Sam's Club vs. Walmart Marketplace: Supplier vs. Seller and How the Tax Setup Differs

Walmart Marketplace and Sam's Club both belong to Walmart, but for tax they are two very different relationships. On Walmart Marketplace you are the seller and Walmart is the platform: it collects sales tax and sends you a 1099-K. As of November 2026, Sam's Club has no open, apply-online marketplace for third-party sellers; you can only be a supplier, selling goods to Sam's Club, which sets member prices, collects sales tax and sends you no 1099-K.

Does Sam's Club have a third-party marketplace?

We checked Walmart's Form 10-K for fiscal 2026. Online marketplace sellers appear only in the Walmart U.S. segment. The Sam's Club segment covers 601 clubs, samsclub.com and the app, the Member's Mark private brand, advertising and supplier insights. The Sam's Club Suppliers page points to a supplier checklist and the Sam's Club Innovation application on RangeMe, feeding Walmart's shared supplier onboarding.

Many items on samsclub.com ship straight from a supplier's warehouse. That is the drop ship vendor (DSV) model: Sam's Club sends you a purchase order, you ship, and you invoice Sam's Club. It looks like a marketplace seller fulfilling its own orders, but contractually and for tax you are selling goods to Sam's Club. What people online call getting onto Sam's Club is almost always supplier onboarding.

Seller vs. supplier: where the tax differs

Who the seller is

On Walmart Marketplace the shopper buys from you, you set the price, and the platform takes a referral fee by category (3% to 20% on Walmart's published table, 15% for most categories, no monthly fee). At Sam's Club the member buys from Sam's Club, which sets the price; your income is the wholesale price times units, less the deductions in your agreement.

Sales tax

On Walmart Marketplace, Walmart is the marketplace facilitator and collects and remits sales tax on platform orders in states with a sales tax. Sam's Club is a retailer that charges members sales tax anyway; your sale to Sam's Club is a sale for resale, so with Sam's Club's resale or exemption certificate you don't charge sales tax. Some states want wholesalers registered before accepting resale certificates, so check state by state.

1099-K

A platform issues a 1099-K when a seller's payments exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions for the year (some states use lower thresholds), showing gross customer payments. Sam's Club pays invoices, which are not third-party network transactions, so there is no 1099-K. The IRS instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC also say payments to corporations and payments for merchandise are generally not reportable. No form doesn't mean no income: suppliers report from their books.

How income is booked

A platform seller books gross sales and lists referral fees, fulfillment fees, ad spend and refunds separately, so the books tie to the 1099-K. A supplier books invoices as sales and records returns, damage allowances, promotional funding and logistics fines as separate deductions. Booking only the cash received leaves receivables that never reconcile at year-end.

W-9 or W-8: both channels ask, through different systems

Walmart Marketplace collects tax information in Seller Center. Sam's Club suppliers fill it in Walmart's supplier onboarding system. The onboarding checklist says a domestic supplier's legal name must match the name filed with the IRS and the W-9 exactly; an overseas direct import supplier gives a W-8BEN-E (entity) or W-8BEN (sole proprietor), or a W-8ECI if it has effectively connected income, plus a local business registration certificate.

The most common mistake involves a single-member LLC owned by a foreign individual. The LLC is disregarded for tax, and the W-9 instructions call for the owner's W-8, not a W-9 under the LLC's EIN. For the Seller Center choices, see the Walmart seller guide; for choosing the entity that supplies Sam's Club, see the Sam's Club guide.

Doing both: how to split the books

Example (hypothetical numbers, to show the method): Company B sells $800,000 on Walmart Marketplace for the year (gross customer payments), with $120,000 of referral fees, $90,000 of WFS fees and $40,000 of refunds. It also supplies Sam's Club, invoicing $1,200,000 with $50,000 of agreement deductions.

On the platform side, sales are $800,000, refunds reduce them by $40,000, and the $210,000 of referral and fulfillment fees are expenses; the $800,000 on the 1099-K ties to gross sales in the books. On the Sam's Club side, sales are $1,200,000, the $50,000 of deductions reduce sales or go to expense by nature, and there is no 1099-K, so invoices are matched to bank deposits. Total net sales are $1,960,000 ($800,000 less $40,000 of refunds, plus $1,200,000), before deductions and expenses.

Mixing the two usually ends one of two ways: the 1099-K doesn't match booked sales and the IRS writes to ask, or Sam's Club deductions get treated as short payments and never recorded, which overstates profit.

Other differences

Getting in: Walmart Marketplace is an online application with document review. Sam's Club needs a buyer to say yes and a signed supplier agreement, plus a DUNS number, product liability insurance naming Walmart as additional insured (certificate uploaded within 30 days of the agreement), EDI and GS1 barcodes; new overseas factories also go through factory audits.

Getting paid: the platform pays out on its cycle; suppliers are paid on agreement terms, and Walmart offers an early payment program whose discount is a financing cost.

State tax: a platform seller using WFS has inventory in Walmart's warehouses and may have physical presence wherever that inventory sits. A Sam's Club supplier delivering to Sam's Club distribution centers usually passes title on delivery, while a DSV keeps the goods in its own warehouse until shipment. The state tax analysis differs.

The takeaway

Both belong to Walmart, but Walmart Marketplace means selling to shoppers through a platform and Sam's Club means selling to a retailer. Change the seller and the sales tax, 1099-K, income measurement and tax forms all change with it. The full set of Sam's Club routes, entity choices and a worked example is in the Sam's Club guide. To look at your own situation, book a free 15-minute call or add WeChat YCLUSA.