Here at Adafruit, we can process orders for certified organizations and schools which have a valid state sales tax exemption status. This guide will help answer common questions you might have when ordering items that should be tax exempt.

Orders shipping to the following states will be charged sales tax: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Sales tax rates vary depending on location. The appropriate rate will automatically be applied to your order at checkout.

This list is subject to updates

To get sales tax exemption, first make an account on adafruit.com. Then email [email protected] with the email address you used along with a copy of your fully-filled out Tax Exempt Certificate, dated within 90 days, with our information included in the Seller Fields. Once we enter the data into your Adafruit account, all orders placed under your account will be tax exempt. Please continue to use this one account every time you make a tax free order going forward. 

Tax exemption status is account-specific, and will not automatically be available to other accounts for the school or company.

Because we were not previously required to charge sales tax to your location, we probably never requested your tax exempt information, as it wasn't needed. We are not questioning your tax exempt status, we only need a copy of the certificate so that we can link it to the account (or accounts) that place orders for your organization/school and set you up as tax exempt in our internal system. To clarify, we never had you set up in our system as tax exempt prior to this because, prior to 2019, we only collected tax on orders from New York State (where we are located).

This request is due to a Supreme Court Ruling earlier this year:

South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., ET AL.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-494_j4el.pdf

Supreme Court Widens Reach of Sales Tax for Online Retailers
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/us/politics/supreme-court-sales-taxes-internet-merchants.html

There's no way for Adafruit to determine the tax exempt status of your order. Please contact your school or organization's accounting department. They should be able to assist you. If your order does qualify as tax exempt, they can provide you with the necessary paperwork. 

This guide was first published on May 01, 2019. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.