Taxes by state or province

Open Settings › Taxes and duties. Under States and provinces, choose Manage beside United States or Canada. The row says how many states or provinces you collect in, or Not set up.

At the top the page says what it does not do: Storeloom charges the rate you set for each state or province, and county, city and district taxes are not included. Storeloom’s figures are a starting point, not tax advice, and you are responsible for the rates you charge. The foot of the page names where the figures were read and on what day.

Owners and admins change these; everyone else can look.

Prices

The Prices card says whether prices for the country include tax or have it added at checkout, and where that is set: in the market that sells there (a link to its settings), or under Prices on Taxes and duties. In the United States and Canada prices are usually shown without tax; the card says so when yours include it.

Country tax

The tax the whole country charges, such as Canada’s GST: a Tax name and a Rate (%). Changes go through the bar at the top, like the rest of Settings. For Canada with no rate yet, Use GST 5% fills both in. The name is what shoppers read at checkout and on invoices; left empty, they read their language’s word for VAT. The United States has no country tax: leave it empty, and an order pays only the tax of the state you collect in.

If you untick My business is registered for VAT on Taxes and duties, the country tax is not charged and the page says so. A state’s or province’s tax still is: it is a registration of its own.

Where you collect

An order pays a state’s or province’s own tax only where you collect it. A state you have not added here is charged no tax of its own, so register with a state before you collect its tax.

Collect in a state or province opens a dialog:

• State or province: one from the list.
• Rate (%): starts at Storeloom’s figure for it, such as New York’s own 4 %, with the day it was read. County and city taxes are not in it: add yours to it for the rate you charge (for New York City, 8.875). Left at Storeloom’s figure, the rate follows it when Storeloom updates it; a rate you type stays yours, and Use 4% puts it back on the figure. A state with no sales tax of its own says so; where Storeloom has no figure, enter the rate you charge.
• Tax name: what shoppers read, such as QST. Left empty, they read “Tax” in their language.
• How it meets the country tax, where the country has one: Added to it (Quebec’s QST beside GST), Instead of it (Ontario’s HST in place of GST) or On top of it (charged on the price with the country tax in it).
• Charge it on delivery too: ticked at first. States differ on whether delivery is taxed: untick it where it is not. The cash on delivery fee follows delivery.
• Registration number (optional): your number there. It is printed under the tax on the invoice.

Collect adds it at once. Edit beside a state opens the same dialog; Stop collecting asks first, and new orders there then pay no tax of its own. Orders already placed keep the taxes they were charged.

For Canada, once GST is set, the page offers Add them for Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, which charge HST under the same registration as GST.

Goods a state or province taxes differently, such as clothing, food or books, are charged its normal rate unless you give their collection a rate of its own there: on Taxes and duties, under Reduced rates, choose the collection, the country and the State or province. In one state the rate takes the place of that state’s own tax; the country tax (Canada’s GST) still applies. So clothing at 0 % in Pennsylvania pays nothing there, and children’s clothing at 0 % in British Columbia still pays GST.

Sales by state

On the United States page, Sales by state lists the states you sold into, those over or close to their threshold first: the sales after which a state usually expects a seller from elsewhere to register and collect its tax, such as $100,000 a year, or 200 orders in some states, or both in New York and Connecticut. Each row shows Sales (before tax, in US dollars) and Orders, the threshold, and Over, Close (from 80 %) or Collecting. States count in different ways and over different months, so Storeloom compares each threshold with the most you sold in any of three periods (last year, this year so far and the last 12 months): it can warn a little early, never late. Details shows the three periods and the threshold in words; orders in other currencies are counted as orders and shown apart, not converted. Paid orders count; cancelled and test orders do not. When your business’s address in Company details is in a state, the card says you usually collect there from the first sale. The thresholds were read on the day shown, from the sources named under the card: check a state’s own rules before you register.

When your sales pass a state’s threshold and you do not collect there, the alerts bell says so and leads to this page.

At checkout

In the United States and Canada the shopper chooses the state or province from a list, and an order is not placed without one. Where you collect by state, the tax shows “—” until a state is chosen, then the page is priced again with it, so the shopper pays the total they saw. Wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay use the state on their sheet.

Each tax has its own row: “Tax (8.875%)”, or “GST (5%)” and “QST (9.975%)” above the total, or “Including GST (5%)” under it when prices include tax. A tax with no name and no state reads VAT, as before.

Each tax is worked out on each line and rounded on its own, then added up, the way invoices with two taxes are written. So Quebec’s GST and QST together can be a cent more than one calculation at 14.975 %.

An order picked up in a shop pays the tax of the shop’s state: choose it under State or province in Settings › Locations. An order sent to a courier’s office or locker, an order with nothing to ship, and a pickup at a location without a state name no state, and pay the country tax alone. A customer you marked as not paying tax pays none.

Orders, invoices and reports

The order keeps the state it was taxed for and the name of each tax, and its page, emails, printed invoice and credit note show each tax by name. The printed invoice gives the Registration number you entered for a state or province under its tax, as it was when the order was placed. A draft order whose address names no state Storeloom knows says so under its tax: write the state as its name or its two letters, such as New York or NY.

Analytics › Reports › Taxes collected has a Region and a Tax name column, with one row for each tax, so you can file each state’s and province’s tax on its own. The orders export has Tax region and Tax names columns.