Tax Settings: Registrations, Rates & Exemption Certificates
Telling Seayora where you are registered to collect, entering county and city rates, filing exemption certificates, and reading each state's rule.
Tax settings (Invoices & Tax → Tax settings) is where you tell Seayora where you collect sales tax, what the local rates are where you work, and which customers or jobs hold an exemption certificate. Until a state is added here, invoices for work in that state carry no tax line — deliberately.
Where you collect
Add each state you hold a sales-tax registration in, with the registration number (a certificate of authority, seller's permit, or the equivalent). This is the switch: Seayora will not charge tax in a state that is not on this list, because collecting tax somewhere you have no return to file it on is holding somebody else's money. If you take work in a state where you are not registered, the invoice says whether that work would have been taxable — that is your signal to register.
Rates
Seayora holds each state's rate. Most states let counties, cities or special districts add their own on top, and those are not the same everywhere in the state — New York State is 4% while New York City is 8.875%. Enter the combined local rate for each area you work in, from your state's own rate lookup, with the area's ZIP or name. Until you do, an invoice in a local-rate state shows a warning that the figure is only the state rate and almost certainly short.
Exemption certificates
The certificate is the exemption. Filing one here — the form, its number, who signed it, when, and a scan — is what lets an invoice go out without tax on the work it covers. Without it, the work is taxed, whatever it obviously was.
| Certificate | What it is | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Capital improvement (NY ST-124, NJ ST-8 and equivalents) | The property owner certifies the work is a capital improvement. The owner, not you, is liable if the claim is wrong. | One job. It never becomes a blanket exemption for that customer. |
| Exempt organisation | A church, school or government body's exemption. | The customer, on every job. |
| Resale | The customer is reselling the work. | The customer. |
| Direct pay | The customer remits the tax directly to the state. | The customer. |
| Contractor exempt purchase (NY ST-120.1 and equivalents) | Your own certificate for buying materials tax-free on qualifying work. | Your purchases, not the customer's invoice. |
A certificate with an expiry stops applying on that date. Revoking one keeps it on file — invoices already issued under it relied on it, and that record has to survive.
Reading each state's rule
For every state you add, the screen shows what Seayora will apply — whether repair labour is taxed, whether a capital improvement is exempt and which form claims it, whether you are treated as the consumer of materials or a retailer, and the statute or bulletin it comes from. A state flagged "has exceptions" carries rules a simple table cannot fully hold (Arizona's two contracting regimes, Washington's treatment of the whole contract as a retail sale, Mississippi's separate contractor's tax); Seayora applies the general rule and says so on the invoice, and you should confirm the treatment with your accountant.
A note on what this is
Seayora keeps the rules and rates, computes the tax, and prints the basis. It does not determine your obligations, decide whether you have nexus in a state, register you, file, or remit, and none of it is tax advice. The rules are kept current and are corrected when a state amends them, but the responsibility for what you collect and file remains yours — see the Terms of Service.
Frequently asked questions
I work in a state that is not on the list of rules.
Seayora holds rules for every US state and DC. If a state is missing from the picker, contact support.
Who enters the local rates?
You do, for the areas you work in, from your state's official lookup. The platform keeps the state rates. A rate you enter is never overwritten by a platform update.
Can I collect tax while my registration is pending?
Ask your accountant or the state. Seayora only charges tax in states you have declared a registration for.
Related guides
Related features and guides
- Invoices, Receipts & Sales Tax for Contractors — Documentation. How a contractor invoice is built in Seayora, how sales tax is worked out for the job site line by line, what the customer sees at checkout, and when a receipt is issued.
- Parts & Materials: What Gets Taxed and What Does Not — Documentation. The parts catalogue, why "tax paid at purchase" matters, what buying on a resale certificate changes, use tax, purchase-tax credits, and the parts tax report.
- Charging a Customer Quickly — Documentation. One total, a labour and parts split, and the state the work happened in — with the right sales tax and the rule behind it.
- Compliance Alerts & Required Filings — Feature. Seayora watches your properties for new violations and works out which recurring filings each building owes, turns both into a dated checklist, and emails you when something new appears. Live violation data for New York City; rule-based filing obligations across the NYC metro.
- Sales Tax Basics for Contractors and Service Businesses — Guide. A plain-English introduction to sales tax for service and trade businesses — when it applies, the idea of nexus, and how to track what you collect.
- Pricing Tiers, Tax Quotes & Receipt Capture — Feature. Configurable pricing tiers, tax quoting, late fees, promo redemption, PDF invoices, and OCR receipt scanning that turns a photo into a booked expense.