Georgia Resale Certificate (ST-5): How to Get One

A Georgia resale certificate (form ST-5) is free. You register for a Georgia sales and use tax number through the Georgia Tax Center first. Then you give a completed ST-5 to each distributor you buy from. The state doesn't charge for the form, and its registration pages list no fee for the number either.

So you won't get stuck on the cost. People do get stuck on the order they do things in. They download the ST-5, reach the box that asks for a sales tax number, and realize they don't have one yet. That's the part to sort out first.

Step 1: Get the Georgia Sales Tax Number

The ST-5 asks for a sales tax number, and for resale you can't leave it blank. So you need the number before you can finish the form. Georgia's tax registration page says anyone the state counts as a dealer "must register for a sales and use tax number and certificate of registration." That applies "regardless of whether all sales will be online, out of state, wholesale, or exempt from tax." So even if every sale you make is tax-exempt, you still register.

You register online through the Georgia Tax Center. You give your business type and address, and choose Sales & Use Tax as the account. Then you add your NAICS code (the code for your type of business) and the people responsible for the business, and submit. The same page says you "should receive your specific tax account number within 15 minutes by email."

Once you have the number, you keep it. Registration "does not require renewal and remains in effect as long as the business exists," unless the ownership or structure of the business changes.

The number and the resale certificate are two different things, and a lot of people mix them up on their first application. The number is your registration with Georgia. The certificate is a form you give a supplier. Our post on a resale certificate versus a sales tax permit goes through why the registration always comes first.

Step 2: Fill In ST-5

Once you have the number, the ST-5 Georgia form takes a few minutes. It's the Georgia certificate of exemption for purchasers, the Sales Tax Certificate of Exemption, Georgia Purchaser, revised July 2022. It lists eight reasons for exemption, and a reseller only uses the first one.

Name the supplier

The top block is for the supplier's details: their name, their address and the date. Use the business name on the account you're opening, not a rep's name or a brand.

Check reason 1, and only reason 1

Reason 1 reads "Purchases of tangible personal property or services for RESALE ONLY." That's the box for resellers. The other seven cover governments, utilities, packaging, aircraft and credit unions, and none of them applies to a wholesale reseller.

Under reason 1, the form adds a line in capitals: "TAX-FREE TREATMENT DOES NOT EXTEND TO ANY PURCHASE TO BE USED BY THE PURCHASER." So the certificate only covers stock you'll sell to customers. It doesn't cover the shelving, the printer or the samples you keep for yourself.

Enter the sales tax number

The field is marked "if required." For reason 1, it is required. The form lists a few exceptions, like churches and scout councils, and a reseller isn't one of them. Type your Georgia number here and check every digit.

Your name, type of business and address

Georgia only counts a certificate as valid if it shows the buyer's name and address, so fill in both in full.

Sign and date

Printed name, signature, title, phone and email. You're signing "under penalty of perjury" that the certificate is true and made in good faith, so read it over before you sign, the same as you would any legal document.

The form also says the certification covers "all purchases made after the date of this certificate." So you sign one ST-5 per supplier. It covers every order you place with them after that date, and you don't need a new form each time.

Is There a Cost to Get a Reseller Permit in Georgia?

Georgia charges nothing for the ST-5. It's a PDF on the Department of Revenue's site, and you fill it in yourself. The registration for the sales tax number runs through the Georgia Tax Center, and the state's registration pages list no fee for it.

The only time money comes into it is when the form is wrong. If the distributor rejects your certificate, they charge sales tax on the order. That makes the order cost more until you get the tax back. The usual fix is to send a corrected certificate and ask the distributor to credit the tax. If they won't, you claim a refund from Georgia. On a small first order to test a product, that extra tax can make the product look less profitable than it really is. So a mistake on the form does cost you, and you see it on your first invoice.

Does a Georgia Resale Certificate Expire?

No. Georgia's page on nontaxable sales says "most certificates of exemption and letters of authorization do not expire." The one exception it names is the agricultural certificate, which renews every year, and that one doesn't apply to resellers.

That's the state's rule. Your distributor may have their own. Many ask for a new certificate every year or two so their file is up to date if they get audited. Some don't tell you when your old one has run out, and you only find out when sales tax shows up on an invoice. So ask their accounts team how long they'll keep it on file, and write down the date you signed.

When Georgia Treats the Certificate as Valid

There's a reason distributors are so careful with these forms. Georgia makes the distributor (the "seller" in the state's wording) responsible for proving a sale was tax-exempt. That's why their accounts team checks fields you might think don't matter.

