EXPLORE INDUSTRIES GUIDES LEARN GLOSSARY BOOKS WHITEPAPER TOOLS RESOURCES PIONEER MARKETS COUNTRIES FEES MISSION FUND PASSPORT

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RESOURCES.

Where to actually go — the registration, the form, the standards body, the authority. Most of these are not ours, and that is the point.

STARTING OUT

The registrations every seller needs before their first order, at the offices that issue them.

A federal employer identification number, free, issued immediately online. Needed for a W-9, a business bank account, and most state registrations.

The form every business you sell to will ask you for. Fill it once and keep it in your GRAJ documents.

Register your business

State-by-state guidance on entity formation, licences and permits.

US Small Business Administration ↗

Sales tax registration by state

Which states you must register in, and how. Registration comes BEFORE collecting a cent of tax.

Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board ↗

TAX AND FILING

GRAJ computes the tax on an order. Filing and remitting it is the seller’s, and these are the people who do it.

Economic nexus thresholds

When selling into a state creates an obligation there — usually $100,000 in sales, sometimes a transaction count.

Marketplace facilitator rules

Which states make the platform responsible instead of the seller, and how those sales are reported.

The filing partner behind Shopify Tax — returns prepared and filed on a merchant’s behalf.

Tax calculation, returns and exemption certificate management.

1099-K and 1099-NEC

What a platform reports about you, and what you report about the people you pay.

PRODUCT, LABELLING AND STANDARDS

Barcodes, labels and claims — the parts a buyer will ask for before they take a case.

GS1 US — barcodes and GTINs

Where real UPCs and GTINs come from. A barcode that is not GS1-issued will fail at a distributor.

FDA food labeling guide

Nutrition panels, ingredient statements, allergens and claims for food and beverage.

What organic certification requires, and who can certify you.

California Prop 65

The warning requirement that catches out-of-state sellers shipping into California.

TTB — alcohol

Label approval, formulas and permits for anything alcoholic.

FREIGHT AND DELIVERY

For the shippers, storers and anybody moving cases themselves.

FMCSA — operating authority

Carrier registration, USDOT and MC numbers, and insurance filings.

NMFTA — freight classification

Freight class and NMFC codes, which decide what an LTL shipment costs.

ON THE PROTOCOL

What GRAJ itself publishes, and what it costs.

Calculators for margin, case packs, freight per unit, break-even and more.

How each role actually works here, written for the person doing it.

The vocabulary of wholesale, defined plainly.

The 5% protocol fee and what it does and does not cover.

What this protocol is for, and the argument behind it.

Where the protocol operates and what changes per market.

Which cover your role usually carries and what to ask a broker for. GRAJ underwrites none of it.

WE POINT AT THE SOURCE.
WE DO NOT REPLACE IT.

Rates, thresholds and deadlines change. The offices that publish them do not, so these link straight to the authority rather than to our summary of it. Nothing here is tax or legal advice.

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