FBA prep in the 5 sales-tax-free states costs 58% more at entry.
New Hampshire, Oregon, Delaware, Montana, and Alaska charge no statewide sales tax, which is the reason sellers go looking for prep centers there. The published rate cards point the other way: median entry prep in those five states is $1.50 per unit against $0.95 in the rest of the US, a 58% premium in our 2026 Pricing Index (2026-06-12 snapshot).
So the tax you avoid has to beat the rate premium, and on the prep invoice alone it does not. Here is the arithmetic, and the two situations where a tax-free state is still the right call.
Does the avoided tax clear the rate premium?
An operator will never publish this, because no operator can publish a price above its own. We can. Across the deduped US pool in the 2026 Pricing Index, entry pricing splits like this: $1.50 per unit in the tax-free states, $0.95 everywhere else, national median $1.30. The premium you pay for the tax-free address is $0.55 per unit.
That sets up an arithmetic question with a cleaner answer than most cost comparisons get. The premium scales with units. The sales tax you would have paid on a prep invoice elsewhere also scales with units. Divide one by the other and volume cancels out entirely.
r* = (tax-free entry median - other-state entry median) / other-state entry median
r* = ($1.50 - $0.95) / $0.95 = 57.9%
A tax-free prep center pays for itself on the prep invoice only where prep services are taxed at 57.9% or more. That is the same figure the Index publishes as the 58% premium, which is not a coincidence: the break-even rate and the premium are the same ratio.
No US sales tax comes close to that rate. For scale, the highest state-level sales tax rates in the country sit here:
- 6.25%Texas, state rate, before local add-ons of up to 2%
- 7%Tennessee, tied for the highest general state rate with IN, MS and RI
- 7.25%California, the highest statewide rate in the country, with district rates on top
Worked at 500 and 2,000 units a month
Both rows use 7.25%, the highest statewide base rate of the three above, and assume the most favorable case for the tax-free side: that prep services are fully taxable in the comparison state. Even then it does not close.
| Monthly units | Tax-free invoice | Other-state invoice | Rate premium | Tax avoided at 7.25% | Net per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $750.00 | $475.00 | $275.00 | $34.44 | $240.56 worse |
| 2,000 | $3,000.00 | $1,900.00 | $1,100.00 | $137.75 | $962.25 worse |
Scaling up does not rescue it. Both columns are linear in units, so a 10,000-unit month multiplies the same gap rather than closing it.
Three caveats, and each matters more than the arithmetic.
We are not tax advisers, and prep may not be taxable at all. Whether a prep or fulfillment service is subject to sales tax varies by state and often by how the invoice is itemized. Plenty of states do not tax labor-only services. Where that is true the avoided tax is zero, and the premium is the entire story.
These are entry rates. Entry pricing is what a center charges before volume tiers kick in. The Pricing Index reports volume-tier medians separately. Read those rather than assuming this gap holds at your tier.
Medians describe the pool, not your quote. A specific Montana center can undercut a specific Ohio center. The premium is a property of where operators cluster, not a prediction about the two centers you are comparing. Many centers also charge a one-time setup fee that lands hardest on small monthly runs; the Index publishes that distribution too.
What a tax-free state is actually worth
The defensible reason to prep in one of these five states is not the prep invoice. It is the inventory. As a general rule sales tax is charged where a purchase takes place, so a seller sourcing at retail inside New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, or Delaware is not taxed at the register on the goods themselves.
That is a percentage of cost of goods rather than a percentage of one line item on a service invoice, and cost of goods is the bigger number by an order of magnitude. It is why online and retail arbitrage sellers, not private-label sellers, are the ones who keep showing up in these states, and why Montana in particular is where sourcing and prep capacity overlap.
The usual qualifications apply and they are not small. Use tax can apply in your home state on goods you bring back. Nexus and marketplace facilitator obligations are destination-state questions that your prep address does not answer. None of this is tax advice; take the sourcing argument to a CPA before you build a supply chain on it.
Tell us your volume and we will show you whether a tax-free center pencils out.
