Amazon and Etsy collect sales tax for me — why isn't Shopify doing the same for my store?

Marketplace-facilitator laws shift the collection duty from the seller to the platform when the platform meets the state's definition of a facilitator. Amazon, Etsy, and eBay generally calculate, collect, and remit on orders shipped to US buyers where a facilitator law applies, on your behalf — whether you are inside or outside the US. That is why those channels handle the tax for you.

A merchant's own Shopify storefront is generally not a marketplace-facilitator arrangement. Shopify provides the checkout, but you remain the seller of record and are responsible for registering, collecting, filing, and remitting on direct-store sales where you have nexus. The exception Shopify itself describes is its Shop sales channel, which the company says has automatically collected, remitted, and filed tax on US marketplace orders since January 1, 2025. So whether tax is handled for you depends on whether the sale ran through the Shop channel or your own store.

First, marketplace-collected sales may still count toward your economic-nexus threshold in some states, and some states may still expect you to file a return (sometimes a zero return) even where the marketplace remitted the tax. Second, keep the platform's tax-remitted reports as part of your per-state audit file. 'I use Shopify' or 'I sell on Amazon' does not by itself answer your obligations — separate sales by channel and confirm, channel by channel and state by state.