Fulfillment by Amazon solves shipping and storage — and quietly creates a sales-tax footprint you didn't choose. Here's how FBA inventory triggers physical nexus, what Amazon's tax collection does and doesn't cover, and what to check.
Updated 10 July 2026. General information, not tax advice — always confirm your specific footprint with a tax professional.
Most FBA sellers know Amazon collects sales tax on their behalf. Fewer realize that the inventory itself — sitting in an Amazon fulfillment center — can independently create physical nexus in that state, separate from anything to do with tax collection. Physical nexus doesn't care who's collecting the tax on a sale; it's triggered by having property in a state, full stop.
See our explainer on economic vs. physical nexus for the general distinction. This page is about the FBA-specific version of it.
The moment your inventory lands in a fulfillment center in a given state, more than 20 states treat that as sufficient physical presence to create nexus for the seller — regardless of whether you've made a single direct sale into that state. You don't get to choose which warehouses your stock goes to: Amazon's fulfillment network redistributes inventory across the country based on its own demand forecasting and logistics needs, which is why FBA sellers routinely discover they have a footprint in ten or more states they never intentionally shipped to.
The picture isn't uniform, though. Some states — and at least one notable ruling involving Pennsylvania (Online Merchants Guild v. Hassell) — have held that inventory stored in a marketplace's warehouse does not, on its own, create physical nexus for the out-of-state seller. Treatment genuinely varies by state, which is exactly why this needs checking on a per-state basis rather than assumed either way.
Amazon Seller Central provides an Inventory Event Detail report (under Reports → Fulfillment) that lists every fulfillment center your stock has passed through. Reviewing this periodically — not just once — is the standard way FBA sellers build an accurate list of states where physical nexus may apply, since the mix of warehouses can shift as Amazon rebalances inventory.
Every state with a sales tax now has a marketplace facilitator law, and Amazon is required to collect and remit tax on sales made through Amazon in all of them — this became true nationwide once Missouri, the last holdout, enacted its law effective January 1, 2023. See our full marketplace facilitator laws guide for how this works.
What that collection does not automatically resolve for the seller:
Pull your Inventory Event Detail report, identify every state your stock has touched, and check that list against each state's treatment of marketplace inventory as physical nexus. Cross-reference it with any direct or non-Amazon sales channels you run, since that's where the real exposure usually sits. And because your FBA warehouse footprint can shift without you doing anything, this is worth re-checking periodically rather than once.
In many states, yes — more than 20 states treat third-party inventory stored in an in-state warehouse, including an Amazon fulfillment center, as physical presence sufficient to create nexus. A smaller number of states, and at least one court ruling involving Pennsylvania, have held that marketplace-stored inventory alone does not create nexus for the seller. Because the treatment varies, check the specific states where your inventory sits.
Not directly. Amazon's fulfillment network distributes inventory across its warehouses based on its own demand forecasting and logistics algorithms, so FBA sellers routinely end up with inventory in far more states than they expected. Amazon's Inventory Event Detail report shows which fulfillment centers have held your stock.
Possibly, yes. Marketplace facilitator laws require Amazon to collect and remit tax on sales made through Amazon, but some states separately require a seller with physical nexus (such as FBA inventory) to register and file, sometimes including zero-dollar returns reflecting the marketplace-collected tax. Registration and collection are legally distinct requirements in some states.
No. Marketplace facilitator collection applies only to sales made through that specific marketplace. If you also sell through your own Shopify store, a wholesale channel, or another marketplace, tax on those sales is your responsibility wherever you have nexus — including nexus created by the same FBA inventory.
Amazon Seller Central provides an Inventory Event Detail report (under Reports → Fulfillment) that lists every fulfillment center your inventory has passed through. Reviewing this periodically is the standard way FBA sellers identify their physical nexus footprint.