We reply within 24 hours with up to 5 verified fits and their real per-unit pricing, inside these five states or outside them, whichever the numbers favor. Free, no sign-in.
Run my volume through it →What "tax-free" covers here, and what it does not.
Five states levy no statewide sales tax: New Hampshire, Oregon, Delaware, Montana, and Alaska. That is a fact about the state, not a claim about any center inside it, and it is the only thing the phrase guarantees.
Alaska is the asterisk. There is no state sales tax, but Alaskan municipalities can and do levy local sales taxes, so the tax-free label is not uniform inside the state. Check the specific borough or city, not the state.
Delaware is the other asterisk. It levies a gross receipts tax on businesses rather than a sales tax. You will not see it as a line item on your invoice, but it is a cost the operator carries and prices into the rate.
These five are where pure-prep specialists concentrate. We currently list 65 verified centers across them, 39 of those in Montana alone. The clustering is not a coincidence and it is not about the prep invoice: it tracks where arbitrage sellers already buy inventory. Montana is the clearest example, which is also why its published rates are not the bargain the state's reputation implies.
Counts below are live and come from the same verification state the profile badges use, so a flagged center never counts as verified. For the complete typed list of every center we publish, tax-free or not, use the full prep center directory.
The 5 tax-free states, compared.
Counts reflect prep centers in our directory that cleared our 4-point operator standard. Dashes mean we don't have data yet, never a guess. The hazmat column counts centers that state they take hazmat; the rest either state they do not or have no answer on record yet.
The nexus argument, explained.
Amazon FBA sellers normally trigger sales-tax physical nexus in any state where their inventory is stored. In a state with sales tax, that nexus typically means the seller (or, under marketplace facilitator laws, Amazon) has to collect and remit sales tax on transactions delivered into that state.
New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, and Alaska are the five US states with no statewide sales tax. Storing inventory in any of them creates no sales-tax nexus in that state, because there is no sales tax for nexus to attach to. That's the entire mechanic, and the entire pitch.
Two caveats worth being honest about: (1) nexus rules vary by destination state. Storing in Oregon does not exempt you from collecting tax in states where you have other physical or economic nexus. (2) Amazon's actual FBA fulfillment centers are not necessarily in tax-free states . Once your inventory leaves the prep center for an FC, it may land in a state that does have sales tax, which can recreate the nexus exposure the prep-step was meant to avoid.
This is orientation, not tax advice. Confirm any inventory or nexus strategy with a CPA who understands marketplace facilitator law.
Who a tax-free state is right for.
Both lists assume you have read the break-even arithmetic above. The premium is real; the question is what you are buying with it.
- You source at retail inside a tax-free state. The saving is on your cost of goods at the register, and the prep center sitting next to your sourcing is a logistics convenience on top of it.
- You already operate in one of the five states for reasons that have nothing to do with Amazon.
- Your primary FC cluster genuinely is closest to Portland, Wilmington, or Manchester. Transit days beat rate lines on almost every P&L.
- You are buying depth rather than price. Montana carries the deepest verified bench in our directory, and most of its operators publish a per-unit rate card you can read before you call.
- You picked the state to cut sales tax on the prep invoice itself. The arithmetic above says that does not work at any volume.
- You ship into FCs on the other coast. The added transit days and freight cost more than the per-unit line you are optimizing.
- You expect a tax-free state to solve nexus. It removes nexus in that one state, and your inventory leaves for an FC somewhere else within days.
- You are price-shopping at low volume. Entry rates in these five states are the highest in our index, and a one-time setup fee lands hardest on small monthly runs.
Oregon
- Salem
- Portland, Eugene
- 4.3M
- 12
- Closest tax-free state to West Coast Amazon FCs
Oregon is the default tax-free pick for sellers shipping into Amazon's West Coast network. Portland sits roughly 3 hours from the SEA and ONT clusters, which keeps inbound transit times competitive even after the prep-center detour. Sellers using Oregon prep centers commonly cite proximity to FBA over pure tax math.
