Taxes

9 min

You can configure taxes so that the checkout process calculates rates and adds them to the total price. You can combine and apply multiple taxes (such as federal, state, and local tax) to a purchase.

Set up and maintain taxes with these methods:

Create or edit tax controls manually.

Import taxes through a CSV file.

Export taxes through a CSV file.

Define countries and regions

You must first define the countries and regions where you plan to sell products, using the correct country ISO codes for tax calculations to work properly (such as during checkout). See Countries and regions.

Configure taxes manually

To configure taxes manually, go to Administration > Tax Configuration, and use the following steps.

Go to Tax Categories > Create to create categories that associate catalog items with defined tax rates. For example, you can create categories such as General Sales, Food, and Luxury items, depending on tax regulations for these item types.

Go to Tax Jurisdictions > Create to specify jurisdictions for a region by defining zip codes, country codes, and so on. Tax rates apply to the level of information you specify for each jurisdiction. For example, stating only the country code as US includes customers with a US address (regardless of state and county) in this jurisdiction. Country codes and region codes must match the codes defined earlier in countries and regions.

Go to Tax Jurisdiction Groups > Create to define groups of available tax jurisdictions. You can include multiple tax jurisdictions in a tax jurisdiction group.

Go to Taxes > Create to add a new tax, such as Sales Tax. Eneter a name, specify the tax rate, and apply any tax categories or jurisdiction groups.

You can then set the Tax Category when editing products in the Catalog.

Configure taxes through import/export

Using a CSV tax file with a specified format, you can import and update tax data in bulk, replacing manual configuration steps. You can also use the CSV import to associate catalogs with tax categories.

You can also use a CSV tax file to extract selected tax data from Commerce Connect to export and copy tax data among sites. The format of the CSV export file matches the file for importing taxes.

Import taxes

Go to Taxes > Import.

Select your file, and click Open.

When the import is completed, you can see the new tax configuration in Commerce Connect. You can also edit the configuration by importing a modified CSV file.

Warning

Re-importing a CSV file only edits existing information or adds new data - nothing is deleted. If you delete an entire row of data in the CSV file, you must manually delete those entries in Commerce Connect. You can delete all tax data and perform the CSV tax import from scratch.

Export taxes

Go to Taxes > Export to export the taxes and their values. The export downloads a CSV file, which you can open and view or modify.

Sample scenarios

Example 1: Single tax per catalog item based on a single jurisdiction

Using State as the variable, you can specify the tax rate on a state-level. For example, CA is 9%, and MA is 6%. Placing an order from California incurs the 9% sales tax during checkout.

Jurisdiction	Jurisdiction Group	Tax Rate	Tax Category
California	CA Tax Group	9%	General Sales
Massachusetts	MA Tax Group	6%	General Sales

Example 2: Two or more taxes per catalog item based on more than one jurisdiction

If you have a luxury item that requires State and Federal tax, then you can specify these tax rates. For example, a luxury item purchased in CA has a 9% state tax rate and a federal tax rate of 3%. Checkout applies both taxes.

Jurisdiction	Jurisdiction Group	Tax Rate	Tax Category
California General	CA GS Tax Group	9%	General Sales
Massachusetts General	MA GS Tax Group	6%	General Sales
California Luxury	CA LX Tax Group	9%	Luxury Sales
Massachusetts Luxury	MA LX Tax Group	6%	Luxury Sales
US Federal Luxury	US LX Tax Group	3%	Luxury Sales

Example 3: Tax CSV file with tax type specified

You can specify the tax type. Optimizely provides Sales Tax and Shipping Tax.

Jurisdiction	Jurisdiction Group	Tax Rate	Tax Category
California	CA Tax Group	9%	Sales tax
Massachusetts	MA Tax Group	6%	Shipping Tax