How does Virginia treat marketplace-facilitated sales?

A seller whose Virginia sales all run through a marketplace facilitator generally does not register to collect Virginia tax on those marketplace sales because the facilitator is responsible for collection. A seller that also makes direct sales must evaluate the direct channel separately, while the facilitator maintains responsibility for the marketplace channel. Virginia Tax's marketplace-facilitator guidance describes the split and the recordkeeping posture.

What should a Virginia operator watch besides the headline rate?

The recurring misses are using a statewide default instead of the received-at locality rate, filing late or skipping a no-sales return, and assuming a facilitator covers direct sales. Category-specific exemptions and exceptions also require supporting documentation. Virginia Tax maintains the sales-tax exemptions reference alongside the general retail sales and use tax guidance.

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Per-state pillar

Base 4.3% + 1% local · 5.3%–7% combined

Sales tax in Virginia

Q: What is Virginia's combined sales tax rate, and why does the locality change the answer?

Virginia's general sales tax combines a 4.3% state component with a 1% local component. The general combined rate is 5.3% in most localities, 6% in Central Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Northern Virginia, 6.3% in a defined group of localities, and 7% in James City County, Williamsburg, and York County. The exact rate should be checked against the Virginia Tax locality lookup before the seller stamps a ship-to or received-at sale.

Q: When does a remote seller need to register for Virginia sales tax?

Virginia's remote-seller economic-nexus threshold is more than $100,000 in annual gross retail sales or 200 or more transactions to Virginia customers in the previous or current calendar year. Physical presence is not a prerequisite. The Virginia Tax remote-seller guidance explains the threshold and the registration path.

Virginia's general sales tax starts with a 4.3% state rate plus a 1% local component. The general combined rate is 5.3% in most localities, 6% in Central Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Northern Virginia, 6.3% in a defined group of localities, and 7% in James City County, Williamsburg, and York County. This pillar walks through Virginia Tax's monthly-or-quarterly filing assignment with returns due on the 20th, the $100,000-or-200-transactions remote-seller threshold, marketplace-facilitator collection, and the locality lookup an operator needs before applying the rate to a ship-to.

The Virginia rulebook, without the statewide-default shortcut

Virginia sales tax is administered by Virginia Tax. The general rate combines a 4.3% state component with a 1% local component, but the rate a customer pays depends on the locality where the sale is made or where the merchandise is received. Virginia Tax publishes a 5.3% general rate for most localities, 6% rates across Central Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Northern Virginia, 6.3% rates in a defined set of localities, and a 7% rate for James City County, Williamsburg, and York County. The safe operating habit is to resolve the locality before stamping the invoice rather than treating 5.3% as a statewide default.

Virginia Tax assigns a sales-tax filing frequency based on tax liability: monthly or quarterly. Returns and payments are due on the 20th of the month following the close of the filing period, even when there are no sales to report, and filing is electronic. The public Virginia schedule used by Stillpost marks Virginia as a monthly filer, so the live card below keeps the fixture-backed due-date view alongside the editorial explanation of how Virginia Tax assigns frequency.

Virginia's remote-seller economic-nexus rule does not require a physical presence. A remote seller or marketplace facilitator generally reaches the registration threshold when it has more than $100,000 in annual gross retail sales or 200 or more transactions to Virginia customers in the previous or current calendar year. That calendar-year test is the trigger to monitor before a direct-channel operator assumes that marketplace collection covers its own website or invoicing channel.

Marketplace-only sellers generally do not register to collect Virginia tax when the facilitator is responsible for the marketplace sales, while a seller with direct sales must evaluate those direct sales separately. Virginia also has category-specific exemptions and exceptions, so the operator should preserve the exemption documentation that supports each line rather than treating a product label or customer type as self-proving.

Quick facts — at a glance

The six Virginia Tax facts an operator wants beside the live schedule: rate structure, locality band, filing day, remote-seller threshold, marketplace channel split, and exemption records.

state base
4.3% state + 1% local
General sales-tax structure before locality-specific regional layers
locality band
5.3%–7% combined
5.3% most localities · 6% regional bands · 6.3% defined localities · 7% James City / Williamsburg / York
cadence
Monthly · 20th
Virginia Tax assigns monthly or quarterly based on liability; returns are due on the 20th
nexus
$100K or 200 transactions
More than $100,000 annual gross retail sales or 200+ Virginia transactions
marketplace
Facilitator / direct split
Marketplace-only sellers generally rely on facilitator collection; direct sales remain the seller’s responsibility
exemptions
Documented exemptions
Category-specific exemptions and exceptions need support at the line-item level

What you’ll find in this guide

Virginia’s 4.3% state component plus 1% local component, with the exact combined rate moving from 5.3% to 7% by locality. Check the Virginia Tax locality lookup before applying a rate.
Monthly-or-quarterly filing assignment with returns due on the 20th of the following month, even when there are no sales to report. Virginia Tax’s filing guidance keeps the cadence explicit.
The remote-seller threshold of more than $100,000 in annual gross retail sales or 200 or more Virginia transactions in the previous or current calendar year, as described in the Virginia Tax remote-seller guidance.
Marketplace-only collection handled by the facilitator in the normal case, with direct website and invoice sales evaluated separately. The channel guidance describes the split.
Category-specific exemptions and exceptions, with supporting documentation preserved for each exempt line. Start with Virginia Tax’s sales-tax exemptions reference.