Prep centers in Oregon
View all Oregon centers →Prep Ninjas
Family-owned Oregon FBA prep center run by the Rasmussen family, in business since February 2018 out of a 4,000 square foot warehouse with three employees. Per-unit pricing is public: $2.25/unit for 0 to 299 units/month and $1.45/unit for 300 to 9,999 units/month, with itemized add-ons. Most orders are checked in within 24 to 72 business hours, longer during Prime Day and Q4. They explicitly do not process customer returns or FBA removals and do not accept used books.
Network Prep
Network Prep is an Amazon FBA prep center in sales-tax-free Lafayette, Oregon, founded in late 2019 by Chaz and Trista Leslie of the Side Hustle Network YouTube channel. They run a 5,000 sq ft facility on a fixed weekly shipment schedule with a 1 business day turnaround. Base prep runs $1.00 to $1.65 per unit by monthly volume with polybags, bubble wrap, and shipping boxes included; they also handle hazmat, oversize, and merchant-fulfillment orders for Amazon and Walmart sellers. As of June 2026 the center runs an application-based intake with limited spots (the earlier waitlist-only status has lifted); the operator reviews every application and replies within 1-2 business days.
Snake River Pack and Ship
Snake River Pack and Ship is a family-owned FBA prep center in Adrian, Oregon, a town on the Idaho border. Oregon has no sales tax, so goods bought online and shipped here are not taxed at checkout. The center is built for online arbitrage sellers: receiving, inspection, price-tag removal, poly-bagging with suffocation labels, expiration dates, SKU labels, bundling, bubble wrap and box-content shipments, all run through InventoryLab, which the center requires for its OA service. It also preps for Walmart fulfillment. Published OA rates run from $2.00 per standard unit under 200 units a month (billed per shipment, plus a $129 one-time setup fee) to $1.30 at 1,000+ units on a $1,300 monthly prepay; wholesale tiers drop to $1.10 and $1.00 per unit at 2,000 to 5,000 units. The Oregon LLC was registered in July 2020, and Business Oregon awarded it a $60,000 Strategic Reserve Fund grant for business expansion in fiscal 2023. Cautions: the FAQ says each client's items are processed on a rotation of about every 3 days, longer from May through July and September through December; pallets are generally not accepted; hazmat acceptance is partial: the FAQ takes battery-powered products such as toys and power tools and cosmetics classified as hazmat, but not lithium-ion battery products for long-term storage (its fire-safety answer says it does not store lithium-ion batteries) and not fuels, solvents or corrosives; and the 2,400 sq ft warehouse and 10,000+ orders a year figures are the operator's own, and we could not match the warehouse size to a commercial property record.
Oregon Prep and Ship
Oregon Prep and Ship is a sales-tax-free Amazon FBA and FBM prep center in Sisters, Oregon, family-owned and operating since 2022. It receives, preps, labels, and ships FBA and FBM orders, fulfilling FBM within 24 hours, and also offers bundling, kitting, box forwarding, product photography, quality inspection, returns processing, storage, and multi-channel fulfillment for Etsy and eBay. Published per-unit FBA pricing runs from $2.00/unit (0 to 500 units per month) down to $1.25/unit (4000+), with per-size FBM rates.
Delaware
- Dover
- Wilmington, New Castle
- 1.0M
- 8
- East Coast hub, 90 min from Philly FC
Delaware is the East Coast counterpart to Oregon: small, no sales tax, and a short drive from Amazon's PHL and EWR clusters. Wilmington's port access also makes it a common landing point for inbound containers headed to FBA, which is why several import-heavy prep centers cluster there.
Prep centers in Delaware
View all Delaware centers →A Featured (paid) center is shown first and labeled on its card. Paying never changes verification.
Urva Prep Center
Urva Prep Center is a multi-service Amazon FBA and Walmart WFS prep operation in tax-free Newark, Delaware, running a primary 25,000 sq ft facility at 301 Ruthar Drive plus a 10,000 sq ft site in Bear. FBA and WFS prep is the productized core, with wholesale prep from $1.00 down to $0.55/unit by volume and online-arbitrage prep from $1.50 down to $1.00/unit. Alongside prep it offers FBM and DTC order fulfillment (same-day before the 7am EST cutoff), two-step dropshipping, FTL inbound consolidation at $0.20 to $0.50/lb, shrink-wrap, and a software dashboard. Storage is free for 14 days then $0.02/unit/day. Hazmat is accepted. Because it runs fulfillment alongside prep, confirm scope directly if you want a prep-only relationship.
