To get a Pennsylvania resale certificate, register for a PA sales tax license through myPATH, then complete form REV-1220 for each distributor. There's no certificate the state sends you. The license number is the thing you apply for, and REV-1220 is the form you hand over.

People expect something to arrive in the mail. Nothing does. You fill the form in yourself, once per supplier.

Step 1: Get the PA Sales Tax License

Your certificate needs a license number on it. This is where that number comes from.

Pennsylvania asks you to "complete the Pennsylvania Online Business Tax Registration through myPATH", which is the state's own tax portal. The Department of Revenue's sales tax page covers the registration and the license types it issues. What comes back is a sales tax license. The state's guide to completing the exemption certificate describes the number you'll put on REV-1220 as your "8-digit sales tax license/wholesaler certificate ID number."

Some people call this a Pennsylvania reseller permit. The state doesn't. It's a sales tax license, and asking for it by that name will save you a confusing phone call.

The license and the certificate are two different things, and distributors see that confusion constantly. The license is your registration with Pennsylvania. The certificate is a form you give a supplier. Our post on a resale certificate versus a sales tax permit goes through the distinction properly.

Step 2: Fill In REV-1220

With the license ID in hand, the form takes about five minutes. It's the Pennsylvania Exemption Certificate (REV-1220), revised July 2023, and it covers eight different reasons for exemption. Only one of them is yours. Before anything else, note what's printed across the top: "VOID UNLESS COMPLETE INFORMATION IS SUPPLIED." That's the standard a distributor's accounts team is applying.

Pick the certificate type

The top of the form asks whether this covers one transaction or several. A blanket certificate is what you want for a distributor you'll reorder from.

Name the seller

Their business name and address, as they appear on the account. Not a trading name you use in conversation.

Check box 3, and only box 3

Box 3 is the resale block. The state's guide is blunt about it: "You should only select one type of exemption". Tick a second box that also looks relevant and the form comes back.

Read what box 3 actually covers

The checkbox itself is short: "Property will be resold under License ID". The fuller wording sits on the reverse. Item 3 there reads "Property and/or services will be resold or rented in the ordinary course of purchaser's business." If what you're buying doesn't fit that sentence, box 3 is the wrong block.

Enter the license ID

Your eight-digit number goes here. If you don't have one, the form tells you to complete block 8 and explain why the number is not required. That's a real route rather than an apology for a gap. Expect questions, though, because a distributor's accounts team would rather see the number.

Sign and date it

The purchaser section takes your name, signature, EIN, date and address. Given the VOID line at the top, a missing date is enough on its own to have the form returned.

Then give it to the distributor. You don't file REV-1220 with Pennsylvania. The state's guide says so directly: "The certificate is not sent to the State."

Does a PA Resale Certificate Expire?

The form sets no expiry date, which is the short answer and the one most guides skip.

What it does set is two deadlines, and both sit on the seller's side. The certificate "shall be in the seller/lessor's possession within 60 days from the date of sale/lease". The seller "must retain this certificate for at least four years from the date of the exempt sale".

So the certificate doesn't lapse on a date. What happens instead is that distributors set their own refresh schedules. If their auditor asks how old the paperwork on file is, they'll want a recent one. Some ask yearly, some never ask again. That makes the useful question not whether it expires, but how long your distributor will hold it. That takes one email to their accounts team.

It's also worth knowing what that supplier charges before you spend a week 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.

PA Resale Certificate Verification

Pennsylvania has no public lookup where a distributor can type in your number and see a resale certificate, the way a few states offer for sales tax registrations.

What they can check is whether the license ID you've written is a real, active PA sales tax license. So the number has to be yours, current, and typed correctly. A transposed digit looks the same as a made-up one from the other side of the desk.

When You Buy From Outside Pennsylvania

Your PA certificate is built for Pennsylvania suppliers. Buy from a distributor in another state and their state decides whether your paperwork counts.

Pennsylvania does appear on the MTC multistate certificate. Its note on the form reads, "This certificate is not valid as an exemption certificate." That sounds alarming and isn't. It means the form works for resale, which is what you're claiming, and not for the other exemption types.

Multistate Resale Certificate: Does One Form Work? covers which form to send where, and the states that add conditions.

If your distributor is in New York, don't send REV-1220. New York wants its own ST-120, covered in our New York resale certificate post. The same goes for Illinois (CRT-61), which has its own form and its own rules for out-of-state buyers.

Getting the Certificate Accepted

The certificate is one piece of a distributor application, and rarely the piece that decides it.

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 rejected. The same checks apply when you work out how to fill out REV 1220.

And when the problem isn't the paperwork but the fact that nobody you can reach carries the product, that's a different job. You can ask our team to find an authorized wholesale distributor for it, free on every plan.

Pennsylvania Resale Certificate: The Takeaways

• Pennsylvania issues a sales tax license, not a certificate. REV-1220 is the form you fill in.
• Register through myPATH first. The eight-digit license ID goes on every certificate.
• Check box 3 for resale, and only box 3.
• The checkbox says "resold under License ID". The reverse spells out what that covers.
• No eight-digit number means completing block 8 to explain why it isn't required.
• The form has no expiry date. The seller's deadlines are 60 days to hold it and four years to keep it.
• REV-1220 goes to the supplier, never to the state.
• A New York or Illinois supplier won't take it. Use their state's form.

This is general information about published Pennsylvania 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

Most of the difficulty with a Pennsylvania resale certificate comes from expecting the state to send you something. It won't. You register once, you get a number, and after that the work is a form per supplier.

So get the license first and keep the number somewhere you can find it. The form takes about five minutes once you have it. You can open a free account and see real cost and real stock from the verified distributors in our network carrying your products, while the registration goes through.