Your resale certificate number is printed on the sales tax permit or certificate your state issued when you registered to collect sales tax. In most states, that permit number and the resale certificate number are the same identifier. If the paper document is gone, the quickest way to find your resale certificate number is to log into your state tax agency’s online portal, where it sits in your account profile alongside your business details.
Start With the Physical Permit
Look at the document your state tax agency sent when it approved your registration. The label varies by state. You might see “Certificate Number,” “Permit Number,” “Sales Tax ID,” or “Reseller’s Permit Number.” The number usually appears near the top of the certificate or next to your business name and address.
If you’ve renewed since the original issue date, check the renewal paperwork too. Your number stays the same across renewals unless the business entity itself changed, such as a sole proprietorship converting to an LLC. Some states issue a formal printed certificate; others simply assign you a number and expect you to write it onto a blank exemption form when you make tax-exempt purchases.
Log Into Your State’s Online Tax Account
Nearly every state tax agency runs an online portal for managing sales tax accounts. If you created an account during registration, sign in and look for a section called “My Account,” “Business Registrations,” or “Tax Accounts.” Your permit number is displayed with your business information and filing history.
Never set up an online account? Most portals let you create one by verifying your identity with your Employer Identification Number or Social Security Number. Some states also publish public lookup tools that let anyone search a permit number and confirm whether it’s active. Those tools work for retrieving your own number and for verifying a customer’s or supplier’s certificate before a tax-exempt sale.
Pull It From Your Own Records
Even without the original certificate, you’ve almost certainly used the number before. A few places it tends to show up:
- Accounting software. Platforms like QuickBooks and Xero store the sales tax permit number in tax settings or compliance modules.
- Past sales tax returns. Every return you’ve filed required your permit number, so pulling up a prior filing will surface it.
- Purchase orders and vendor files. Any wholesale purchase where you claimed a tax exemption required you to hand a resale certificate to the supplier. Your copies and the supplier’s records will carry the number.
- Your compliance folder. If you keep a binder or digital folder for permits and licenses, the certificate is probably filed there next to your business license and EIN confirmation letter.
Call the State Tax Agency
When nothing turns up, call your state’s tax agency directly. The name varies: Department of Revenue, Department of Taxation, Tax Commission, or Comptroller’s Office are the common ones. Have this ready before you dial:
- Your business’s legal name exactly as it appears on the registration, not a trade name or DBA.
- The EIN or SSN tied to the account.
- The name of the owner or officer authorized on the account.
- The business address on file with the state.
If you can give the representative the approximate date you first applied, that helps narrow the search. Once your identity checks out, most agencies will confirm the number over the phone in a few minutes.
Don’t Confuse It With Your EIN
A resale certificate number and an Employer Identification Number are not the same thing, and mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes on exemption forms. Your EIN is a federal number issued by the IRS to identify your business for income tax, payroll, and other federal purposes.1Internal Revenue Service. Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN) Your resale certificate number is state-issued and ties to your authority to collect sales tax and buy inventory tax-free.
The two don’t even share a format. An EIN follows a XX-XXXXXXX pattern, while state permit numbers vary widely in length and structure. When a supplier asks for your “resale number” or “exemption certificate,” they want the state-issued number. Giving them your EIN won’t satisfy the requirement and will hold up your order.
One more identifier is worth knowing if you sell across state lines. Businesses that register through the Streamlined Sales Tax Registration System receive a nine-character Streamlined Sales Tax ID that starts with “S.” You can use the SSTID when communicating with any Streamlined member state, though most states will also assign you a separate state-specific permit number for filing returns.2Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board. FAQs – About Registrations
If You’ve Checked Everywhere and There’s No Number
If nothing turns up in any of these places, you may never have registered. Buying inventory without a resale certificate means you’ve been paying sales tax on purchases you shouldn’t have paid it on, assuming the goods were resold to customers. Registering with your state’s tax agency fixes that going forward. Most states let you apply online in a few minutes, though the formal permit can take a couple of weeks to arrive.
Businesses selling in multiple states can save time with the Streamlined Sales Tax Registration System, which handles registration in any or all of the 24 member states through a single free application.3Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board. Sales Tax Registration SSTRS One boundary to be aware of: if you only operate in Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, or Oregon, there is no resale certificate to find because those states don’t levy a state sales tax.