Zero Tax Prep Center
Zero Tax Prep Center is a husband-and-wife FBA prep center in Bear, Delaware, working from a unit in the Porter Road Business Center on Carson Drive. Delaware has no sales tax. The homepage publishes the full rate card. Online-arbitrage sellers pay $1.50 per unit for the first 1,000 units in a month, $1.35 for the next 2,000 and $1.15 above 3,000, with receiving, visual inspection, price-sticker removal, UPC covering, FNSKU labels, a standard poly bag and dunnage included. Wholesale and brand-direct inventory runs $0.85 per unit with a 500-unit-per-SKU minimum; private label is quoted. Bundles add $0.25 per extra unit, shoes are a $3 flat rate, and clothing, liquids and fragile items add $0.35. Medium items add $1.00 and small oversize adds $2.00. Storage is $10 per bin or $45 per pallet per month after free periods of 30 and 14 days, and the site says clients get ScanPower inventory software at no monthly cost. Cautions: new clients pay a $249 one-time setup fee and face a 300-unit monthly minimum, with a $49 fee in lighter months. Glassware, spray bottles and medium or large kitchen appliances are refused, and items over 5 lb or 18 inches need prior approval. The site has been live since March 2025, and onboarding depends on available space.
East Coast Prep and Ship
East Coast Prep and Ship is an FBA prep and ship operation in tax-free Wilmington, Delaware, prepping inbound inventory for Amazon FBA, Walmart WFS, Seller Fulfilled Prime, and DTC. Per-unit prep runs $0.80 to $1.50 across volume tiers, covering receiving, inspection, UPC covering, FNSKU labeling, and polybagging with suffocation warning. They handle wholesale, private label, and online arbitrage, with bin storage at $0.50 per cubic foot per month and pallet storage at $40 per month. Delaware's tax-free status means inbound products are not subject to sales tax.
Delaware Prep & Fulfillment Center
Newark, Delaware prep center for Amazon FBA, FBM, and arbitrage sellers. Located in a tax-free state for inventory storage. Services include receiving, inspection, labeling, bundling, storage, forwarding, and FBA returns processing. Eligibility minimum: 1,000 items per month for account activation. The operator claims membership in Amazon's Service Provider Network (SPN); verify this independently before relying on it as a credibility signal.
New Hampshire
- Concord
- Manchester, Nashua
- 1.4M
- 6
- Closest tax-free state to Boston metro
New Hampshire is the standard tax-free option for sellers serving the Boston metro and broader New England demand. Manchester and Nashua sit a short drive from the Massachusetts FC cluster (BOS / BWI feeders), and the state has no individual income tax on earned wages either, a secondary draw for operators who relocate.
Prep centers in New Hampshire
View all New Hampshire centers →Heroic Prep
Merrimack, New Hampshire prep center serving Amazon FBA sellers. Located in the tax-free state of New Hampshire; the operator says this lets clients pay no sales tax on incoming products. Per-unit pricing steps from $1.75/unit at 1000 units/month to $1.50 at 2000 and $1.25 at 4000, as the card prints those volumes. Eligibility minimum: 1,000 units/month and at least one year of Amazon selling history. All-inclusive packages cover inspection, FNSKU labeling, heat-sealed polybagging, suffocation-warning labels, dunnage, expiration labels, damage handling, outbound boxes, and 14 days of inventory storage. Client eligibility (per the operator's FAQ, September 2026): sellers primarily in grocery, toys or shoes are not accepted, Inventory Lab is required, and limited-permission Seller Central access is needed. Hazmat: the operator's pages conflict. The FAQ says hazmat shipping is paid through its discounted UPS account and added to the client's invoice, while the How It Works page says hazmat shipping is offered at no additional cost, so confirm the charge before sending hazmat. No long-term storage; no charge until prepping begins. Products fitting three or fewer in a 24x21x20 box, and all shoes, are charged as a bundle.
