Seller's Permit & Resale Number Verifier (TX, CA, OH)

Check the resale certificates your customers hand you against official state records, in bulk, and keep a dated record of every check.

Paste in a list of permit numbers (up to 500 per run). For each one you get back whether the state lists it, the registered business name, the trade name and address where the state shows them, a 0-100 score for how well that name matches the name on the certificate, and the time of the check.

Supported states

State	Official source	What you get
Texas	Comptroller's Active Sales Tax Permit Holders open dataset (data.texas.gov, refreshed weekly)	Taxpayer name, mailing address, earliest permit issue date, number of permitted locations
California	CDTFA Verify a Permit, License or Account (Sellers Permit)	Owner name, city, ZIP, permit start date
Ohio	Ohio Department of Taxation active county vendor license list	Vendor name, address, county

Every other state is flagged, not guessed

A number from any other state comes back as unsupported_state with a note telling you where to verify it by hand, for example "verify manually at https://www7b.tax.ny.gov/TIVL/tivlStart" for New York. Flagged rows are free. States with no sales tax (AK, DE, MT, NH, OR) are flagged as such. Nothing is ever marked valid unless the state's own record says so.

Input

{
  "items": [
    { "state": "TX", "permit_number": "1-41-0215170-2", "business_name": "Target Corporation" },
    { "state": "CA", "permit_number": "236086592", "business_name": "Gumroad" },
    { "state": "NY", "permit_number": "123456789" }
  ]
}

• state: two-letter code (full names of the supported states also work).
• permit_number: dashes and spaces are ignored. Texas numbers are 11 digits, Ohio up to 8, California the permit number (a "- 00001" location suffix is dropped).
• business_name (optional): the name on the certificate, used for name_match.
• To check one permit, you can give state, permit_number and business_name at the top level instead of items.

Output

One row per input item, in input order:

Field	Meaning
status	valid (on the state's record), not_found (well-formed but not on the record), invalid (not a possible number for that state), unsupported_state, or error (the state site failed after 3 tries)
permit_number_input, permit_number	What you sent, and the normalized number we looked up
registered_name, dba, address	As shown by the state, when shown
permit_status, permit_issue_date / permit_start_date, outlet_count, list_date	State-specific details
name_match	0-100 similarity between your business_name and the state's name (legal or trade name); blank if you gave no name
checked_at	UTC time of the check, for your audit file
source_url	The official page the result came from
note	Why a row is unsupported, invalid or an error

Export as CSV or Excel from the dataset tab and file it with the certificate.

Speed

Texas takes about 1 second per number, Ohio is instant after the state list is downloaded (once a week, cached), and California takes 3 to 5 seconds per number because the actor deliberately paces requests to the state's site. States run side by side.

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.02 per permit lookup ($20 per 1,000). You're only charged for lookups in supported states. Numbers that are not a possible format for their state are charged as a lookup. Rows flagged unsupported_state, and rows where the state site failed (error), are free. Set a maximum charge for the run and the actor stops checking (and charging) when it is reached.

Good to know

• Ohio's list covers active county vendor licenses. Transient vendors and direct-pay permits may not appear, so a not_found in Ohio is a reason to look closer, not proof of fraud.
• Texas lists permits that are currently active; a permit that has been closed drops off the list.
• A valid permit shows the buyer is registered with the state. It does not by itself make a given sale exempt; you still need a properly completed certificate.

Disclaimer

This actor is an information aid, not tax or legal advice. Results reflect what each state's website or dataset showed at the time of the check. States update their records on their own schedules, and a state site may be down or change without notice. Confirm anything important with the state.

Contact

Built by Groundtip. Questions, missing states or bugs: hello@groundtip.com.