Operational deep dive

Four Virginia-specific blocks sit beside the live schedule: locality-aware rate stamping, the 20th-day filing rhythm, the remote-seller threshold, and the marketplace/direct channel split with documented exemptions.

The Virginia locality rate is the rate the customer receives

Virginia starts with a 4.3% state component and a 1% local component, then applies locality-specific regional layers. That makes the received-at locality the operational source of truth, not a single statewide default.

The general combined rate is 5.3% in most localities, while Central Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Northern Virginia use a 6% rate band. Virginia Tax publishes the locality table that identifies the exact rate before a seller stamps the sale.
The 6.3% group and the 7% James City County / Williamsburg / York County group are the easy places to under-collect when a checkout or invoice system carries a 5.3% default into every Virginia destination.
Virginia Tax also separates grocery-tax treatment from the general rate, so a product-category rule should be checked before the operator treats the general locality band as universal.

Monthly or quarterly, the return still lands on the 20th

Virginia Tax assigns a monthly or quarterly filing frequency based on tax liability. Either way, the filing calendar is simple enough to put on the operating dashboard: return and payment due on the 20th of the following month after the period closes.

The return is due on the 20th of the month following the close of the filing period, even when the seller has no sales to report. The Virginia Tax retail sales and use tax page states the cadence and electronic filing requirement.
Virginia’s public schedule labels the state monthly, so the live Stillpost card below renders the fixture-backed monthly due dates while the editorial copy keeps the broader monthly-or-quarterly assignment visible.
A no-sales period is not a reason to skip the return. Late filing can add a penalty even when no tax is owed, which makes the recurring calendar a better control than memory.

The $100K-or-200-transactions remote-seller trigger

Virginia’s economic-nexus rule is a two-path threshold: more than $100,000 in annual gross retail sales or 200 or more transactions to Virginia customers. A physical storefront or warehouse is not required for the remote-seller rule to matter.

Monitor the previous and current calendar year, not just the last invoice. The Virginia Tax remote-seller guidance describes the gross-sales and transaction alternatives.
Crossing either path means the operator should move into the registration workflow instead of waiting for a physical-presence fact pattern to appear.
The same threshold matters to marketplace facilitators, but a marketplace seller and a facilitator do not carry the same collection responsibility. Classify the channel before deciding who files.

Separate marketplace collection from direct-channel and exemption records

Virginia’s marketplace rule is channel-specific. Marketplace-only sellers generally rely on the facilitator for those sales, while a seller with its own website or direct invoices must evaluate that channel separately. Exemptions add a second recordkeeping layer.

If every Virginia sale runs through a marketplace facilitator, the seller generally does not register to collect Virginia tax on those marketplace sales because the facilitator is responsible for collection. The marketplace-facilitator guidance explains when the facilitator carries the collection obligation.
If the seller also makes direct sales, the direct channel must be evaluated separately; the facilitator’s collection does not turn an own-site or invoice into a marketplace sale.
Virginia Tax maintains a dedicated sales-tax exemptions reference. Preserve the documentation that supports an exempt line instead of relying on a customer’s verbal description or a generic product category.

Pegged to Virginia Tax's 20th-day filing calendar

Stillpost estimates your Virginia sales-tax liability off daily sales and lines it up with the 20th-day return calendar — so the estimate lands on the operating date Virginia Tax expects, not in a separate spreadsheet. Virginia Tax assigns monthly or quarterly frequency based on liability, and the live card above keeps the current fixture-backed Virginia schedule beside that broader rule.

On top of the cadence estimate, the loop keeps the locality rate in view, watches the $100,000-or-200-transactions remote-seller threshold, separates facilitator-collected marketplace sales from direct sales, and leaves a record trail for category-specific exemptions. That is the difference between knowing Virginia's headline rate and closing the Virginia filing loop.

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Other pillars and verticals

Jump from Virginia into a sibling state pillar, into the vertical surface that fits your business, or into the comparison hub. Each destination keeps the same rate, cadence, and nexus questions in one navigable cluster.

Sister state pillars

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