- Overview
- Step 1: Create a Tax Region
- Step 2: Create a Tax Rate
- Tax Integrations (Avalara, Taxcloud, etc)
- Taxing Shipping
- Non-Tax Products & Customers
- Troubleshooting Taxes
Overview
AmeriCommerce can calculate tax for you. AmeriCommerce's rate calculation system is based on tax regions and tax rates. Tax regions are a geographic area defined by specifying state(s), postal code(s), and/or countries. Tax rates are applied to tax regions. You can apply different tax rates to different tax regions. To get started calculating taxes with AmeriCommerce's internal tax rate system, see Step 1 and Step 2 below for setup instructions.
AmeriCommerce also integrates with popular tax calculation software like Avalara and Taxcloud. For more information, see Tax Integrations.
Step 1: Create a Tax Region
To create a tax region, navigate to Settings > Payments and Taxes > Tax Regions. Once there, click New:
Clicking new will open the Edit Tax Region Screen. Give the region a name, set the priority, and configure the remaining settings (for an in-depth explanation of tax region setup and settings, see: Tax Regions in Detail):
Step 2: Create a Tax Rate
Settings > Payments & Taxes > Tax Rates, then click New. On the tax rate edit screen:
- Enter a name for the rate
- Select the region the rate will apply to (see step 1)
- Enter the tax rate
- Optionally tax shipping and/or handling
- Optionally specify which store the tax applies to (if you have a multistore).
Tax Integrations
AmeriCommerce is integrated with the following third-party tax calculation services (click the links below for additional information and specific setup instructions):
Taxing Shipping
Shipping that is charged for taxable items is itself taxable. If some items in the order are non-taxable, tax is only applied to the percentage of the shipping that is equal to the dollar amount percentage of the taxable items in the total order amount.
Example: An order is placed with 2 items, one costing $10 which is taxable, and one costing $5 which is not taxable. The taxable amount of the total order is 66%. Tax will be applied to 66% of the shipping.
Non-Tax Products & Customers
Customers and products can be marked as non-tax.
- To flag a customer account as non-tax, navigate to Customers > Edit Customer > Payments and Taxes
- To flag a product as non-tax, navigate to Catalog > Products > Edit Product > General, and scroll until you find the non-tax check box.
Troubleshooting Taxes
Troubleshooting Tip: If you have two tax regions with the same state your tax may not get charged correctly at all times. The correct way to set this up is to assign a sort order to the region you want it to pick up.
Example: If you have two regions setup '48 United States' and 'Texas' - Texas falls under both regions. When you set up Texas tax rates - to correctly charge taxes for Texas add a higher sort order to 'Texas' in the region area than '48 United States'. Setting a higher sort order for the exact region you want taxes applied to will apply the tax to that region.
Troubleshooting Tip: If, after setting up the tax regions and tax rates, the shopping cart does not calculate the taxes, confirm that the product is not set to non-taxable. You can check this by navigating to Catalog > Products > Edit Product > General.