US Sales Tax on Digital Products for Freelancers in 2026
When selling templates, presets, ebooks, and courses actually triggers US sales tax.
The Delivvo team· August 29, 2026 8 min read
If you sell templates, presets, ebooks, or courses, you can owe US sales tax, but only after you cross a state's economic nexus threshold, and only in states that actually tax that kind of digital product. Most states with a sales tax now tax at least some digital goods. The usual trigger is 100,000 USD in sales or 200 separate transactions into a single state in a year. Sell through a marketplace like Gumroad or Etsy and the platform normally collects and remits the tax for you. Sell from your own site and that job becomes yours once you have nexus.
Here is how the pieces fit together for a freelancer in 2026, with the rules cited to state agencies and the main tax-compliance sources.
Economic nexus: the rule that changed everything
Before 2018, a state could only make you collect sales tax if you had a physical presence there, like an office or a warehouse. That ended with South Dakota v. Wayfair. On June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that a state can require an out-of-state seller to collect sales tax based on economic activity alone, per Avalara's summary of the decision.
South Dakota's law set the template most states copied. You create nexus once your sales into the state pass 100,000 USD or 200 separate transactions in the current or prior year, covering tangible goods, services, and "any product transferred electronically," per Avalara's Wayfair FAQ. That phrase, "any product transferred electronically," is what pulls your ebooks and presets into the net.
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Two things trip freelancers up. First, the threshold is per state, not national. You can owe nothing federally and still cross the line in one busy state. Second, several states have dropped the transaction count and now use the dollar figure only, because 200 small digital sales should not carry the same burden as 200 cars. Check the current threshold for any state where your sales are climbing.
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Which states tax digital products, and which do not
Crossing a threshold only matters if the state taxes your product in the first place. Digital goods are taxed unevenly.
Most states now tax at least some digital products. One 2026 state-by-state review counts roughly 38 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico taxing at least one category of digital goods, such as ebooks, digital audio, digital video, or downloaded software, per Numeral's digital-goods guide. A handful of states with a sales tax still do not tax digital downloads at all, with California and Florida the two biggest.
The category label matters as much as the state. A state might tax "specified digital products" like an ebook while exempting cloud software, or tax "prewritten software" while leaving a downloadable PDF alone. Software as a service is a separate fight, and it is expanding fast. Since 2024, Vermont ended its exemption for remotely accessed software (July 1, 2024), Louisiana began taxing it (January 1, 2025), Maryland added a 3% tax on data and IT services (July 1, 2025), and Washington, Maine, Utah, Colorado, and California all passed or scheduled SaaS taxes running through 2027, per the Sales Tax Institute.
State rules can surprise you in other ways. Texas, for example, taxes "data processing services," which can sweep in things like web hosting and certain online tools, per the Texas Comptroller. The direction across 2025 and 2026 points one way: broader coverage. If you are unsure whether your specific product is taxable in a state, that is the first question to answer, before you worry about thresholds.
Marketplace facilitator rules: when the platform handles it
Here is the relief valve. If you sell through a marketplace, the marketplace usually has to collect and remit the sales tax for you.
A marketplace facilitator is a platform that lists a seller's products, takes the customer's payment, and pays the seller, per Avalara's marketplace facilitator guide. Nearly every state with a statewide sales tax now has a marketplace facilitator law. That puts Gumroad, Etsy, and similar platforms on the hook to calculate, collect, and remit sales tax on the sales you make through them, in the states that require it.
For you, that has a clean upside. On marketplace sales, the platform does the hard part, so you often do not register or file for those sales at all. Gumroad acts as the merchant of record and handles the calculating, collecting, and remitting of sales tax on eligible orders. Etsy automatically collects and remits US state sales tax, including on digital and downloadable items, in the states that require it. The tax shows up as a line the buyer paid, not money out of your pocket.
Two cautions. Marketplace sales can still count toward your nexus math in some states, even when the platform remits the tax, so keep the records. And "the platform handles it" is only true for sales made on that platform. The moment you sell somewhere it does not cover, the responsibility swings back to you.
Laptop on a desk showing code and design work
Selling on your own site: when you must register and collect
Sell from your own checkout, a payment link, or a page you built, and there is no marketplace facilitator standing between you and the state. You are the seller of record.
The sequence is easy to state and easy to ignore:
You make sales into a state that taxes your product.
Your sales into that state cross its economic nexus threshold, often 100,000 USD or 200 transactions.
You register with that state's tax authority, collect the right rate at checkout, and file returns on the state's schedule.
Two nuances save real headaches. Your home state can require you to register from your very first sale, because you have physical presence there, not just economic nexus. And most small freelancers selling a few thousand dollars of presets across the country are nowhere near 100,000 USD in any single state, so they may have no collection duty yet. "Yet" is the operative word. Track your sales by state so you see a threshold coming before you cross it, not a year after.
If you are weighing a marketplace against your own storefront for this reason alone, the trade is convenience against control. The Gumroad vs Payhip vs Ko-fi comparison walks through which platforms remit tax for you and what they charge for the service. Selling your work as a repeatable productized offer also makes the tax question easier, because you are tracking one product line, not a dozen custom quotes.
Delivvo gives freelancers and digital sellers one branded portal for proposals, contracts, file delivery, and invoices, so direct sales off your own site stay organized and every payment has a clean paper trail when tax time comes. Clients pay you directly through your own gateway, and Delivvo takes 0% of it. See how it works
A simple way to stay compliant
You do not need a tax department. You need a habit. Track your gross sales and transaction count per state every quarter. Note which states tax your specific product. When a state gets close to its threshold, register there, switch on tax collection at checkout, and file on time. For marketplace sales, save the platform's remittance reports so you can prove the tax was handled. When the numbers get complicated, or you sell into many states, a sales-tax tool or an accountant costs less than one penalty notice. Pair this with a solid freelance tax routine and sales tax becomes a checklist, not a crisis.
Frequently asked questions
Do I owe sales tax on an ebook I sell to one customer in another state?
Almost certainly not on a single sale. You only have to collect once you cross that state's economic nexus threshold, commonly 100,000 USD or 200 transactions in a year, and only if the state taxes digital products. One ebook does not get you there.
If Gumroad collects the tax, do I still have to do anything?
For those marketplace sales, usually not, because the platform collects and remits as a marketplace facilitator. But keep the reports, because some states still count those sales toward your nexus totals, and any sales you make off the platform are your responsibility.
Which states should I watch most closely?
The ones where your sales are growing and that tax your product type. Most states tax at least some digital goods, while California and Florida are notable holdouts on digital downloads. SaaS sellers should track the recent expansions in states like Washington, Maryland, and, from 2027, California.
Is this income tax or sales tax?
Sales tax, which is separate from the income tax you already pay on your profit. Sales tax is collected from your buyer and passed to the state. You can owe income tax on every dollar of profit and still owe zero sales tax if you never cross a nexus threshold.
The takeaway
Sales tax on digital products is not one rule. It is three questions stacked together: does the state tax your product, have you crossed its threshold, and did a marketplace already handle it? Sell through Gumroad or Etsy and the platform usually carries the load. Sell from your own site and the duty is yours once nexus hits. Track sales by state, register when you cross a line, and keep the marketplace reports. That is the whole job.
