The Tax Rate Manager allows you to configure what taxes are charged to orders. Specifically, the Tax Rate Manager is used:
- To display all 50 states and U.S. Armed Forces designations in the State drop-down list where the customer address is entered.
- To display a custom list of states or options in the State drop-down list where the customer address is entered.
- To display a custom list of providences for a selected country in the Providence drop-down list where the customer address is entered. The Providence drop-down list will appear only for the country chosen; all other countries will have a Providence text box where the customer address is entered.
The following settings may be adjusted for each state or providence entered in the Tax Rate Manager:
- State (or providence) text box
Note: If Standard State List is selected, this field pre-populated with the 50 States and U.S. Armed Forces designations. - Tax text box
Enter the tax rate as a percentage applied to total sale price of goods bought by a customer.
Note: A tax rate can contain up to Two decimal places, e.g. 5.12. - Tax Shipping checkbox
Specify if the tax should be calculated with the shipping charges added to the order.
Note: Default value un-checked (tax is applied to the order before shipping cost is added). Please consult your tax accountant before enabling this option.
To configure the tax rate:
- Go to Settings > Tax Rates.
- To apply zero tax to every state and providence, select the Nothing is Taxed radio-button.
- To continue specifying the tax rates applied to orders, select the Calculate State/Province Tax in Realtime radio button and click Edit Values.
- Choose either the Use Standard State List radio button OR the Use Custom State List radio button which was previously called the Custom Tax Manager.
- Select Use Standard State List radio-button to display all 50 US States in the State dropdown where the customer address is entered. Once enabled, Tax rates may be set for each state.
- Select Use Custom State List radio-button to configure specific options in the State dropdown where a customer address is entered.
Important: If the Use Custom State List radio button is selected, this will limit your ability to use Pulse Commerce's real-time shipping calculations.
- Select Use Standard State List radio-button to display all 50 US States in the State dropdown where the customer address is entered. Once enabled, Tax rates may be set for each state.
- To set up tax rates for the providences of a country, select a country from the Choose One Other Country drop down menu.
Note: Typically, providence is a text box where the customer address is entered. To display a drop-down list of providences for one country, select the country from this Country drop-down list, and add the respective providences. Once configured, a Providence list will appear when the specified country is selected where the customer address is entered. This is more often used by merchants based outside of the United States. Merchants based within the United States often leave --Not Selected-- selected.
- If the Use Standard State List radio button is selected, set the desired tax rate and options for each state. After the desired values have been entered, click the Update button.
- If either the Use Custom State List radio button and/or the Choose One Other Country drop-down list is enabled, you will need to specify the state or providence drop-down values respectively.
If you wish to automatically calculate sales tax and protect yourself from audit then it’s possible by using our Avalara Sales Tax integration add-on module. Once this module is enabled, you can associate a tax code to your products and never have to worry about sales tax fluctuations on the county, street, or even block levels.