How to Make Tax Exempt Purchases on Amazon.com

As of September 1, 2012, Amazon.com began collecting sales tax on all online purchases made in Pennsylvania.  As a nonprofit educational institution, Gettysburg College is exempt from sales tax.  Amazon.com business related purchases will qualify for the exemption after performing a one-time upload of the Pennsylvania Exemption Certificates for Amazon.com LLC and Amazon Digital Services, Inc. to the Amazon.com account that is paid with a College purchasing card.  Note:  It may take up to one week for Amazon.com to process the tax exemption request. 

Once the Exemption Certificates are loaded all products sold by Amazon.com LLC or Amazon Digital Services, Inc., or sold by other sellers and fulfilled by Amazon will not be charged sales tax. 

Separate Amazon.com Account for Business Transactions

The Amazon.com account used for College purchases cannot have the same email address login as an account used for personal purchases. The creation of a separate account is important to ensure only business related transactions receive tax exemption.  Once a tax exempt certificate is loaded to an account, there is no way to differentiate between non-taxable purchases (College related) and taxable purchases (personal purchases).

Uploading Sales Tax Exemption Certificates to Amazon.com

To upload the Pennsylvania Exemption Certificates for Amazon.com LLC and Amazon Digital Services, Inc., complete the steps below:

• Print and sign the Pennsylvania Exemption Certificates for Amazon.com LLC (PDF) and Amazon Digital Services, Inc. (PDF) Please note: All employees authorized to make purchases on behalf of the College are authorized to sign the Pennsylvania Exemption Certificate. By signing the certificate, an employee is verifying the purchase is on behalf of the College and therefore exempt from sales tax. No address is necessary.
• Scan each exemption certificate separately and email to yourself.
• Save each exemption certificate to a location that can easily be accessed.
• Go to https://www.amazon.com/gp/taxExemption/
• Sign in using the Amazon account information (email address and password). The Amazon Tax Exemption Program page appears.
• Click Browse.
• A file upload dialog box opens. Select the location of the Amazon.com LLC tax exemption certificate that was saved in step 3 and double click on the file (or select open).

• Review the terms and conditions and mark the checkbox to confirm
  
• Select Upload
• If the upload was successful, a dialog box opens with a successful upload message.

• Repeat the process to upload the Amazon Digital Services, Inc. exemption certificate.

More information regarding the program can be found at the Amazon.com Tax Exempt Customers Webpage.