Identify employees, property, sales, services, registrations, and other state contacts that may trigger income, franchise, gross-receipts, or minimum taxes.
Answer a few quick questions below. It is private - nothing is submitted or stored - and takes about a minute.
Informational multistate tax screening only; state and local rules vary and must be verified for the applicable year and jurisdiction.
Here is what the checker asks and why each step matters. Prefer to talk it through? Contact us and we will help directly.
Physical presence - even one remote employee working from their home - commonly creates income tax nexus on its own, independent of how much you sell there.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: Multistate Tax Commission nexus resources
Most states tax net income, but several impose only a franchise, net-worth, gross-receipts, or margin tax instead - a distinction that changes what return you file and what the base is.
Register for the franchise, net-worth, gross-receipts, or margin tax and file even in a loss year; P.L. 86-272 shields only net income taxes, not these bases.
Official guidance: Multistate Tax Commission nexus resources
P.L. 86-272 is a narrow federal shield that protects only solicitation of orders for tangible personal property; most states now read remote-selling and post-sale service activity as forfeiting it.
Rely on P.L. 86-272 for the net income tax, but confirm each state's current interpretation under the revised MTC Statement and still file any franchise or minimum tax. Register for state income tax and apportion income to each state where you operate, because activity beyond solicitation forfeits P.L. 86-272.
Official guidance: Multistate Tax Commission nexus resources
After Wayfair, many states assert economic nexus for income and gross-receipts taxes on sales alone, using bright-line factor-presence thresholds and market-based sourcing to decide where a sale counts.
Track sales by state and revisit each state's economic-nexus threshold as receipts grow, since crossing a line mid-year creates the obligation under South Dakota v. Wayfair, 585 U.S. 162 (2018).
Official guidance: Multistate Tax Commission nexus resources
P.L. 86-272 can still shield a pure remote goods-seller from income tax, but it never shields a franchise, net-worth, or gross-receipts tax, and it does not apply to services or digital products.
Rely on P.L. 86-272 for the net income tax, but confirm each state's current interpretation under the revised MTC Statement and still file any franchise or minimum tax. Register for income tax on economic nexus and source receipts to each market state, because services and digital products fall outside P.L. 86-272 (South Dakota v. Wayfair, 585 U.S. 162 (2018)).
Official guidance: Multistate Tax Commission nexus resources
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