Do I need a sales tax permit in Illinois?

Anyone who sells, leases or rents tangible personal property at retail in Illinois must hold a certificate of registration from the Illinois Department of Revenue. Illinois calls the registration an Illinois Certificate of Registration. For a seller outside Illinois, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales in the preceding 12-month period, checked at the end of each calendar quarter. Illinois's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.

Sales tax permit · Illinois

How to Get an Illinois Certificate of Registration

The short answer. In Illinois, the registration a business must hold before it makes sales subject to Illinois sales tax is an Illinois Certificate of Registration, issued by the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Illinois Certificate of Registration at a Glance

What Illinois calls it	Illinois Certificate of Registration
Issued by	Illinois Department of Revenue
How to apply	Online or paper
Fee	Not confirmed
Security deposit or bond	May be required
Expires	Depends (see Renewal)
Several locations	One covers all locations (see Locations)
Local sales tax	Depends (see Local taxes)
Threshold for sellers outside the state	$100,000 in sales

Read from the government sources listed at the foot of this page, last checked September 29, 2026. See the sources.

Who Needs an Illinois Certificate of Registration

Anyone who sells, leases or rents tangible personal property at retail in Illinois must hold a certificate of registration from the Illinois Department of Revenue.

For a seller outside Illinois, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales in the preceding 12-month period, checked at the end of each calendar quarter. Illinois's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.

How to Apply

You apply to the Illinois Department of Revenue. You can apply online or on a paper application. Go to Illinois's registration page.

Illinois requires your registration to be displayed at the place of business.

What It Costs

We have not confirmed whether Illinois charges a fee for the Certificate of Registration; check with the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Illinois may require security, such as a bond or deposit. The Department may require a bond or other security with the application, weighing especially whether an owner, member, manager or officer is or was tied to another retailer that owes Illinois tax or had its certificate revoked in the past 5 years. The amount cannot exceed three times your average monthly tax liability or $50,000, whichever is lower.

Does It Expire?

If you file sales tax returns monthly, the certificate is valid for one year and renews automatically unless the Department notifies you that you are behind on returns or payments. The statute's renewal cycle does not apply to quarterly or annual filers.

More Than One Location

One registration covers all of a business's locations in Illinois. You list every place of business, and the Department issues a sub-certificate for each one that carries the same registration number and must be displayed at that location.

Local Sales Taxes in Illinois

Home rule and non-home rule city and county sales taxes are collected by the Department of Revenue and reported on your state return (Form ST-1). Some city taxes, such as Chicago's restaurant tax, are administered by the city, and a business registers for them and files their returns with the city's Department of Finance.

Worth Knowing in Illinois

Registering online through MyTax Illinois takes about one to two business days, while a paper Form REG-1 takes several weeks.

More for Illinois Businesses

Illinois resale certificate, for buying inventory for resale.
Sales tax nexus checker, to see which other states your sales may require you to register in.
Illinois LLC guide, for forming and running an LLC in the state.
LLC guide for eBay sellers in Illinois, for selling only through a marketplace.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Anyone who sells, leases or rents tangible personal property at retail in Illinois must hold a certificate of registration from the Illinois Department of Revenue. Illinois calls the registration an Illinois Certificate of Registration. For a seller outside Illinois, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales in the preceding 12-month period, checked at the end of each calendar quarter. Illinois's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.
: We have not confirmed whether Illinois charges a fee for the Certificate of Registration; check with the Illinois Department of Revenue. Illinois may require security, such as a bond or deposit. The Department may require a bond or other security with the application, weighing especially whether an owner, member, manager or officer is or was tied to another retailer that owes Illinois tax or had its certificate revoked in the past 5 years. The amount cannot exceed three times your average monthly tax liability or $50,000, whichever is lower.
: If you file sales tax returns monthly, the certificate is valid for one year and renews automatically unless the Department notifies you that you are behind on returns or payments. The statute's renewal cycle does not apply to quarterly or annual filers.
: One registration covers all of a business's locations in Illinois. You list every place of business, and the Department issues a sub-certificate for each one that carries the same registration number and must be displayed at that location.
: Home rule and non-home rule city and county sales taxes are collected by the Department of Revenue and reported on your state return (Form ST-1). Some city taxes, such as Chicago's restaurant tax, are administered by the city, and a business registers for them and files their returns with the city's Department of Finance.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state's law and tax agency say about the registration a business holds before it makes taxable sales, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own business must register: that turns on what you sell, where you sell it from, and how much you sell into the state, and fees, security rules and thresholds change between our reviews. Confirm your own position with the tax agency named on this page before you start selling.

Sources

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Illinois sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so.

ilga.gov/Documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/003501200K2a.htm35 ILCS 120/2a, Registration of retailers
ilga.gov/Documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/003501200K2.htm35 ILCS 120/2, Tax imposed (remote retailer thresholds)
ilga.gov/Documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/006500050K8-11-1.htm65 ILCS 5/8-11-1, Home Rule Municipal Retailers' Occupation Tax Act
tax.illinois.gov/businesses/registration.htmlIDOR: Business Registration
tax.illinois.gov/research/publications/pubs/retailers-overview-of-sales-and-use-tax/registering-your-business.htmlIDOR Pub-113, Registering your Business
tax.illinois.gov/research/taxinformation/sales/rot.htmlIDOR: Sales & Use Taxes
tax.illinois.gov/research/taxinformation/sales/homerule.htmlIDOR: Home Rule and Non-Home Rule Sales Taxes
chicago.gov/city/en/depts/fin/supp_info/revenue/tax_list.htmlCity of Chicago Department of Finance: Tax List
chicago.gov/city/en/depts/fin/supp_info/revenue/tax_list/restaurant_tax.htmlCity of Chicago Department of Finance: Restaurant Tax (7525)

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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC

Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.