Utah Sales Tax Guide

SALES TAX RATE:

6.10%

MAXIMUM LOCAL & COUNTY RATES:

2.95%

Read this Guide

This guide simplifies compliance with Utah's sales tax code by breaking down the process into four easy steps:

Taxable Goods and Services
Register for Sales Tax
Collecting Sales Tax
File Your Sales Tax Return

Use a Professional Sales Tax Service:

One such reliable service:

TaxJarhelps entrepreneurs with ecommerce sites calculate sales tax at checkout ($17/month)

Which Goods and Services are Taxable?

Determining whether or not the products or services your company sells are taxable in Utah is the first step in sales tax compliance.

Traditional Goods or Services

Goods that are subject to sales tax in Utah include physical property, like furniture, home appliances, and motor vehicles.

Prescription medicine and gasoline are bothtax-exempt.

Utah charges a 3%,reduced rateon the purchase of groceries.

Some services in Utah are subject to sales tax. For a detailed list of taxable servicesview this PDFfrom the Utah State Tax Division website.

Digital Goods or Services

A digital good or service is anything electronically delivered, such as an album downloaded from iTunes or a film purchased from Amazon.

Utahrequiresbusinesses to collect sales tax on the sale of digital goods or services.

How to Register for Utah Sales Tax

If you determined that you need to charge sales tax on some or all of the goods and services your business sells, your next step is to register for asellers permit.This allows your business to collect sales tax on behalf of your local and state governments.

In order to register, you will need the following information:

The business entity type (Corporation; Limited Liability Company; Sole Proprietorship; etc.)
The proposed name of your business.
Date the new business is going to start in Utah.
Date of the first payroll in Utah.
Names; addresses; phone numbers; FEIN's and SSN's or TIN's of proprietors; partners; corporate officers; LLC members and Registered Agent. Electronic signatures required.
The business location(s).
Brief description of the business activity.
Name and telephone number of person submitting the registration.
Forms of payment (Visa; MasterCard; electronic check).
For Foreign Business Entities (Business entities located outside of Utah): You will need to provide a Certification of Good Standing/Existence from the State of Incorporation dated no earlier than ninety (90) days.

Register for a Sellers Permit online through the OneStop Business Registration section for the Utah State Tax Division

Get Started

Fee:None

Expiration:None

Save Money with a Resale Certificate

With aresale certificate, also known as a reseller's permit, your business does not have to pay sales tax when purchasing goods for resale.

Download Resale Certificate

Download the Resale Certificate through the Utah State Tax Commission

Download Form

Instruction:Present the certificate to the seller at the time of purchase.

Collecting Sales Tax

After getting your seller's permit and launching your business, you will need to determine how much sales tax you need to charge different customers. To avoid fines and the risk of costly audits, it's important for business owners to collect the correct rate of sales tax.

When calculating sales tax, you'll need to consider the following kinds of sales:

店销售
Shipping In-State
Out-of-State Sales

Recommended:Use ourSales Tax Calculatorto look up the sales tax rate for any Zip Code in the US.

店销售

For traditional business owners selling goods or services on site, calculating sales tax is easy: all sales are taxed at the rate based on the location of the store.

Here's an example of what this scenario looks like:

Mary owns and manages a bookstore in West Jordan, Utah. Since books are taxable in the state of Utah, Mary charges her customers a flat-rate sales tax of 6.850% on all sales. This includes Utah’s state sales tax rate of 4.700%, Salt Lake County’s sales tax rate of 1.350%, and Mary’s local district tax rate of 0.800%. (include county, local and city taxes only if applicable)

In-State Sales

The state of Utah follows what is known as aorigin-basedsales tax policy. This means that long-distance sales within Utah are taxed according to the address of the seller. This policy applies to state, county, and city sales taxes.

Consider the following example:

Steve runs his own business selling electronics on eBay out of his home in Provo, Utah. A customer living in Salt Lake City finds Steve’s eBay page and purchases a $350 pair of headphones. When calculating the sales tax for this purchase, Steve applies the 4.700% state tax rate for Utah, plus 0.800% for Utah County’s tax rate, 1.100% for Provo’s city tax rate, and 0.250% for his local tax district. At a total sales tax rate of 6.850%, the total cost is $373.98 ($23.98 sales tax).

Out-of-State Sales

Utah businesses only need to pay sales tax on out-of-state sales if they havenexusin other states.Nexusmeans that the business has a physical presence in another state.

Common types ofnexusinclude:

Aphysical location, such as an office, store, or warehouse
Anemployee远程工作或旅行销售代表是谁resentative
Amarketing affiliate
Drop-shippingfrom a third party seller.
Atemporary physical location,including festival and fair booths.

File Your Sales Tax Return

Now that you’ve registered for your Utah seller's permit and know how to charge the right amount of sales tax to all of your customers, you are all set to file your sales tax return. Just be sure to keep up with all filing deadlines to avoid penalties and fines.

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How to File

Utah requires businesses to file sales tax returns and submit sales tax payments online.

File the Utah Tax Return

File through the Utah Taxpayer Access Point through the Utah.gov website

File Online

How Often Should You File?

How often you need to file depends upon the total amount of sales tax your business collects.

Annual filing:If your business collects less than $1,000 in sales tax per year then your business should elect to file returns on an annual basis.
Quarterly filing:If your business collects between $1,000 and $50,000 in sales tax per year then your business should elect to file returns on a quarterly basis.
Monthly filing:If your business collects more than $50,000 in sales tax per year then your business should file returns on a monthly basis.

Note:Utahrequiresyou to file a sales tax return even if you have no sales tax to report.

Filing Deadlines

All Utah sales tax return deadlines fall on thelast day of the month, unless it is a weekend or federal holiday, in which case the deadline is moved back to the next business day.

Annual filing:January 31, 2020

Quarterly filing: