Ohio Exemption Certificate Generator
Ohio exemption certificates fail on paperwork, not on eligibility. Answer six questions and print a certificate carrying every element R.C. 5739.03 requires — with the reason line written out the way an auditor expects to read it. Free, no signup, nothing leaves your browser.
Ohio exemption certificate generator
Answer six questions and get a completed, print-ready certificate carrying the four elements R.C. 5739.03 requires — including the written statutory reason, which is the line that fails audits.
Goes on the form as: Purchased for resale
Covers only items you will resell in the same or a similar form. Supplies your own business consumes are taxable — issue a separate purchase order for those rather than putting them on this certificate.
The entity actually buying. A trading name on its own is a defect.
One vendor per certificate. “All suppliers” is not a vendor.
Everything stays on this device — nothing is sent anywhere, and the signer's name is never saved.
STEC B — Blanket Exemption Certificate
Ohio Sales and Use Tax Exemption Certificate
The purchaser named below claims exemption from Ohio sales and use tax on all qualifying purchases of tangible personal property and selected services made from the vendor named below on and after the date of this certificate. The claim is based on the purchaser's proposed use of the items or services, the activity of the purchaser, or both, as stated below.
- Purchaser
- ———
- Address
- ———
- Vendor
- ———
- Reason for exemption
- Purchased for resaleR.C. 5739.01
Under R.C. 5739.03 a vendor that obtains a fully completed exemption certificate is relieved of liability for the tax on the sale. Liability moves to the purchaser, who may be assessed directly if the claim is wrong.
Prepared with ohiosalestaxcalculator.com. This is a purchaser's exemption certificate carrying the elements required by R.C. 5739.03; it is not the Ohio Department of Taxation's own STEC B form.
Still needed before this is a “fully completed” certificate:
- The purchaser's full legal name. A trading name on its own is a defect.
- The purchaser's address.
- The vendor's name. A certificate is vendor-specific — "all suppliers" is not a vendor.
- The name of the person signing. An unsigned certificate is not fully completed.
- The date signed.
Sign it, give it to the vendor at the time of sale or within 90 days, and keep a copy for at least four years. Ohio puts no expiry on a blanket certificate, but it stays valid only while the facts on it are still true — a change of entity, address or exemption reason invalidates it silently. General information, not tax advice for a specific transaction.
A certificate is a liability transfer
It is not a discount coupon. Under R.C. 5739.03, a vendor that obtains a fully completed exemption certificate is relieved of liability for collecting and remitting tax on that sale. The liability moves to the purchaser, who can be assessed directly if the claim turns out to be wrong.
Read that mechanism twice, because it explains why blank fields are so expensive. The vendor is protected by the document — not by the customer's honesty and not by the customer's tax-exempt status. A church that is unquestionably exempt, on a certificate with no reason line filled in, produces an assessment against the seller just as reliably as an outright false claim would. The full walkthrough is in Ohio sales tax exemption certificates: STEC B & U.
The reason lines this tool writes
Ohio wants a stated statutory basis on the reason line, not a category word. These are the claims the generator covers:
- Buying to resell — “Purchased for resale” (R.C. 5739.01)
- Manufacturing or production — “Used primarily in a manufacturing operation to produce tangible personal property for sale” (R.C. 5739.02(B)(15))
- Farming or agriculture — “Used directly in agricultural production for sale” (R.C. 5739.02)
- Church — “Purchases by a church, exempt under R.C. 5739.02(B)(12)” (R.C. 5739.02(B)(12))
- Charitable non-profit — “Purchases by a non-profit organisation operated exclusively for charitable purposes” (R.C. 5739.02)
- Government body — “Purchased by a government body for its own use — the United States, the State of Ohio, or a political subdivision of Ohio” (R.C. 5739.02)
A certificate documents an exemption; it does not create one. The purchase still has to qualify under R.C. 5739.02 in the first place — the conditions attached to each category are in Ohio sales tax exemptions. If the item is exempt for everyone, like unprepared groceries or prescription drugs, you need no certificate at all, because there is no tax to relieve.
What to do with it once it is signed
- Give it to the vendor at the time of sale or within 90 days. That is the window in which it does its full statutory job.
- Keep a copy for at least four years — Ohio's assessment window reaches back further than most owners expect.
- If you are the vendor receiving one: check every field is completed, check the reason is plausible for what you sold, and file it against the customer account rather than the invoice. A blanket certificate covers many invoices; filing per-invoice guarantees you cannot find it later.
- Charge the tax when in doubt. Refunding an over-collection is a customer-service problem; under-collecting is a personal liability.
Ohio publishes ten certificates in total, all as fillable PDFs on ODT's exemption certificates page. What auditors sample and how the process runs is in the Ohio sales tax audit guide, and the surrounding obligations in the Ohio business sales tax compliance guide.
Exemption certificate questions
No, and it does not pretend to be. It produces a purchaser's exemption certificate carrying the four elements R.C. 5739.03 requires — purchaser's full legal name and address, the vendor's name, a written statutory reason, and a signature with a date. Ohio does not mandate a particular layout for a general exemption claim; it requires a fully completed certificate. If you would rather use ODT's own fillable PDF, the tool links straight to it, and the reason line it writes works just as well typed into that.
STEC B, the blanket certificate, if you buy from that vendor repeatedly — it covers every qualifying purchase from them going forward, which is what a restaurant gives its food distributor or a reseller gives its wholesaler. STEC U, the unit certificate, covers one specific purchase. Chasing a fresh unit certificate for every invoice is how gaps appear in a file, so use blanket wherever the relationship is ongoing. The tool picks for you from that one question.
Because it is the field that fails. Ohio wants a stated statutory basis, not a category word. "Exempt" fails; "Purchased for resale" passes. "Farm" fails; "Used directly in agricultural production for sale" passes. An auditor pulling thirty exempt invoices and finding four blank or vague reason lines makes those four sales taxable — against the seller, whose customer is long gone.
No, and the tool refuses rather than producing something that would fail. A titled motor vehicle uses STEC MV, filed with the Clerk of Courts at titling. Titled watercraft use STEC WC. Construction contracts use STEC CC or STEC CO, which are not interchangeable and allocate risk in opposite directions. Software used in several locations at once uses STEC MPU. Pick one of those in the first question and the tool tells you which form you actually need and where to get it.
At the time of sale, or within 90 days after it. That is the window in which a certificate does its full statutory job of relieving the vendor of liability. Certificates gathered later can still be accepted under a good-faith standard, but that is a worse position and an avoidable one. The practical rule for a seller: no certificate on file means charge the tax — you can refund it once the paperwork arrives, you cannot always collect it three years later.
Ohio puts no fixed expiry date on one. It stays valid only while the facts on it remain true, so it fails silently the moment the purchaser's entity, address or exemption reason changes — nothing tells you. Re-confirming blanket certificates once a year costs an afternoon and closes the largest single hole most vendors have.
No. The certificate is built in your browser and printed from it. Your details are kept in this browser's local storage so you do not retype them next time, and the signer's name is deliberately never saved. Nothing is uploaded and there is no signup.
More for Ohio businesses
Collecting, filing and checking what a sale would have cost with tax.