United States Prep
United States Prep is an Amazon FBA prep center in tax-free Salem, New Hampshire, built for online and retail arbitrage sellers moving consistent volume. Standard prep runs $1.50 per unit with $0.50 add-ons for liquid sealing, bubble wrap, and bundling. Turnaround is 2 to 4 days standard, with a 24 to 48 hour priority option. Services cover receiving, inspection, FNSKU labeling, polybagging, and packaging to Amazon standards.
Live Free or Die Distribution
Live Free or Die Distribution is a family-run Amazon FBA prep center at 115 Highland Street in Rochester, NH, a sales-tax-free state. The LLC has been registered with the NH Secretary of State since January 2025, is in good standing with its 2026 annual report filed, and owner Andrew Tompson is confirmed by the registry. The per-unit FBA card is public: $1.75 per unit at base volume down to $1.00 at 3,000+ units a month, with a $249 start-up fee, a $99 flat monthly fee below 300 units, and a 3% payment-processing fee on invoices. The center requires sellers to have at least 1 year of active Amazon selling history. We found no third-party reviews anywhere yet; the on-site testimonials are specific and internally consistent but self-hosted, so treat service quality as unvouched and test responsiveness first.
Prepare Less
Prepare Less is a prep service in Hampton, New Hampshire, a sales-tax-free state, registered with the NH Secretary of State as Prepare Less LLC since July 2023 and in good standing with its 2026 annual report filed. The homepage leads with all-inclusive per-unit prep pricing: $1.40 per unit up to 500 units a month, $1.20 to 1,000, negotiable above that, covering FNSKU labeling, polybagging, set creation, bundling, and palletization, with FBM fulfillment and storage as secondary services. This listing carries a warning: the two-page website has been unchanged since April 2024, publishes no street address or phone (the address here comes from the state registry), and we found no third-party reviews anywhere. The entity is demonstrably active even though the site is static; treat responsiveness as the thing to test first.
Montana
- Helena
- Billings, Missoula
- 1.1M
- 39
- Lowest-cost option, but distant from FCs
Montana is the cheapest of the five on warehouse rent and labor, but the closest large Amazon FC is in Salt Lake City or Spokane, meaning inbound legs add 1-2 days of transit. Best suited to slow-moving SKUs, oversize items, or long-term storage where the cost-per-square-foot win outweighs transit drag.
Montana is the largest single-state cluster in our directory, and nearly every operator in it publishes a per-unit price sheet. The state guide ranks every Montana operator we list, each labeled with its type, and compares each published rate card side by side: entry rate, best volume rate, setup fee, and storage terms.
Montana prep centers ranked, with every published rate card →Prep centers in Montana
View all Montana centers →Pryor Valley PrepNShip
Pryor Valley PrepNShip is a small, family-run, woman-owned Amazon FBA prep shop in rural Yellowstone County, south-central Montana, a state with no sales tax. Prep is its only line: it receives and inspects inventory, removes price tags, applies FNSKU, fragile and suffocation-warning labels, poly bags, bubble wraps and bundles items, and builds the Amazon shipment plan and box labels before shipping to fulfillment centers. The published rate card, dated January 2024, charges $1.30 per unit up to 1,000 units and $1.10 above that, counted per two-week invoice period, with bundles from $0.55, poly bags from $0.20, bubble wrap at $0.20 per foot and recycled boxes free. There is a one-time $25 registration fee and payment is by PayPal only. Stated turnaround is 24 to 72 hours after receipt. The Montana LLC was formed in September 2020. Cautions: no phone number, street address or town is published, and the only contact is a Gmail address. The site's copyright line still reads 2020. It does not take hazmat. The services page says storage is up to 14 days, while the terms allow 30 days before a $30 monthly fee. Its terms also say it ships small parcels by UPS only (no outbound pallets), takes items up to 30 lb each, and closes an account with no outbound activity for 60 days, after two weeks' notice, with any remaining product forfeited.
