Sales tax
In the United States, 501c3 non-profits, including churches, are exempt from federal tax; however, state tax laws vary and change regularly. Due to this, Planning Center is required to collect state sales tax in some regions of the US. Your church may or may not be impacted by sales tax, depending on whether your church is in a state where:
No sales tax is collected at all or SaaS (software as a service) isn't taxed.
Sales tax is always collected, including non-profits.
Sales tax is collected, but non-profits are exempt if they provide vendors with a tax exemption certificate.
If your church is charged sales tax, it appears as an additional item on your receipts.
Does my church need to pay sales tax?
Your billing address determines whether or not you need to pay sales tax, so be sure that your billing address is on the Billing Info tab on the Subscriptions page in Account settings and that it's current.
Billing address type | Action required |
|---|---|
In a state with no sales tax | None. |
In a state that collects sales tax | None. Sales tax will automatically be added to your billing. |
In a state that permits tax exemption | Follow the steps below to upload a sales tax exemption certificate and avoid being charged sales tax. This option will not appear if you are not located in these particular states. |
Submit a sales tax exemption certificate
In some states that collect sales tax, churches may be tax-exempt. If your church is located in one of these states, you'll find a Sales Tax section on the Subscriptions page to upload a tax exemption certificate.
Tax exemption certificates must be uploaded; certificates will not be accepted by postal mail or email attachments.
Sales tax can not be refunded. If you do not upload your certificate or correct any billing address mistakes before billing, sales tax will be collected and reported to the state. Contact your local state tax board for more information on how tax exemption certificates work in your area.
Before uploading your certificate, review it for these common mistakes:
Signature is missing.
The certificate has expired.
The certificate-issuing state does not match the billing address.
Planning Center is not listed as the seller/vendor.
Follow the steps below to upload your certificate:
In account settings, select the Subscriptions page from the top navigation.
Select Billing Info on the left.
Scroll to the bottom and select the Upload certificate button. If you do not see this button, check that your billing address is correct.
(Optional) Add a name for the document.
Select Choose file to upload your tax exemption certificate; it must be a PDF, JPEG, or PNG file.
If your certificate expires, leave the This document has an expiration date box checked and fill in the expiration date.
If your certificate does not expire, uncheck the box.
Select the Upload button to submit the sales tax exemption certificate for review.
The uploaded certificate immediately shows as Active on the Billing page, and you will not be charged sales tax unless your document is rejected during review. If the certificate is rejected, the status will change to Inactive, and you'll be notified via email that you must upload a different certificate.
Tax exemption certificate statuses
There are two statuses for sales tax exemption certificates: active and inactive.
Active: This status means that the certificate is either pending review or has been approved by Planning Center, and you will not be charged sales tax as long as your status remains Active.
Inactive: This status means that the certificate has been rejected, has expired, or is a result of a state mismatch (which occurs when the billing address has changed state since the certificate was uploaded). Hover over the status icon to see why the certificate shows this status.