.virginia.gov/remote-sellers-marketplace-facilitators-economic-nexus
• https://www.tax.virginia.gov/withholding-tax
• https://www.tax.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/tb-20-10-virginia-1099-k-filing-requirements.pdf
• https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/58.1-472/
• https://www.tax.virginia.gov/laws-rules-decisions/rulings-tax-commissioner/97-329
• https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/54.1-4100/
• https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title58.1/chapter37/section58.1-3703/
• https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title58.1/chapter37/section58.1-3700.1/
• https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title58.1/chapter37/section58.1-3703.1/
• https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title58.1/chapter37/section58.1-3706/
• 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.