K Bar K Packing
K Bar K Prep and Ship (the site's name is K Bar K Packing) is a small FBA prep operation in Montana, a state with no sales tax. The domain dates from April 2022, and the earliest archived copy (May 2022) already offered FBA receiving, inspection, FNSKU labeling and shipment prep at $1.00 per unit. Today's homepage publishes a full rate card: $1.25 per unit received, beside a services list of receiving, inspection, label removal, damage photos and FNSKU, fragile, suffocation and do-not-separate labels (the page does not say which are included). Books are $2.00 plus a poly bag, shoes $2.50, oversize items (over 12 inches or 10 pounds) $4.00, and FBM orders $2.50 plus prep and mailers. Bundles cost $1.25 per item for the first two and $1.00 per item after that. Poly bags run $0.30 to $1.15, new boxes $2.50 to $5.25, and setup is a one-time $50. Stated turnaround is 24 to 72 hours, and it takes no hazmat or dangerous goods. Billing runs on the 1st and 15th by PayPal, card or Square. Cautions: contact is a Gmail address and a 406 phone number. The site publishes no street address, so it is listed at state level, and its booking pages are still unfinished Wix placeholders. The owner's 20-plus years in business is unverified.
Wildcat Prep and Ship
Wildcat Prep and Ship is a small Amazon FBA prep service in Edgar, Montana, a rural town in a state with no sales tax, and has run under this name since 2019. It does prep only. Inventory is received and inspected, with damage photographed and emailed to the seller, then prepped and labeled to Amazon's requirements, boxed and shipped against a shipment plan that either the seller or Wildcat creates. The published rate is $1.25 per unit received ($2.00 for shoes), covering receiving, inspection, old-label removal, damage photos and FNSKU, fragile, suffocation-warning and do-not-open labels. Add-ons: poly bags $0.30 ($1.15 for the two largest sizes), bubble bags $0.60, bubble wrap $1.10, bundles $0.50 for up to 3 items plus $0.10 per extra item, new boxes $2.50 to $3.75, and a one-time $75 registration fee. Stated turnaround is 24 to 72 hours, and billing runs on the 1st and 15th through PayPal. Cautions: the site lists one contact, a Gmail address and no street address, so confirm receiving details before shipping. Bulk orders of 50 or more items need approval for space first, which points to limited capacity. No state business registration could be read, and the website has not changed since at least March 2024.
Cole Creek Prep
Cole Creek Prep is a family-owned FBA and FBM prep shop in Montana, a state with no sales tax, online since 2023 with flat published pricing: $1.30 per unit for FBA and $3.50 for FBM, covering receiving, inspection, damaged-item photos, labeling, poly bags where needed, shipment creation and 30 days of storage, with turnaround under 48 hours. Budget for a one-time $35 registration fee and a $25 minimum per shipment. It does not take hazmat or books, and its FAQ caps items at 12 inches on the longest side (the terms on the same page say 16 inches), so confirm larger items first. Those terms also say items not listed in the seller's inventory account, or gated or restricted in the seller's Amazon account, are disposed of after 30 days of no communication. The operation publishes a Montana phone number but no city, so we list it at the state level. There are no testimonials on the site rather than seeded ones, and we found no third-party reviews on Trustpilot, on BBB or in a web search as of September 2026.
Alaska
- Juneau
- Anchorage
- 0.7M
- 0
- Niche; only relevant for AK-resident sellers
Alaska is the most niche of the five. Logistics costs from Anchorage into the lower 48 typically erase any tax-nexus advantage for sellers shipping to mainland FBA destinations. It shows up here mainly for Alaska-resident sellers and for businesses where the owner is already operating in-state for non-Amazon reasons.
Prep centers in Alaska
We haven't verified a prep center in Alaska yet. Know one? Submit it →
Common tax-free state questions.
Direct answers, written for sellers, not tax attorneys. None of this is tax advice. Confirm specifics with your CPA.
Does a prep center in a tax-free state save me money on prep?
