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If you sell goods from a shop in Provo, a spare room in Lehi or a booth at a farmers market, the Utah State Tax Commission wants you registered before you collect a dollar of sales tax. This guide covers the permanent license, the temporary event license, and how both fit with the city license Provo and Orem ask you for.
Apply for your Utah sales tax license online through the Utah State Tax Commission's Taxpayer Access Point (tap.utah.gov), using the tax account application, form TC-69. A seller at a one-time event such as a festival or farmers market needs a separate temporary license and special return (TC-790C) for each event, even with a permanent license. Utah sales tax licenses are not transferable, so a buyer of an existing business applies again.
The Tax Commission says every seller with an established presence in Utah must have a sales tax license. Presence means an office, warehouse, stock of goods or other place of business in the state, so a candle maker in Springville selling from a spare room counts. Businesses that typically register include retailers, wholesalers buying inventory for resale, manufacturers, leasing companies, and consumers of taxable goods such as construction contractors.
What you sell decides whether you collect tax. Retail sales of physical goods, restaurant meals, prewritten software and repair labor on goods are taxable. The Tax Commission lists services done on a person (a hairstylist or massage therapist), on real property (a landscaper) and professional services such as accounting as generally not taxable, and says that if you only sell exempt items you do not have to apply for a number. Check the item list in Publication 25 before you decide, and see our Utah County sales tax rates by city for what you will charge once you are licensed.
The TC-69 application is online. You apply through the Tax Commission's Taxpayer Access Point, called TAP, at tap.utah.gov. Choose "Apply for a tax account(s) - TC-69" and answer the questions about your business. You estimate your sales tax liability on the application, and the Commission uses that to assign your filing status.
If the business is an LLC or uses a DBA, register it with the Utah Division of Corporations first, and get your federal EIN. The pages we read list no application fee, and compliance guides report it is free. Confirm that on TAP when you apply. The Taxpayer Services line is 801-297-2200, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Compliance guides report that the license details arrive by email once the application is processed, after which you set up a TAP login to file and pay. We could not find an official processing time, so do not plan a city license application around the license arriving the same day.
The temporary license is for special events. The Tax Commission defines a special event as a one-time event, or one that runs six months or less, where taxable sales happen away from your usual place of business. That covers fairs, festivals, art shows, swap meets, concerts, seasonal mall stands and farmers markets, so a vendor at a Provo festival or a holiday market in Lehi is covered.
Every vendor at the event needs a Temporary Sales Tax License and Special Return, form TC-790C, for that event only. A seller with a permanent license still needs one for each event. The license is issued after the event promoter sends the Tax Commission a participant list on form TC-791. If a promoter has not registered the event, vendors can ask the Special Events Unit directly at 801-297-6303 or [email protected].
You charge the tax rate where the event is held, not the rate where your shop is. The Tax Commission's event page says to file the return and pay within 30 days after the event closes, while its April 2025 training says by the last day of the event or within 10 days after. Those two conflict, so go by the due date printed on your license. If you also hold a permanent license, event sales go on your regular return as a negative adjustment so you are not taxed twice.
The event page also says that as of April 2025 vendors need a Sales Special Event Taxpayer ID to attend special events in Utah, and new vendors apply once by emailing [email protected]. If you only sell at events, you do not need a permanent license, unless you want to buy inventory tax-free for resale. In that case you do.
No. The city license and the state sales tax license are separate filings with separate agencies. The city decides whether you can operate at your address, and the Tax Commission decides whether you can collect and remit sales tax. Our Utah County business license guide covers which city licenses which address.
Provo's online licensing instructions say that if you will sell a product, you must supply a permanent sales tax number. Orem's licensing page lists registering your name with the state first, then a home business or commercial application with ID verification. If you sell goods, get the state tax account before you start either application. Provo 311 answers license questions at (801) 852-6000.
When you apply, the Tax Commission assigns a filing status from your estimated tax. At $50,000 or less a year you file quarterly. From $50,001 to $96,000 you file monthly. At $96,001 or more you file monthly and pay by electronic funds transfer.
Quarterly returns are due April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31. Monthly returns are due the last day of the following month, and a due date on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day. You file every period even if you had no sales.
Monthly filers may take a seller discount of 1.31 percent of the combined sales tax, and lose it by filing late or underpaying. Quarterly filers cannot take it. The penalty for filing a tax-due return late is the greater of $20 or up to 10 percent of the unpaid tax. Keep your records for three years, and keep a resale exemption certificate (form TC-721) from each buyer who purchases tax-free.
The first is selling before the account exists. Register first, so you are not chasing customers for tax you should have charged.
The second is buying a business and assuming its license comes along. The Tax Commission says licenses are not transferable. A buyer applies for new ones and should get a Letter of Good Standing from the seller showing no unpaid sales tax, because a buyer who skips that can be held liable for the old taxes. If the IRS lets the EIN stay the same, you only notify the Commission of the new owners.
The third is skipping use tax on goods you consume yourself, such as stock pulled from inventory or samples given away. Those go on your sales and use tax return at your cost.
Once the license is in place, show the pre-tax price in ads and say so. A $100 item costs $107.45 at the register in Provo, and customers notice the difference. Our guide to where to advertise in Utah County lists the options and their published prices.
We publish Provo FOMO, a free daily newsletter with about 3,100 Utah County subscribers, and we sell sponsor slots in it, so weigh this with that in mind. A single sponsor slot is $99 for one issue, and the plans are on our advertise page.
