Do I automatically have nexus in my home state?

Yes, in virtually every case, you have nexus in your home state from the moment your business makes its first sale. This is the one sales tax obligation that applies regardless of your revenue level, channels, or business stage.

Why home-state nexus is automatic

Nexus is created by physical presence: having an office, inventory, employees, or other business activity in a state. If you’re operating a business, you’re doing it from somewhere. That somewhere is your nexus state.

For a home-based ecommerce seller, physical presence looks like:

• Working from a home office
• Storing inventory in a garage, basement, or spare room
• Registering your business entity in your state
• Having a bank account or business address in your state

Any of these is sufficient. There’s no threshold in your home state, it’s not “$100,000 before you owe home-state tax.” Physical nexus has no dollar minimum.

What you need to do

Register for a sales tax permit in your home state. This should happen before you make your first taxable sale. Most states process registrations online in 1–4 weeks. Your state’s Department of Revenue website is where you register.

Once registered, you’ll be assigned a filing frequency (monthly, quarterly, or annual based on your expected volume) and a first due date. From there, you file and remit on that schedule for as long as you have nexus in your state.

The exception: NOMAD states

If your home state is one of the five states with no statewide sales tax (Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, or Alaska) there’s no home-state sales tax to collect. Your only obligations are in other states where you cross economic nexus thresholds. Alaska has local tax complications through the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission.

In-state vs. out-of-state customers

Home-state nexus applies to sales to customers in your state. It doesn’t mean you owe your home state’s tax on sales to customers in other states: each state’s tax applies to sales to that state’s customers.

A seller based in Ohio:

• Owes Ohio sales tax on sales to Ohio customers, immediately, from the first sale
• Owes other states’ tax on sales to their customers, only after crossing those states’ economic nexus thresholds

Your home state when you use FBA or a 3PL

If you use Amazon FBA or a third-party logistics warehouse in your home state, that’s still physical nexus, it just reinforces what already exists. But if FBA places your inventory in other states, those become additional nexus states on top of your home state.