Michigan Sales Tax Guide

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Sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body (state or local) for the sale of certain goods and services. First enacted in the United States in 1921, sales tax dates back to ancient Egyptian times where paintings depict the collection of tax on commodities. Michigan first adopted a general state sales tax in 1933. Since that time, the rate has risen to 6. In the second quarter of 2015, the Michigan Department of Treasury reported $1,858,383 in revenue from taxes on general sales and gross receipts; 33.6% of total Michigan state taxes.

As a business owner selling taxable goods or services, you act as an agent of the state of Michigan by collecting tax dollars from purchasers and passing it along to the state and local tax authority. This is an important point worth emphasizing. Any sales tax collected from residents belongs to the Michigan Department of Treasury. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to manage the taxes you collect to remain in compliance with state laws and avoid penalty and interest payments.

In Michigan, sales tax is collected on the sale of tangible goods and some services. The tax is collected by the seller and remitted to state and local tax authorities. The seller acts as a pseudo-tax collector.

To better understand whether you need to collect sales tax in Michigan, we've created a simple three step checklist you can use to get a better feel for your Michigan tax situation:

1. Do I have nexus in Michigan?
2. Am I selling taxable goods or services to Michigan residents?
3. Is my buyer required to pay sales tax?

If the answer to all three of the questions above is "Yes", then you are required by the Michigan Department of Treasury to collect, file, and remit sales tax.

Yes! At the time of publication, the Michigan Department of Treasury is accepting out-of-state resale certificates.

If you meet the criteria for collecting sales tax (nexus in Michigan and selling taxable goods or services to taxable residents) and choose not to collect sales tax, you will be held responsible for the tax due. As such it is extremely important that you set up tax collection at the point of sale. Attempting to contact customers to collect sales tax after the fact is time consuming and unlikely to be fruitful.

At this time, Michigan is a full member of the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) Agreement.

Michigan is a destination-based state. Destination-based states are those where the transaction location is defined as the customer delivery location rather than the shipping location of the business. As a seller in Michigan, this means you are responsible for applying the sales tax rate determined by the ship-to address on all taxable sales.