Optimize your tax-exempt buying experience

Amazon Business has created tools to help ensure you’re getting the best experience in procurement for tax-exempt organizations. These tools can be a bit overwhelming, so we’ve put together four tips to help, based on the most commonly asked questions from our customers.

1

Verify enrollment

If you are buying for a tax-exempt organization, the first step is to enroll in the Amazon Tax Exemption Program. It isn’t automatically set up when you create an Amazon Business account. You can check the status of your account under the Certifications section of your Business Settings page, and click on Tax Exemption to verify if your account has been set up as tax exempt. Exemptions will be displayed under a heading for your business. If it hasn’t, this will take you to the first step of the tax-exempt enrollment process. Make sure you have all necessary information (state/territory of enrollment, type of organization, address and exemption number or form) to start. If your exemptions are listed under your business account, they’ll apply to other users of your business. If not, they’re only available to purchases you make.

2

Maximize your coverage

The Amazon Tax Exemption Program is available for you to make tax-exempt purchases from Amazon, its affiliates, and participating third-party sellers. Check and see if your account is set up for maximum coverage. If the seller field says Amazon & Participating Sellers, you have our broadest designation. If it doesn’t, your exemption will only apply to purchases made from the seller indicated in the seller field. If you would like to extend your exemption to all of Amazon, its affiliates, and participating third party sellers, you need to resubmit your exemption with the minimum requirements of date, signature, and description of items (if applicable). As part of the Amazon Tax Exemption Program, it isn’t necessary to specify a seller of record.

3

New feature: Create a tax-exempt buying policy

Tax-exempt customers can further improve their experience to restrict or block buyers on the account from purchasing from third party sellers that do not participate in Amazon’s tax exemption program. Through this feature, you can add custom messages to product pages that notify buyers why an item is restricted or blocked, and you can select which group or groups you would like to apply this policy to. This policy is only available after customers have enrolled in the Amazon Tax Exemption Program.

4

Manage access and use

You can manage which groups have tax exemption by editing the group’s permissions. When you first enroll into the Amazon Tax Exemption Program, the default setup is for every group to be enrolled into the program. Buyers will then have the ability to remove tax exemption at the line item level at check out. To manage exemption for certain groups, you need to go to the Members section. In the Members section, click on Groups and it will take you to a list of all your current groups. Under the actions button, click on Edit Group. A box will open, and at the bottom there will be the ability to enable or disable tax exemption.

We hope these tips are helpful. If you need to add or edit your tax exemption, click here to get started. Please note, you must be an admin on the account to manage tax exemptions.