If you are a retailer making purchases for resale, or need to make a purchase that is exempt from the Pennsylvania sales tax, you need the appropriate Pennsylvania sales tax exemption certificate before you can begin making tax-free purchases. This page explains how to make tax-free purchases in Pennsylvania, and lists one Pennsylvania sales tax exemption forms available for download.
We have one Pennsylvania sales tax exemption forms available for you to print or save as a PDF file. If any of these links are broken, or you can't find the form you need, please let us know. You can find resale certificates for other states here.
Pennsylvania allows the use of uniform sales tax exemption certificates, which are general exemption certificates that can be used across multiple states. You can find more info about these uniform certificates at the bottom of this page.
A sales tax exemption certificate is a form you can fill out yourself certifying that you meet the qualifications outlined for making sales-tax-free purchases. You will need to present this certificate to the vendor from whom you are making the exempt purchase - it is up to the vendor to verify that you are indeed qualified to make a tax-exempt purchase.
The state of Pennsylvania provides certain forms to be used when you wish to purchase tax-exempt items such as prescription medicines.
When purchasing merchandise, it must be noted that there is only one main sort of exemption certificate which can be utilized. This is the "Pennsylvania Exemption Certificate", which is utilized for all tax exempt purchasing procedures.
This form can be downloaded on this page.
To apply the certificate, the buyer must first present the seller with their written certificate, which legally documents the exemption. The certificate should include the date it was created, the signature of the buyer or an employee or agent who signed on behalf of the buyer, both the seller's and buyer's addresses and names, the legal basis of the exemption being utilized, the buyer's tax registration or business license number, and a description of the merchandise that the buyer wishes to purchase.
There is no specified expiration date for most of these certificates, although the ones applicable to charitable, educational, or religious institutions may need to be renewed every three years. It must be noted that the only sales that the any certificate covers are sales for resales, and must also include the buyer's Pennsylvania license number.
Pennsylvania does permit the use of a blanket resale certificate, which means a single certificate on file with the vendor can be re-used for all exempt purchases made from that vendor. A new certificate does not need to be made for each transaction.
Pennsylvania is a member of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, an interstate consortium with the goal of making compliance with sales taxes as simple as possible in member states.
Because Pennsylvania is a member of this agreement, buyers can use the Multistate Tax Commission (MTC) Uniform Sales Tax Certificate when making qualifying sales-tax-exempt purchases from vendors in Pennsylvania.
The following guidelines are provided for the use of the MTC Uniform Sales Tax Certificate in Pennsylvania:
This certificate is not valid as an exemption certificate. It is valid as a resale certificate only if it contains the purchaser's Pennsylvania Sales and Use Tax eight-digit license number, subject to the provisions of 61 PA Code §32.3.
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