Not on the prep invoice. In the 2026 Pricing Index, median entry pricing in the five tax-free states is $1.50 per unit against $0.95 in the rest of the US, a 58% premium. Both the premium and any avoided sales tax scale with units, so volume does not change the answer: the premium is worth paying only where prep services are taxed at about 57.9%, and no US jurisdiction is close. The real case for these states is inventory sourcing, not the prep line item.
Are tax-free state prep centers more expensive than other states?
Yes, at entry pricing. Our deduped 2026 Pricing Index puts median entry at $1.50 per unit in the tax-free states against $0.95 elsewhere in the US, a 58% premium, with the national median at $1.30. Medians describe the pool, not any one quote: a specific Montana center can undercut a specific Ohio center. Compare published rate cards directly rather than assuming a state is cheap.
Which tax-free state has the most verified prep centers?
Montana, and not by a little: 39 of the 65 verified centers we list across the five states. Then Oregon (12), Delaware (8), New Hampshire (6). We currently verify no prep center in Alaska. The per-state table above carries the live count, and it moves as the directory does.
Will using a prep center in a tax-free state save me money on sales tax?
Only in narrow ways, and not the way most sellers expect. Storing inventory in a state with no sales tax creates no sales-tax nexus there, but you still owe tax wherever else you have physical or economic nexus, including the states Amazon moves your inventory to after prep, and marketplace facilitator laws shift collection on most marketplace sales to Amazon anyway. The clearer saving is on the buy side: as a general rule sales tax is charged where the purchase happens, so goods bought at retail inside a tax-free state are not taxed at the register. Use tax can still apply in your home state. Confirm both with your CPA.
Does storing FBA inventory in Oregon create sales tax nexus in Oregon?
No. Oregon has no statewide sales tax, so there is no Oregon sales tax to collect or remit, regardless of inventory location. Storing inventory in Oregon also does not by itself create nexus in any other state. Nexus is determined by each destination state's rules on physical and economic presence. Confirm with your CPA before relying on this for tax planning.
Is Delaware better than New Hampshire for FBA prep?
It depends on which Amazon FC cluster you ship into. Delaware is closer to PHL and EWR; New Hampshire is closer to the Boston-area FCs. Both states have no sales tax. Cost and capacity vary by individual center, not by state. Pick the state nearest your primary inbound destination and compare specific centers within it. Confirm transit assumptions with the prep center before committing.
Does Amazon have FBA warehouses in Montana or Alaska?
No. Amazon operates no FBA fulfillment centers in Montana or Alaska. Inventory prepped in either state must be shipped to an Amazon FC elsewhere (often Salt Lake City or Spokane from Montana; the lower-48 generally from Alaska). The prep-center step happens in-state; the FBA storage step does not. Confirm current FC network coverage on Amazon's seller documentation.
Do I need to register my LLC in the tax-free state where my prep center is located?
Usually no. Using a third-party prep center does not by itself require you to register an LLC in that state. Foreign-qualification rules vary by state and are triggered by activities like leasing your own space, having employees, or making in-person sales. Using a 3PL or prep center is typically not enough. Confirm with a business attorney or CPA for your specific situation.
How does economic nexus work in tax-free states?
Economic nexus is irrelevant in the five tax-free states because there is no sales tax to trigger. Economic nexus thresholds (typically $100K in sales or 200 transactions) apply in the 45 states with sales tax and are evaluated per-destination-state, not based on where your inventory sits. Storing in a tax-free state does not exempt you from economic nexus elsewhere. Confirm with your CPA.
Can I use multiple prep centers across different tax-free states?
Yes. There is no rule against splitting inventory across multiple prep centers in different states. Sellers commonly run one West Coast prep (often Oregon) and one East Coast prep (Delaware or New Hampshire) for transit-time reasons. Coordinating SKU allocation, FNSKU labeling, and inbound paperwork across centers adds operational overhead. Plan for it before committing.
We are not tax advisors. Sales tax nexus rules are complex and vary by destination state, and whether a prep service is taxable at all is a separate question that varies by state and by how the invoice is itemized. The break-even arithmetic on this page is an illustration built from published rate cards and statutory state rates, not a calculation of your liability. Information here is for orientation only. Confirm with your CPA before making decisions about inventory storage locations.
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