SST Certified Service Providers, and what CSP status is worth

Read this part first

This site is operated by TaxCloud, and TaxCloud is one of the five CSPs. That is a real conflict on this page more than any other, because CSP status is the thing TaxCloud sells against. So: every claim below is attributed to the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board rather than to us, the full CSP list is published rather than only the providers we track, and the limits on the benefit are stated as plainly as the benefit itself. Full ownership disclosure.

Nothing here is tax advice. Whether you qualify is determined state by state, and the definitive answer comes from the state or your tax adviser.

What is a Certified Service Provider?

The Governing Board defines a CSP as “an agent certified under the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement to perform all the seller's sales and use tax functions, other than the seller's obligation to remit tax on its own purchases.”

Concretely, a CSP's software identifies which products and services are taxable, applies the right rate, keeps the transaction record, prepares and files returns, remits tax to each member state, and handles audits and notice resolution. The distinguishing feature is not the software. It is that in member states, the state compensates the CSP for that work rather than the seller.

Which providers are Certified Service Providers?

Certification is granted by the SST Governing Board. A vendor cannot self-declare it. As of the last verification, the Board lists five providers certified and currently offering free services under the program:

Source: SST Governing Board, Certified Service Providers list.

Of the eight platforms tracked on this site, Avalara and TaxCloud are CSPs. The other 6 are not: Anrok, Kintsugi, Numeral, Sphere, TaxJar, Zamp. Those six bill their standard per-filing rates in SST member states like anywhere else.

Which states are in the program?

24 states: 23 full members plus Tennessee, the only associate member.

Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Tennessee.

Source: SST Governing Board FAQ. You will sometimes see a count of 25, which usually reflects a vendor adding a state with a similar arrangement outside SST membership. This page counts member states only.

Who qualifies, and where it stops

The Board's rule is that a CSP “should not charge a seller for the CSP services for any Streamlined member state in which the seller meets the definition of ‘CSP-compensated seller’.” That definition lives in the CSP contract rather than on the public site.

Three limits are worth knowing before you build a business case on this:

• It turns on your connection to the state, not your size. The common shorthand is a seller with economic nexus only and no physical presence. Physical presence, property, or payroll in a state generally takes you outside it.
• It is decided state by state. Each member state certifies software and compensates CSPs separately, so free service is not uniform across all 24 states.
• It only covers the CSP services. Subscription pricing, registrations, and filings in non-member states are unaffected. CSP status removes a line from the bill; it does not remove the bill.

What is CSP status actually worth?

Rather than assert a number, here is the same calculator this site uses everywhere else, run twice against TaxCloud on the mid-market profile (250K orders · 200 filings · 20 states · 10 SST · Shopify): once with 10 SST states declared, once with none.

That is this site's estimate, not a vendor quote, and it moves with how many SST states you actually file in. Run your own footprint.

The first public price on CSP economics

CSP compensation has never had a public number attached to it. In July 2026 Avalara put one there by accident of packaging: its published plans price Core Compliance + SST Services at $69 per state per month against $79 for the same bundle without SST services. Avalara explains the inversion directly, saying states compensate it as a CSP for covered services.

Read carefully, that $10 per state per month is what one CSP is willing to pass through to the customer. It is not the value of the program to a seller, and Avalara's own fine print limits the state-funded portion to qualifying transactions in participating states.

Frequently asked questions

What is an SST Certified Service Provider?

A CSP is, in the Governing Board's words, "an agent certified under the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement to perform all the seller's sales and use tax functions, other than the seller's obligation to remit tax on its own purchases." In practice that means the CSP identifies what is taxable, applies the rate, keeps the transaction record, files the returns, remits the tax, and handles audits and notices.

Which providers are SST Certified Service Providers?

Avalara, TaxCloud, Sovos, AccurateTax, Avior are certified and currently offering free services under the program. Exactor is certified but the Governing Board records it as not currently offering free services. No other sales tax platform is a CSP.

How many states are in the Streamlined Sales Tax Program?

24: 23 full member states plus Tennessee, the only associate member state.

Who qualifies for free CSP services?

The Governing Board's rule is that a CSP "should not charge a seller for the CSP services for any Streamlined member state in which the seller meets the definition of 'CSP-compensated seller'". That definition lives in the CSP contract, and it turns on your connection to the state rather than your sales volume. The common shorthand is a seller with economic nexus only and no physical presence, but eligibility is determined state by state, not once for all of them. Confirm your own status with the state or your tax adviser before relying on it.

Is CSP status the same in every member state?

No. Each state certifies CSP software and compensates CSPs separately, so free service is not uniform across all 24 member states. Individual providers publish their own coverage claims, which may be broader or narrower than any single state's rules.

What is CSP status actually worth?

For the mid-market profile used across this site (250K orders · 200 filings · 20 states · 10 SST · Shopify), running TaxCloud with 10 SST states declared costs $4,598 per year against $9,998 with none declared, a difference of $5,400 per year. That is this site's calculator, not a vendor quote, and the figure moves with how many SST states you actually file in.

Does being a CSP make a provider cheaper overall?

Not necessarily. CSP status removes the filing cost in qualifying member states, but subscription pricing, per-registration fees, and non-SST state filings are unaffected. A non-CSP provider with lower subscription pricing can still come out ahead depending on your state footprint. The calculator on this site applies the CSP credit where eligible so you can compare the whole bill rather than one line of it.