Economic nexus

Also called sales tax nexus, Wayfair nexus

The US rule that a remote seller must collect a state's sales tax once its sales into that state pass a threshold, typically $100,000 a year, even with no office or staff there.

Until 2018, a US state could only make a seller collect sales tax if the seller had a physical presence there. In South Dakota v. Wayfair, decided on 21 June 2018, the Supreme Court upheld South Dakota’s test: more than $100,000 of sales into the state, or 200 or more separate transactions, in a year. States with a sales tax built their rules around that benchmark.

The transaction count is disappearing. Utah dropped it in 2025 and Illinois from 1 January 2026 (Illinois Department of Revenue), leaving a dollar test only. For a studio selling $5 packs, 200 transactions is $1,000 of sales, so the count test used to catch small sellers long before the dollar test did.

Crossing a threshold answers only half the question. Taxability of games and in-game items varies by state. Pennsylvania lists game add-ons as taxable, while a 2025 Indiana ruling reportedly found one publisher’s in-game items and virtual currency not taxable. With a PSP, the studio tracks this state by state. A merchant of record collects under its own registrations. See tax.