West Virginia sales tax on invoices (2026 guide)

West Virginia charges a 6% state sales tax. Many cities and towns add a 1% municipal sales and use tax, so the combined rate in those places is 7%.

West Virginia works differently from most states when it comes to services. Instead of taxing a short list of services, it starts from the other end: the Tax Division says all sales of goods and services are presumed taxable unless an exemption clearly applies. If you run a service business, assume your work is taxable until you've found the exemption that covers it.

West Virginia sales tax rates

The Tax Division publishes a list of municipalities that impose the 1% tax, including Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, Parkersburg, Wheeling and many smaller towns, and keeps adding new ones. The list issued in April 2026 shows towns starting the tax on July 1, 2026 and January 1, 2027. The Tax Division also publishes rate and boundary tables you can use to check whether an address is inside a taxing municipality.

Once you know the combined rate, our sales tax calculator works out the tax and the total for you.

Which services are taxable in West Virginia?

Most of them. Services are part of West Virginia's tax base, and the burden of proving a sale is exempt falls on the seller and the buyer claiming it. Publication TSD-300 lists the exemptions that don't need a certificate ("per se" exemptions). The ones that matter most to small businesses:

• Professional services: services recognized as professional under West Virginia law, such as those of doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects and CPAs.
• Personal services to the person of an individual, such as barbering, hairstyling, manicures and massage. Personalized fitness programs are also exempt.
• Contracting, but only when the work results in a capital improvement to real property. Other construction-trade work is taxable unless another exemption applies (see Publication TSD-310).
• Advertising in the form of radio and TV time, newspaper and magazine space, preprinted circulars and outdoor advertising space.

Everything else, including repair of vehicles and equipment, is presumed taxable. TSD-300 also notes that services performed by an independent contractor are taxable. The employee-services exemption only covers work an employee does for their employer within the scope of the job.

If you aren't sure whether your work counts as a "professional" service, ask the Tax Division before you start invoicing without tax.

Registering to collect West Virginia sales tax

If you sell goods or taxable services in West Virginia, register with the West Virginia Tax Division and collect the state tax (plus municipal tax where it applies). You file returns on Form CST-200CU.

For out-of-state sellers, the Tax Division's small-seller exception applies if, in the preceding calendar year, you had no more than $100,000 in gross sales into West Virginia and fewer than 200 separate transactions. Taxable and non-taxable sales both count. Once you cross either threshold during the current year, start collecting state and municipal tax on sales made after that day.

What a West Virginia sales tax invoice should show

• your business name and address,
• the customer's name and address,
• a unique invoice number and invoice date,
• each item or service with its price,
• sales tax as a separate line, with the combined rate (6% or 7%), and
• the total due.

Publication TSD-345 says that, as a rule, you must separately state the sales tax from the price and typically show the amount on the invoice. It's also a crime to tell customers that you'll absorb the tax or that it isn't added to the price.

Exemption certificates

West Virginia uses the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Certificate of Exemption (Form F0003). A business buying to resell, a government agency, or a qualifying nonprofit fills it out and gives it to you, picking its reason for exemption (for example, "Resale").

• If a customer doesn't give you a properly completed certificate, you must collect the tax.
• If a customer refuses both the certificate and the tax, TSD-345 says you may be relieved of liability by notifying the Tax Commissioner in writing, with the buyer's name and address (if known), the price and the tax not collected.
• Keep records, including exemption certificates, for three years or as long as the period stays open to assessment, whichever is longer.

See how to invoice a tax-exempt customer.

A worked example

Say you own an auto repair shop in Morgantown, which imposes the 1% municipal tax (7% combined). You invoice a customer for:

• $250 in parts, and
• $350 in repair labor.

Repair labor isn't on West Virginia's exemption list, so both lines are taxable: $600 × 7% = $42.00 in tax, for an invoice total of $642.00. In a state that exempts separately stated repair labor you'd only tax the parts, but not here.

Selling to customers in other states

If you ship goods or deliver taxable services to customers in another state, that state's rules may apply instead of West Virginia's. Since the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, states can require out-of-state sellers to register and collect their sales tax once sales into the state pass a threshold the state sets. If you sell across state lines regularly, check the thresholds and registration rules of each state you sell into, and use that state's rate on those invoices.

Common mistakes on West Virginia invoices

• Assuming services aren't taxed. In West Virginia they're presumed taxable.
• Forgetting the 1% municipal tax in cities that impose it.
• Not taxing repair labor, which isn't exempt.
• Selling tax-free without Form F0003 on file.
• Advertising that you'll "pay the tax", which West Virginia prohibits.

Quick checklist for West Virginia invoices

• ✅ Registered with the Tax Division before your first taxable sale
• ✅ Checked TSD-300 to see whether any exemption covers your service
• ✅ 6% state plus 1% where the municipality imposes it
• ✅ Sales tax stated separately on every invoice
• ✅ Form F0003 certificates on file for at least three years