The same state page says "all sales are subject to sales tax until the contrary is established." The distributor is only protected if they took a certificate from you in good faith. For that, the certificate has to be "fully completed, including, but not limited to, the name, address, sales tax number." It has to be the right form for the exemption, and it has to make sense for the buyer's business. For resale, you must hold "a valid sales tax registration number at the time of purchase" and list it on the form.

That rule has three practical results. First, a certificate with the number field blank isn't valid, even if your number is on its way. So sign the form after the email with your number arrives, not before. Second, a number with two digits swapped counts the same as no number at all. Third, if you use the certificate to buy stock in a line of business you don't sell in, the supplier has a reason to doubt it.

How to Verify a Georgia Resale Certificate

If your distributor wants to check your number, Georgia gives them an online tool for it.

The Sales Tax ID Verification Tool sits inside the Georgia Tax Center under Searches. A supplier enters your number, or imports a spreadsheet of numbers, and prints the result for their file. The page also says what the tool can't do: "This tool only verifies Georgia Sales Tax Numbers." It won't check an EIN or another state's number.

So the tool checks the number, not the certificate. The certificate stays with the supplier, and nobody files it with the state. That means the number you write has to be yours, still active, and typed correctly. To the supplier, a number with one wrong digit looks exactly like a made-up number. Before you send the form, check your own number in the tool.

If You're Outside Georgia, or Your Supplier Is

The ST-5 is for a Georgia purchaser. Two other situations come up often.

If you're based in another state and buying from a Georgia distributor, Georgia has a separate form for you. The ST-4, Certificate of Exemption, Out-of-State Purchaser is for buyers registered outside Georgia whose only activity in the state is buying goods. It asks for your tax ID number and the state that issued it. You also certify that the goods leave Georgia straight after purchase, which they do if the distributor ships them to you. There is one problem with that. If the distributor ships straight to an Amazon warehouse in Georgia, the goods don't leave the state. Check with the distributor and your accountant before using the ST-4 for that order. If you have any other business activity in Georgia, the form says you have to register with Georgia and can't use the ST-4.

If you're in Georgia and buying from a distributor in another state, that state decides whether your paperwork counts. Georgia is a member of the Streamlined Sales Tax agreement, and it's listed on the MTC multistate certificate. So many states will accept one of those multistate forms with your Georgia number on it. A few want their own form, like New York's ST-120, which we cover in our New York resale certificate post.

Multistate Resale Certificate: Which Form Does Your Distributor Want? goes through which form to send where, and the states that add conditions.

Getting the Certificate Accepted

The certificate is only one part of a distributor application, and it's rarely the part that decides whether you're approved. What else they ask for is covered in our guide to what distributors look for before approving a seller.

If you've never filled one in before, how to fill out a resale certificate covers the fields that get forms returned in any state. Those same checks apply when you fill out ST-5.

It's also worth knowing what a supplier charges before you spend time on their paperwork. You can search a product free and see real cost and real stock from the verified distributors in our network carrying it.

Sometimes the form isn't the problem. The problem is that nobody you can reach carries the product, and that needs a different kind of help. You can ask our team to find an authorized wholesale distributor for it, free on every plan, with an answer within 30 days either way.

Georgia Resale Certificate: The Takeaways

• The ST-5 is free, and Georgia lists no fee for the sales tax number. The order is what matters.
• Register through the Georgia Tax Center first. The number usually arrives by email within 15 minutes.
• Check reason 1, resale only, and nothing else.
• The certificate doesn't cover anything you'll use yourself.
• The ST-5 doesn't expire. Ask your distributor how often they want a new one.
• Suppliers verify the number in the Georgia Tax Center, not the certificate, so check yours first.
• Out-of-state buyers use the ST-4, not the ST-5.
• The form goes to the supplier, never to the state.

This is general information about published Georgia guidance, not tax or legal advice. Rules change, and for your own situation you should talk to an accountant.

Get the Number, Then the Form

The form was never the hard part. It's free, it's one page and it doesn't run out. What holds people up is trying to fill it in before they have a sales tax number, and that's the step they skip because nobody told them it comes first.

So go to the Georgia Tax Center, register, and wait for the email with your number. Save that number somewhere you'll find it again, because every certificate you fill in from now on will ask for it. After that, each ST-5 takes a few minutes. While you wait for the registration, you can open a free account and see real cost and real stock from the verified distributors in our network carrying your products.