The Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board has made amendments to the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax (SST) Agreement to revise its amnesty-related provisions. Under the SST Agreement, member states are generally required to provide amnesty for the first 12 months after the date the state becomes a full member state.
Per the amendment, a member state shall provide amnesty for uncollected or unpaid sales or use tax to a seller who registers through the SST registration system for the state in which amnesty is sought if the seller pays or collects and remits the applicable tax in according with the terms of the SST Agreement on sales made to purchasers in all the full member states in which the seller makes sales.
Sellers that are only making wholesale sales in a state which does not require wholesalers to register and sellers who only make sales through a marketplace facilitator in a state which does not require those sellers to register, would not be required to register in those states to qualify for the amnesty. The amnesty does not apply if the seller was registered in that state in the 12-month period preceding the effective date of the state’s participation in the SST Agreement. Except as noted above, sellers that make sales in other full member states but which are below those state’s economic nexus thresholds would be required to register in those other full member states to qualify for the amnesty.
Originally, a seller was required to register through the SST registration system in every full member state to obtain the amnesty. After the Wayfair decision, the SST Agreement was amended and the SST registration system was revised to allow sellers to pick and choose which states it wanted to register in. Amending the SST Agreement so a seller can only get amnesty as long as the seller agrees to register in the other SST full member states where that seller has sales makes the amnesty qualifications consistent with the amnesty provisions first enacted in SST.
Note that Tennessee has continued to provide amnesty if the seller also registers in the rest of the SST full member states where the seller makes sales. However, if a seller only registers in Tennessee and does not register in the other SST full member states where it makes sales, the amnesty is not available to the seller in Tennessee.
Any sellers registering through the SST registration system will want to take the above requirements into consideration when submitting their registration. (Amended Section 402.A.1 of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, December 18, 2020)