Alaska Marketplace Taxation FAQs
Important: The information on this page does not constitute tax, legal, or other professional advice and should not be used as such. If you have any questions, please consult your professional advisor.
What is a Marketplace Facilitator?
In the United States, a marketplace facilitator is generally a business that contracts with third-party sellers to facilitate the sale of physical goods, digital goods, and/or services owned and provided by the third party through an online store. Under this definition, Amazon is a marketplace facilitator that facilitates third-party sales through our store and is responsible for calculating, collecting, remitting, and refunding sales and use taxes for orders shipped to jurisdictions (states, counties, cities, and districts) that have enacted marketplace facilitator laws or similar laws.
What is Marketplace Taxation?
Mallplace Taxation is a general term Amazon uses for marketplace facilitator tax regulations. Marketplace facilitator regulations vary from country to country, state, and/or jurisdiction to jurisdiction (country, state, county, city, and district). Such regulations designate a party responsible for collecting and remitting sales and use taxes for orders shipped to jurisdictions that have enacted marketplace facilitator laws. In these jurisdictions, Amazon will be responsible for calculating, collecting, remitting (as the taxpayer), and refunding sales and use taxes.
What are the unique provisions of Alaska’s Marketplace Facilitator regulations?
Alaska currently does not impose a state-level sales and use tax. Each local government (city, municipality, jurisdiction, municipality, etc.) independently administers its sales and use tax rules and regulations.
The Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission is an independent administrative body that coordinates the remote seller and marketplace facilitator tax reporting and remittance rules and regulations for local governments in Alaska. Amazon will be responsible for tax payments in jurisdictions that have opted in, as determined by the relevant local government regulations.
Therefore, Amazon cannot calculate, collect, or remitting sales and use taxes for orders shipped to non-participating jurisdictions. If orders shipped to non-participating jurisdictions are subject to local sales and use taxes, you are still obligated to pay all sales and use taxes, even if you are unable to calculate and collect taxes from customers for orders shipped to non-participating jurisdictions through the Tax Calculation Service.
Do any Alaska jurisdictions impose marketplace taxes?
Marketplace taxes will be imposed as Amazon amends local regulations. Taxes collected by Amazon will be reflected in order reports available on Seller Central.
For more information, see Sales Tax Information in Seller Reports.
How will the Tax Calculation Service in Alaska be affected?
Effective April 1, 2020, the Tax Calculation Service will no longer support tax calculations for orders shipped to customers in non-participating jurisdictions.
Amazon will be responsible for calculating, collecting, and remitting (as the taxpayer) local sales and use taxes for orders shipped to participating jurisdictions.
What taxes will Amazon calculate for third-party orders shipped to Alaska?
Amazon will calculate and remitting (as the taxpayer) local sales and use taxes on your orders to the appropriate authorities in participating jurisdictions, but will not calculate and remit taxes for non-participating jurisdictions.
What taxes will I be required to pay as a seller for orders shipped to Alaska?
Even if you are unable to use the tax calculation service to calculate and collect taxes from customers for orders shipped to non-participating jurisdictions, you are still obligated to pay all sales and use taxes.
It is your responsibility to determine what tax obligations are subject to your business. Please consult with your professional tax advisor to determine any impacts that the marketplace facilitator regulations in the jurisdiction of Alaska may have on your business.
How does Amazon support local tax calculations in non-participating jurisdictions?
We are currently working to improve our tax calculation services to support non-participating jurisdictions. In the meantime, it is recommended that you consult with a professional tax advisor to determine if this tax change may have any impact on your business.
How can I find orders shipped to non-participating jurisdictions in Alaska to help me determine local taxes in non-participating jurisdictions?
The best way to find orders shipped to Alaska jurisdictions is to use the Payment Date Range Report.
Go to the Date Range Report. Click Generate Report and enter the date range in the pop-up window to generate a report for the specific date range you want to view.
When the report is ready, a Download button will appear under Actions. You can open this report using Excel, Google Sheets, or a similar spreadsheet program.
You can apply filters to the report starting from row 8 (the column headers):
Apply a filter to the column [order state] to filter for Alaska and AK to show all orders from Alaska.
