Configuring taxes is a tricky but vital part of an e-commerce business, and you should not start selling online before you set up surcharges appropriately.
Please remember that you should consult your local tax authority on the correct rates you should charge and on the legal procedures involved before configuring any tax rates in your store!
The checklist below outlines the steps you need to take to properly configure taxes in an X-Cart-based store. It may be helpful to bookmark this checklist for easy reference.
Consult your local tax authority on the tax laws applicable to your business and the tax rates you need to configure in your store.
Choose and install an add-on to configure taxes depending on the rates you need to set up.
For manual tax configuration, the following add-ons are available:Value Added Tax / Goods and Services Tax (any country with VAT/GST taxation)
See the Value Added Tax / Goods and Services Tax add-on guides.Sales Tax (US)
See the Sales Tax add-on guides.Canadian Taxes (Canada; covers GST, PST, QST, or HST taxes)
See the Canadian Taxes add-on guides.
For automated tax configuration, the following add-ons are available:
AvaTax Sales Tax Automation (US, Canada, and EU)
See the AvaTax Sales Tax Automation add-on guides.TaxJar Sales Tax Automation (the US only)
See the TaxJar Sales Tax Automation add-on manual guides.
Ensure that every product and shipping method in your store has an appropriate tax class assigned. You can create your custom tax classes or use the default one. (All products and shipping methods without any other tax class configured for them will have the "Default tax class." )
See Tax Classes for more info.Configure the address zones for which you need to set up taxes. You will need these zones to use different tax rates based on the customer's address.
See Setting up Address Zones for more info.
Ensure the tax zones do not overlap, as this may cause incorrect tax rate calculation and representation at checkout.
If you need different tax rates for different customer membership levels, ensure that you have created the necessary user membership beforehand.
See Managing User Membership Levels for more info.If you need tax exemptions for some product groups or customers, check if the add-on you have chosen for taxes configuration supports tax exemptions. If not, install and configure the add-on Tax Exempt.
Configure the tax rates you require using the add-on chosen at Step 2 of this guide.
Make sure your taxes configuration works properly: try adding different products to the shopping cart as a customer; attempt checkout with addresses from different address zones and use various shipping methods.
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