North Dakota: the state that lost Quill, and the remote seller rule that replaced it

A campaign-code plan that keeps your North Dakota number visible

1. Before you plan anything

   Add up your taxable sales delivered into North Dakota for this calendar year and for last year. The Commissioner's test is taxable sales above 100,000 dollars in the current or the previous calendar year, so you need that one figure by state, and an order count tells you nothing.

   Source: North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Remote Sellers

2. If you are under the line

   Send North Dakota shoppers a campaign code that only works from a tagged link, for example to an email list or a regional partner. Every order that comes through the link carries the tag, so the campaign's North Dakota sales are easy to add to your running total. This is planning advice, not a state requirement.

   Source: North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Sales Tax: Sales, Use, and Gross Receipts Tax Requirements Guideline

3. When you read the transaction history

   Do not stop counting orders because the state dropped the transaction test. The Commissioner's history says the 200-transaction criterion was repealed in the 2019 session, so many small orders do not trigger registration on their own. Dollars do. The page does not give the date of the repeal, so rely on the Commissioner's current remote seller page.

   Source: North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Sales and Use Tax History

4. The year you cross it

   Plan for the collection date. The Commissioner says a seller that meets the threshold collects on sales delivered during the following calendar year, or beginning 60 days after the threshold is met, whichever is earlier. Register for a permit before the earlier date and set the tax rate for each North Dakota delivery address.

   Source: North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Remote Sellers

5. When a code touches shipping

   The guideline treats shipping and handling as part of the selling price of a taxable sale, so a shipping charge you keep is taxed with the goods. Write your code terms around the delivered price, and ask the Commissioner how a discount is treated for tax before you publish a worked example with a tax line in it.

   Source: North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Sales Tax: Sales, Use, and Gross Receipts Tax Requirements Guideline

6. On the first day of January, April, July and October

   Re-check local rates. The Commissioner says local tax changes take effect on the first day of a calendar quarter and are posted at least 60 days ahead, so a change that lands on a quarter start is public before it happens. Put the four dates in your calendar and update your tax settings in the same sitting.

   Source: North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Local Taxes by Location Guideline (rates effective Oct. 1, 2026)

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Questions merchants ask

What did Quill decide, and is it still the law?

Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (1992) held that a mail-order seller with no outlets or sales representatives in the state lacked the substantial nexus the Commerce Clause requires for the state to make it collect a use tax. The Supreme Court overruled the physical presence rule of Quill in South Dakota v. Wayfair on June 21, 2018, so it is no longer the rule. This page does not give legal advice; confirm your position with the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner.

When must an online store collect North Dakota sales tax?

The Commissioner's remote seller page says a seller must collect once its taxable sales into North Dakota exceed 100,000 dollars in the current or previous calendar year, and the 200-transaction test is gone. Collection starts on sales delivered during the following calendar year, or 60 days after the threshold is met, whichever is earlier. This is not tax advice; confirm with the Office of State Tax Commissioner.

What is the North Dakota sales tax rate?

The Commissioner's guideline gives 5 percent on taxable retail sales of tangible personal property and certain services. Cities and counties can add local taxes, which a remote seller also collects, and the Sales Tax Rate Lookup tool gives the rate for an address. Local changes take effect on the first day of a calendar quarter.

Is shipping taxed in North Dakota?

The guideline says freight, delivery and other transportation charges, including shipping and handling, are part of the selling price. They are taxable when the sale is taxable and exempt when the product delivered is exempt. This is not tax advice; ask the Commissioner about a mixed order.

How does this differ from South Dakota?

South Dakota's law is the one the Supreme Court reviewed in Wayfair. North Dakota's is the state behind Quill, the rule Wayfair overruled. Read the South Dakota page for the later case and its own threshold history, and this page for the 1992 rule and the sales-only test North Dakota applies now.

The year at a glance

Related reading

• Discount Codes vs Automatic Discounts
• Sales Tax Holidays for Online Sellers
• Unique Discount Codes for Creators, Email

Facts and sources

• The Supreme Court's syllabus in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, argued January 22, 1992 and decided May 26, 1992, says a vendor whose only contacts with the taxing State are by mail or common carrier lacks the substantial nexus the Commerce Clause requires, while to the extent earlier decisions required physical presence under the Due Process Clause, they were overruled.

