For sellers in the US. Sales tax rules differ from country to country, so if you're outside the US, treat this as background and check the rules where you sell. None of this is tax advice.
The basic version of sales tax is short: most states tax the sale of physical goods, so if you sell your work at a fair, you usually need to be registered to collect it and hand it over. That part you've read a hundred times. The parts that actually trip people up almost never get explained, so here are the four that matter, in plain language. None of this is legal advice, and your state always has the final word, but knowing what to ask is half the battle.
1. The platform may already be collecting it for you
This is the big one, and it surprises almost everyone. Most states now have "marketplace facilitator" laws. They say that when you sell through a large platform, the platform itself is responsible for collecting and remitting the sales tax, not you. So your Etsy sales, and often your sales through a big payment marketplace, may already have tax handled before the money reaches you.
Where this bites: if a platform is already collecting on those sales, you should not also collect and remit on them, or you'll pay twice and throw off your own books. And it cuts the other way too. At an in-person fair, where you ring up the sale yourself on your own reader, you are usually the one responsible. Same maker, same product, two different answers depending on who rang it up. Worth knowing which is which before you reconcile your numbers.
2. There's often a temporary permit just for events
You don't always need a permanent, full-time seller's permit to do a weekend fair. Many states offer a temporary or special-event permit, sometimes free, valid for a single event or a set number of days. In some places the fair organizer is required to send the state a list of every vendor, which is a polite way of saying the state knows you were there. Registering is genuinely easier than hoping nobody checks.
3. The rate changes with the location of the fair
Sales tax usually isn't one statewide number. It's a state rate plus county and city add-ons, and most states charge based on where the sale happens, which is wherever your booth is standing that day. So the same jar of jam can carry one tax rate at a fair downtown and a different one at a fair two towns over. If you price your goods at round, tax-included numbers for easy change-making, that's fine, but you still owe the correct rate for that location, so know it before you set up.
4. Crossing a state line can create new obligations
The economic thresholds you've heard about, the ones aimed at high-volume sellers, rarely catch a solo maker. But physical presence is different. Showing up in person to sell in another state can, on its own, create what tax people call nexus there, which can mean you're expected to register and collect for that state too, even for one weekend. If you travel across state lines for a big fair, that's the question to ask the host state's revenue department before you go, not after.
The goal isn't to become a tax expert. It's to know the four questions that actually apply to you, so the answer is a five-minute phone call instead of a year-end surprise.
Most of this comes down to good records: what you sold, where, on what day, and at what rate. When that's captured cleanly as you go, filing is boring, which is exactly what you want from tax. Wares logs each sale with its date and channel and keeps your totals ready to export, so the paperwork is a few taps instead of a shoebox. It's free to try, right in your browser.