Do I need a sales tax permit in North Carolina?

Before you engage in business in North Carolina as a retailer or wholesale merchant, you must register with the Department of Revenue and obtain a certificate of registration. North Carolina calls the registration a North Carolina certificate of registration. For a seller outside North Carolina, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales in the previous or current calendar year. North Carolina's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.

Sales tax permit · North Carolina

How to Get a North Carolina Certificate of Registration

The short answer. In North Carolina, the registration a business must hold before it makes sales subject to North Carolina sales tax is a North Carolina certificate of registration, issued by the North Carolina Department of Revenue. North Carolina charges no fee for the certificate of registration.

North Carolina Certificate of Registration at a Glance

What North Carolina calls it	North Carolina Certificate of Registration
Issued by	North Carolina Department of Revenue
How to apply	Online or paper
Fee	Free
Security deposit or bond	Not confirmed
Expires	Does not expire (see Renewal)
Several locations	One covers all 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 a North Carolina Certificate of Registration

Before you engage in business in North Carolina as a retailer or wholesale merchant, you must register with the Department of Revenue and obtain a certificate of registration.

For a seller outside North Carolina, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales in the previous or current calendar year. North Carolina's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.

How to Apply

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

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

What It Costs

North Carolina charges no fee for the certificate of registration.

We have not confirmed whether North Carolina can require security, such as a deposit or bond; check with the North Carolina Department of Revenue.

Does It Expire?

The certificate of registration does not expire. It becomes void if you file no returns, or only returns showing no sales, for 18 months, and it can be revoked for failing to comply with the sales tax law.

More Than One Location

One registration covers all of a business's locations in North Carolina.

Local Sales Taxes in North Carolina

Your state registration covers the county and transit sales and use taxes, which the Department collects. Some counties and cities levy their own prepared food and beverage taxes or room occupancy taxes, which are paid to the local government, so ask the local office about registering if you sell prepared food or rent rooms.

More for North Carolina Businesses

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

Frequently Asked Questions

: Before you engage in business in North Carolina as a retailer or wholesale merchant, you must register with the Department of Revenue and obtain a certificate of registration. North Carolina calls the registration a North Carolina certificate of registration. For a seller outside North Carolina, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales in the previous or current calendar year. North Carolina's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.
: North Carolina charges no fee for the certificate of registration. We have not confirmed whether North Carolina can require security, such as a deposit or bond; check with the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
: The certificate of registration does not expire. It becomes void if you file no returns, or only returns showing no sales, for 18 months, and it can be revoked for failing to comply with the sales tax law.
: One registration covers all of a business's locations in North Carolina.
: Your state registration covers the county and transit sales and use taxes, which the Department collects. Some counties and cities levy their own prepared food and beverage taxes or room occupancy taxes, which are paid to the local government, so ask the local office about registering if you sell prepared food or rent rooms.

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 North Carolina 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.

ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_105/GS_105-164.29.htmlN.C. Gen. Stat. 105-164.29, Application for certificate of registration
ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_105/GS_105-164.8.htmlN.C. Gen. Stat. 105-164.8, Retailer's obligation to collect tax; remote sales
ncdor.gov/taxes-forms/sales-and-use-tax/sales-and-use-tax-registrationNCDOR: Sales and Use Tax Registration
ncdor.gov/taxes-forms/sales-and-use-tax/sales-and-use-tax-forms-and-certificates/sales-and-use-tax-registration-applicationsNCDOR: Sales and Use Tax Registration Applications (Form NC-BR)
ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_105/GS_105-469.htmlN.C. Gen. Stat. 105-469, Secretary to collect and administer local sales and use tax
ncdor.gov/documents/fact-sheets/local-room-occupancy-taxes-and-prepared-food-and-beverage-taxes/openNCDOR: Local Room Occupancy Taxes and Prepared Food and Beverage Taxes (fact sheet, 2013)

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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.