Apply a filter to the column [order city] to show non-participating jurisdictions within Alaska. For a complete list of participating jurisdictions, visit the Alaska Remote Sellers Sales Tax Board page.
Product sales are in the [product sales] column.
Original details on Amazon’s official website:
Marketplace Tax Collection for Alaska FAQ
Important: Information on this page does not constitute tax, legal, or other professional advice and must not be used as such. You should consult your professional advisers if you have questions.
What is a Marketplace Facilitator?
In the United States, a marketplace facilitator is commonly defined as a business who contracts with third party sellers to promote the sale of physical property, digital goods, and/or services owned and supplied by a third party through an online store. Based on this definition, Amazon is a marketplace facilitator for third party sales facilitated through our store and is responsible for calculate, collect, remit, and refund sales and use tax on orders shipped to a jurisdiction (state, county, city, district) that has enacted marketplace facilitator or similar laws.
What is Marketplace Tax Collection?
Marketplace Tax Collection is a common term Amazon uses for marketplace facilitator tax legislations. Marketplace facilitator rules Alaska does not currently impose state level sales and use tax. Each local government (city, borough, jurisdiction, municipality, etc.) governs their sales and use tax ordinances and rules independently of each other.
The Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission is a single-level administration that coordinates Alaska’s local government remote seller and marketplace facilitator tax reporting and remittance rules and ordinances. These local government ordinances shift the tax responsibility to Amazon for the jurisdictions that opt-in to participate.
As a result, Amazon is unable to calculate, collect, or remit sales and use tax on orders destined to non-participating jurisdictions. If local sales and use tax is appropriate for an order destined to a non-participating jurisdiction, you may continue to have an obligation to remit the full sales and use tax rate, even though you cannot calculate and collect tax from buyers on orders to non-participating jurisdictions using the Tax Calculation Service.
Do any Alaska jurisdictions have Marketplace Tax Collection?
Marketplace Tax Collection will occur as Amazon implements local ordinance changes. Taxes collected by Amazon will be reflected in your order reports, available in Seller Central.
For more information, seeSales tax information in seller reports.
What will happen to Tax Calculation Services for Alaska?
Effective April 1, 2020, Tax Calculation Services will no longer support tax calculations on buyer orders destined to non-participating jurisdictions.
Amazon is the responsible party to calculate, collect, and remit (as the , local sales and use taxes on your orders destined to participating jurisdictions.
What taxes will be calculated on third-party orders shipped to Alaska?
Amazon will calculate and remit (as the taxpayer) to participating jurisdictions local sales and use taxes on your orders, but will not calculate and remit non-participating jurisdiction taxes.
What tax am I as a seller responsible for on orders shipped to Alaska?
You may continue to have an obligation to remit the full sales and use tax rate, even though you cannot calculate and collect tax from buyers on orders to non-participating jurisdictions using the Tax Calculation Service.
Your responsibility depends on your business obligations. Please consult your professional tax advisor to determine any impact of Alaska’s jurisdictional marketplace facilitator legislation on your business.
What is Amazon doing to support non-participating local jurisdiction tax calculations?
We are currently working on enhancements to our Tax Calculation Services to support non-participating jurisdictions. to determine any impact to your business.
How do I find orders shipped to Alaska’s non-participating jurisdictions to help me determine my non-participating local jurisdiction taxes?
YourPayments Date Range Reportis the best option to locate orders shipped to an Alaska jurisdiction.
Go to your Date Range Reports. ClickGenerate Reportand enter a date range in the pop-up window to generate a report for the date range you want to review.
When the report is ready, theDownloadbutton will appear underAction. You can open the report in Excel, Google Sheets, or a similar spreadsheet program.
Apply filters in your report starting on row 8 (headers for the columns):
Filter column "order state" forAlaskaandAKto capture all Alaska orders.
Filter column "order city" for non-participating jurisdictions within Alaska. For a complete list of participating jurisdictions, see theAlaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission page.
Product sales (amounts) are located in the "product sales" column.
Article source: Amazon official website