Blanket Exemption Certificate

A blanket certificate is the form most B2B sellers want on file. Rather than accompanying one order, it states that the buyer's purchases of a described kind are exempt on an ongoing basis, and it stands until it is revoked, superseded, or expires. For a distributor whose customer orders weekly, the alternative — a fresh certificate per transaction — is unworkable for both sides.

The trade-off is that a blanket certificate is only as good as the assumptions behind it. It describes a class of property the buyer resells or otherwise uses exemptly; a purchase falling outside that description is not covered merely because the certificate is on file. Sellers whose customers buy both for resale and for internal consumption have to handle that split, usually by asking the customer to flag taxable orders rather than by collecting a certificate each time.

States differ on how long a blanket certificate remains good. Some treat it as valid until revoked, some impose a fixed period, and some make validity depend on continued activity on the account. Because the seller carries the audit exposure either way, the practical posture is to know the expiry rule for every state you sell into and to refresh certificates on a schedule rather than assume a blanket form lasts forever.