How to Enroll in Amazon Tax Exemption (ATEP)

This page is the walkthrough. If you want the wider picture of what ATEP is, who it applies to and what it is worth, that is on tax-exempt purchasing. Here we are just getting you enrolled without a rejection.

Before you open the wizard

Two checks, in this order. Skipping them is why enrollments fail, and neither takes more than a minute.

Do you hold a state sales-tax exemption?

Sales tax is a state matter. ATEP recognizes an exemption you already hold under state law; it does not grant one. If your organization has never applied to its state revenue authority for sales-tax exempt status, that is the conversation to have first, and it is not one Amazon can help with.

Does the certificate match the account?

Amazon requires the exemption document to match the business name or address on the Amazon Business account. This is the second-largest cause of failure and the easiest to prevent. Compare the two strings literally — abbreviations, suffixes and punctuation included — before you submit anything.

The documents Amazon will not accept

Read this list before you upload, not after. Amazon states it does not accept the following for ATEP enrollment:

• Sales tax permits
• Articles of incorporation
• Tax licenses
• IRS determination letters — unless state law specifically requires them
• W9s
• Certificates of registration

The determination letter is the one that catches non-profits, churches and schools, because it is the document that proves the organization is exempt — just not the kind of exempt Amazon is asking about. See nonprofits, churches and faith organizations and schools and education.

What Amazon does accept

Valid exemption certificates and forms for your jurisdiction, which must:

• Be dated
• Be signed
• List a description of items, where applicable
• Match the business name or address on the Amazon Business account

The enrollment, step by step

1. Confirm you hold a STATE sales-tax exemption. This is the step people skip. Federal 501(c)(3) status is income-tax exemption granted by the IRS. Amazon needs the state sales-tax exemption granted by your state revenue authority. If you do not have one, ATEP cannot create one for you.
2. Check the name and address on your Amazon account. Amazon requires the exemption document to match the business name or address on the account. If your certificate is in the legal entity name and the account is in a trading name, fix the account first.
3. Gather the four things the wizard asks for. The states or jurisdictions in which you are exempt; the exemption type, such as resale or direct pay permit; the organization name and address as registered; and the exemption numbers or certificate forms themselves.
4. Sign in as an account administrator. ATEP enrollment is an administrator action. If you cannot see Business Settings, you do not hold the role that can complete this.
5. Open Business Settings. From your Amazon Business account, go to Business Settings.
6. Go to Tax Exemption and licenses, then Tax exemption. This is where enrollment lives. It is a settings page, not a support request.
7. Select Add Tax Exemptions. This begins a new enrollment.
8. Run the quick wizard setup. Enter your jurisdictions, exemption type and organization details, or upload your exemption documents directly. Enter every state you are exempt in during this pass.
9. Submit and watch for the confirmation email. Amazon says exemption activates within 15 minutes of a successful enrollment and sends a confirmation email. No email usually means a document was rejected rather than that processing is slow.

Multi-state organizations

The wizard handles multiple jurisdictions in one pass. Enrolling state by state as certificates surface is slower and produces more opportunities to submit a mismatched document.

If your organization operates across states with different exemption types — resale in one, direct pay permit in another, full exemption in a third — collect all of it before you start. Have the exemption type clear for each jurisdiction, because the wizard asks.

After enrollment

Three things worth knowing:

• It is not retroactive. Exemption applies from activation onward. This is the argument for enrolling in the same sitting as registration rather than three months in — see how to create an Amazon Business account.
• Transaction-specific certificates. After enrollment Amazon supports generating exemption certificates for a specific order, which is useful for your own records or an auditor's.
• Exemption applies to eligible orders. Not every item in every jurisdiction is exempt, and marketplace sellers can affect this. Check the tax line on early orders rather than assuming.

If enrollment fails

Work through this in order:

1. Check the document type against the reject list above. If you submitted a determination letter or a W9, that is the answer.
2. Check the name and address match character by character between certificate and account.
3. Check the certificate is dated and signed, and lists an item description where the form calls for one.
4. Check you enrolled the right jurisdiction. An exemption for one state does nothing for orders shipped to another.
5. Confirm the account is fully verified. A registration still in manual review is a different problem — verification and approval.

Who should do this

Any organization holding a valid state sales-tax exemption: non-profits, churches, schools and districts, government bodies, and resellers buying for resale. For all of them a one-off enrollment removes sales tax from eligible orders permanently, at no cost — which is why we regard it as the single highest-value free feature on the platform. See Amazon Business account benefits and government and public sector.