  Library of Congress, U.S. Reports: Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992) (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The opinion describes Quill as a Delaware corporation with offices and warehouses in Illinois, California and Georgia, none of whose employees worked or lived in North Dakota, selling office equipment and supplies through catalogs, flyers, national advertisements and telephone calls, with national sales above 200 million dollars of which almost 1 million dollars went to about 3,000 North Dakota customers, making it the sixth largest vendor of office supplies in the State.

  Library of Congress, U.S. Reports: Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992) (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The opinion records that in 1987 North Dakota amended its statutory definition of retailer to include every person who engages in regular or systematic solicitation of a consumer market in the state, that state regulations defined that as three or more advertisements within a 12-month period, and that the State sued for tax on sales made after July 1, 1987.

  Library of Congress, U.S. Reports: Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992) (accessed October 10, 2026)

• Cornell's copy of the Wayfair opinion, decided June 21, 2018, carries the syllabus holding that because the physical presence rule of Quill is unsound and incorrect, Quill and National Bellas Hess are overruled.

  Cornell Legal Information Institute: South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., No. 17-494 (June 21, 2018) (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The Commissioner's requirements guideline says an out-of-state remote seller making taxable sales into North Dakota must hold a permit and collect state and local taxes unless it qualifies for the small seller exception in section 57-39.2-02.2 of the Century Code, which requires collection only if taxable sales into the state within a calendar year exceed 100,000 dollars.

  North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Sales Tax: Sales, Use, and Gross Receipts Tax Requirements Guideline (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The Commissioner's remote seller page sets the threshold at taxable sales into the state above 100,000 dollars in the current or previous calendar year, says a seller that crosses it must collect on sales delivered during the following calendar year or beginning 60 days after the threshold is met, whichever is earlier, and does not mention a transaction count.

  North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Remote Sellers (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The Commissioner's sales and use tax history says the 2017 law used 100,000 dollars or 200 or more separate transactions and took effect only when Quill was overturned, and that the 2019 session repealed the 200-transaction test, so a remote seller considers only the 100,000 dollar taxable sales threshold; the page gives no effective date for the repeal.

  North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Sales and Use Tax History (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The remote seller page says a remote seller must charge North Dakota sales tax, including local option sales tax, on the same basis as an in-state seller, and that city and county taxes are typically administered by the Commissioner on behalf of the city or county; it points to the Sales Tax Rate Lookup tool for local rates.

  North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Remote Sellers (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The guideline says sales tax is paid by the purchaser and collected by the retailer, at 5 percent on the total receipts from all other taxable retail sales of tangible personal property and certain services, with separate rates for items such as new manufactured homes and hotel stays.

  North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Sales Tax: Sales, Use, and Gross Receipts Tax Requirements Guideline (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The guideline says freight, delivery and other transportation charges, including shipping and handling charges, are always part of the selling price, so they are taxable if the sale is taxable and exempt if the product being delivered is exempt.

  North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Sales Tax: Sales, Use, and Gross Receipts Tax Requirements Guideline (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The Commissioner's local taxes guideline, labeled as rates effective October 1, 2026, says new local taxes and changes to existing ones become effective on the first day of a calendar quarter, with updates posted at least 60 days before the quarter starts.

  North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner: Local Taxes by Location Guideline (rates effective Oct. 1, 2026) (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The National Park Service lists Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota as having three units, the South Unit, the Elkhorn Ranch Unit and the North Unit, with a visitor center at Painted Canyon.

  National Park Service: Theodore Roosevelt National Park (accessed October 10, 2026)

• North Dakota covers 70,698 square miles in total, of which 69,001 are land.

  U.S. Census Bureau: State Area Measurements (2010) (accessed October 10, 2026)

• The Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimate puts North Dakota at 799,358 residents on July 1, 2025, against a 2020 estimates base of 779,136, a gain of 20,222 or about 2.6 percent (computed by us from the two figures).

  U.S. Census Bureau: Vintage 2025 state population estimates (accessed October 10, 2026)