Mississippi considers retail delivery fee for 2025

Mississippi may implement a retail delivery fee as early as July 1, 2025. If it does, it will join Colorado and Minnesota, the only states with a fee on retail deliveries today.

House Bill 530 would impose a new 30-cent delivery fee on each commercial transaction involving retail delivery in Mississippi. The delivery fee would apply once per transaction even if more than one delivery is needed to fulfill the order.

As in Colorado and Minnesota, retailers could choose to collect the fee from customers or pay the fee themselves. If they collect it from the buyer, retailers would need to separately state the fee and identify it as the “road improvement and food delivery fee” on the bill of sale, invoice, or receipt.

The Mississippi delivery fee would be nonrefundable if the buyer returns the items to the retailer, but it could be refunded if the order is cancelled before delivery occurs. This is the same policy in effect in Colorado and Minnesota.

Mississippi sales tax would not apply to separately stated retail delivery fees.

Per Mississippi HB 530, the 30-cent fee would apply to retail deliveries of:

• Tangible personal property subject to Mississippi sales and use tax
• Clothing (with certain exceptions)

It’s curious that the authors of the bill called out clothing, because clothing is tangible personal property and it’s subject to Mississippi sales and use tax. This suggests that the bill was loosely modeled on Minnesota’s retail delivery fee law. Minnesota had to specify that its fee applied to clothing because most clothing is exempt from Minnesota sales tax.

Another curious thing that suggests the bill was modeled on the Minnesota fee:

• The Minnesota retail delivery fee applies when charges for taxable tangible personal property or clothing equal $100 or more.
• The Mississippi delivery fee legislation provides a definition for “threshold amount” ($100 before applicable sales taxes) but doesn’t offer any more details.

Yes. 

The fee wouldn’t apply to retail deliveries made to a purchaser who’s exempt from Mississippi sales tax.

Likewise, the fee wouldn’t apply to any retail delivery on a motor vehicle for which a permit issued by the Department of Public Safety, Department of Revenue, or Department of Transportation is required under Titles 27 and 63, Mississippi Code of 1972 — provided the retailer has maintained books and records through reasonable and verifiable standards that the retail delivery was on a qualifying vehicle.

Retailers and marketplace providers, as defined by the bill, would be subject to the retail delivery fee. If they use a third party to collect and remit sales tax, they could use the third party to collect and remit the fee. 

Unlike in Colorado and Minnesota, the bill doesn’t provide an exception for retailers and marketplaces making less than a certain threshold of sales in the state. For example, businesses with $500,000 or less in total retail sales in Colorado in the prior year are exempt from the retail delivery fee. Minnesota uses an even higher threshold.

The Mississippi delivery fee legislation doesn’t specify at what point remote retailers and marketplaces would become liable for the fee. Under Mississippi’s economic nexus law, a remote retailer must register for sales tax only if they have at least $250,000 in sales in the state in the prior 12 months.

HB 530 says the retailer must start collecting the fee (or paying it themselves) and remitting it on the first day of a calendar month. That’s a bit vague. After what month? And is it every month?

The retailer or marketplace would report and remit the fee on their income tax return. This is different from the requirements in Colorado and Minnesota and it’s surprising. Colorado has a separate retail delivery fee return, while the Minnesota delivery fee is reported on the sales and use tax return.

Maybe, but maybe not starting July 1, 2025. Mississippi HB 530 needs some work. We’ll update this post if Mississippi does enact a retail delivery fee.

Yes. Hawaii and Maryland have both introduced retail delivery fee legislation, as has Indiana. Washington has been studying the issue but has yet to introduce a bill this session. Retail delivery fees have also been floated in Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and Ohio. You can read more about these proposals in the retail section of the Avalara Tax Changes 2025 report. 

Avalara helps many companies comply with the Colorado and Minnesota retail delivery fees, and we’ll help businesses with Mississippi retail delivery fee compliance if Mississippi HB 530 becomes law. 

If you’re interested in learning how Avalara can help you streamline sales tax compliance or help you manage retail delivery fees, check out avalara.com.