CraftShow Events

Sales Tax for Craft Show Vendors in Maine

Last researched September 14, 2026 Sources: Maine Revenue Services (MRS), Sales, Fuel & Special Tax Division Medium confidence

Short answer

Maine sellers who make regular sales must register with Maine Revenue Services for a free retailer certificate and collect 5.5% sales tax [1][2]. Prepared food is taxed at 8% [2]. Only truly isolated "casual sales" are exempt [3][4][5]. Filing frequency depends on your average tax liability, and returns are due on the 15th [1]. No event-specific permit or promoter duty was found.

Registration
Retailer Certificate (sales tax registration)
Cost
No fee for registration
State base rate
5.5% As of: 2025-12-22. Local taxes may apply.
Event organizers have duties?
None found in official sources
Official registration
https://revenue.maine.gov/

Who needs to register

  • In-state regular sellers: sellers located in Maine that "make regular sales of tangible personal property or taxable services" are "required to register for a sales tax account." [1]
  • Statute: the listed persons "other than casual sellers, shall register with the assessor and collect and remit taxes" [3]
  • Out-of-state sellers selling in Maine: "Every seller of tangible personal property or taxable services who does not have a business location in Maine but makes retail sales in Maine" [2]
  • Casual sale definition: "an isolated transaction" made "other than in the ordinary course of repeated and successive transactions of like character" [4]
  • Casual sales are untaxed: "Casual sales of tangible personal property and taxable services are not subject to sales or use tax, except those listed in Section 2 below." [5]
  • Items made for sale are not casual: "Sales that are operated on a continuing basis or that include items produced or acquired for resale by the seller are not casual sales." [5]
  • Such sellers must register: they "are required to register as retailers under the Sales and Use Tax Law and to collect, report, and remit Maine sales tax" [5]
  • Charitable fairs: casual sales include "transactions at a bazaar, fair, rummage sale, picnic or similar event by a civic, religious or fraternal organization that is not a registered retailer." [4]

The permit or registration

  • Name: MRS says "A Retailer Certificate is issued when a person applies to Maine Revenue Services (MRS) for a sales tax registration." [1]
  • How: "Click the Register a New Business – Start Here hyperlink in the Businesses panel on the homepage of the Maine Tax Portal" [1]
  • Paper option: "If you prefer to apply using a paper application, download a PDF of the application." [1]
  • Cost: "There is no fee for registration." [2]
  • No expiry: "Retailer certificates have no expiration date" [2]
  • One per location: "A separate certificate must be obtained for each place of business in this State" [2]
  • Mobile sellers: for sellers without a fixed place of business selling from vehicles, "each motor vehicle is deemed to be a place of business." [3]
  • Resale certificate threshold: MRS issues one to new registrants that expect "annual gross sales of $3,000 or more." [3]

Collecting and filing

  • General rate: "A sales tax is imposed at the rate of 5.5% of the sale price on retail sales, leases, or rentals of tangible personal property" [2]
  • Filing frequency: "Generally, every retailer with an average tax liability of $600 or more per month must file a monthly tax return." [1]
  • Smaller sellers: "Retailers with average tax liability of less than $100 per month but more than $50 per year may file semiannual returns." [1]
  • Very small sellers: "Retailers whose average tax liability is less than $50 per year may file an annual return." [1]
  • Due date: "Tax returns are due on the 15th day of the month following your reporting period end date." [1]
  • Late filing penalty: "There is a failure to file penalty of $25.00 or 10% of the tax due, whichever is greater" [1]
  • Advertising: "A retailer may NOT advertise that no sales tax will be charged on otherwise taxable items" [2]

Organizer / promoter obligations

  • No specific promoter obligation found in official sources.

Food and other special cases

  • Prepared food rate: "The rate of tax is 8% on sales of prepared food" [2]
  • Event food: "sales at carnivals, fairs, and athletic events will normally fall under all of the categories within the definition of prepared food." [6]
  • Street vendors: "sales of all food and drink by street vendors are taxable at the prepared food rate." [6]
  • Nonprofit food events: sales of prepared food by a civic, religious or fraternal organization are exempt, but the exemption "is limited to the first 24 days during which such sales are made in a calendar year" [6]

Sources

  1. Sales and Use Tax FAQ — Maine Revenue Services — https://www.maine.gov/revenue/faq/sales-use-service-provider-tax — who must register, Maine Tax Portal, retailer certificate, filing frequency, due date, penalties
  2. Business Guide to Sales and Use Tax (Revised December 22, 2025) — Maine Revenue Services — https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/Business%20Guide%20for%20December%202025%20FINAL.pdf — 5.5% and 8% rates, no registration fee, certificates
  3. Title 36, §1754-B, Registration of sellers — Maine Legislature — https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/36/title36sec1754-B.html — registration duty excluding casual sellers, vehicles as place of business, resale certificates
  4. Title 36, §1752, Definitions — Maine Legislature — https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/36/title36sec1752.html — casual sale definition
  5. Instructional Bulletin No. 9, Casual and Infrequent Sales (Last Revised October 15, 2015) — Maine Revenue Services — https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/Bull910152015.pdf — casual versus retail sales
  6. Instructional Bulletin No. 27, Sales of Prepared Food (Last Revised November 1, 2017) — Maine Revenue Services — https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/IB27SalesPreparedFood20171101.pdf — prepared food at fairs, street vendors, nonprofit events

What we could not confirm

  • Confidence: medium. Registration, the free certificate, rates and filing rules are clearly documented by MRS. But no MRS page reviewed specifically addresses craft show or flea market vendors, or when occasional event selling stops being "casual".
  • No temporary or event-specific registration was found. Craft sellers making repeated sales register as regular retailers.
  • No promoter or organizer obligation (vendor lists, verifying certificates) was found in 36 M.R.S. §1754-B, the Business Guide or the bulletins reviewed. Other rules (for example MRS Rule 304 on filing frequency) were not reviewed.
  • The quarterly filing tier ($100–$600 average monthly liability) appears on the FAQ page. Only the monthly, semiannual and annual tiers are quoted above.
  • Bulletins No. 9 (2015) and No. 27 (2017) are older. The 2025 Business Guide still confirms the 5.5% and 8% rates.
  • Maine has no local sales taxes mentioned in the sources reviewed, but no explicit statement to that effect was quoted.
  • Rate date: 5.5% per the Business Guide revised December 22, 2025.