Do marketplace sales count toward my nexus threshold?

In most states, yes. Marketplace-facilitated sales count toward your economic nexus threshold even when the marketplace (Amazon, Etsy, Walmart) collects and remits the tax on your behalf. Reaching $100K in Amazon sales into a state gives you economic nexus there, creating a registration obligation for your direct-channel sales in that state even though Amazon handled the collection on the Amazon transactions.

Why marketplace sales count toward your threshold

The threshold measures your economic activity in a state (how significant your presence is) not your collection obligation on any single transaction. States set thresholds to determine which sellers are large enough to participate in the compliance system. Amazon’s collection on your behalf doesn’t change the fact that you made those sales into the state.

Most states that enacted marketplace facilitator laws explicitly addressed this: the statute language includes something like “all sales into the state, including sales facilitated by a marketplace facilitator, count toward the threshold.”

States where marketplace sales may not count

A minority of states have taken the position that only direct sales count toward the seller’s threshold, essentially arguing that the marketplace facilitator’s sales belong to the marketplace, not the seller, for threshold purposes. This interpretation was more common in 2019–2021 and has become less common as states have clarified their statutes.

Before assuming a state excludes marketplace sales from your threshold, verify the current rule directly with that state’s Department of Revenue. Rules that were accurate two years ago may have changed.

What this means if you sell on Amazon and Shopify

If you have combined sales (Amazon + Shopify) into a state that cross $100K:

• Amazon covers collection on Amazon transactions, you owe nothing extra on those
• Your Shopify sales in that state are your collection obligation
• You need to register in that state and collect on your Shopify sales, even if they’re small

Sellers who only track Shopify revenue when assessing nexus routinely miss states where Amazon volume has already pushed them over the threshold.

How to track this correctly

Run a combined-channel audit at least annually. Pull your sales by state across every channel (Amazon Seller Central, Shopify, Etsy, your ERP) aggregate them, and compare against each state’s threshold.

For most mid-market sellers, this means checking 10–20 states where you have meaningful volume. The states most likely to catch you by surprise are the ones where Amazon volume is large relative to your Shopify footprint.

If you use a sales tax platform, it should track this for you automatically across all connected channels. If you’re doing this manually, build a simple spreadsheet: state in rows, channels in columns, total column compared against the $100K threshold (with California’s $500K exception noted separately).

Related: Do Amazon and Etsy sales count toward my state nexus threshold? for the full state-by-state breakdown, including which states may exclude marketplace sales from threshold calculations.