Easily calculate taxes with our new tax feature
Do you want to calculate tax and add it to your product price? Read on for instructions on adding taxes to your product pages.
NOTE: You must be on a new SamCart plan (Launch, Grow, or Scale) to utilize the tax feature. SamCart currently only supports tax for the US, Canada, Australia, and the EU.
Enable Taxes for Your Marketplace
Follow the directions below to enable taxes for your products.
- Navigate to your General Marketplace Settings by clicking the Settings tab in your left-hand marketplace navigation bar.
- Stay on the General tab and scroll to the Marketplace Address section. Input your physical business address here - you must provide a physical address to utilize the tax feature.
- If you scroll down just a bit more on that page, you will see a Tax Settings section with several additional tax settings. Here, if desired, you can add an additional Nexus by clicking Add Nexus (1), add a Tax ID (2), or add a VAT ID.
1. Add Nexus - If your business has a nexus in an additional region, you will need to add that nexus to your marketplace here. Click on the Add Nexus button to enter in an additional address. In the “Add Nexus” pop-up, the user will have the option to select a US address or non-US address by first selecting a “Country”
If a country other than the United States is selected, the State Tax ID field will switch to VAT ID. After entering a country and address, a nexus will be created! SamCart will begin collecting tax when customer states or countries match the established nexus and tax is turned on for that product (check out the Turn on Taxes for Individual Products section of this article for more information on this).
2. Tax ID - This field is completely optional! You should fill out this section if you want your business's tax ID to appear on customer invoices, when applicable. Otherwise, you can leave this section blank.
3. VAT ID - This field is also completely optional, and only applies to business located in European countries that have VAT Tax. If you have a VAT ID for your business and would like it to appear on customer invoices when applicable, put it here! Otherwise, you can leave this section blank.
Turn on Taxes for Individual Products
Next, you will need to enable taxes for each of your products individually. To do so, start by clicking on the Products tab in your marketplace navigation bar and select the product that you would like to turn taxes on for.
Once you have selected the product, scroll down on the product's Details tab to the Taxes section. Turn on the Collect Sales & VAT Taxes For Product toggle and click Save Changes.
Next, you need to make sure that you are collecting either a Billing or Shipping Address from your customers. Collection of an address must be enabled on your checkout pages in order to collect tax from customers.
To turn on Billing or Shipping Address on your checkout page, click on the Share tab within your product, then the Sales Page tab, and finally the Edit in Builder button. This will take you to the Content Builder where you can enable the address fields on your checkout form.
Once you are in the Content Builder, to Settings > Checkout Form in the right hand toolbar and ensure that Billing Address and/or Shipping Address is checked. If both a billing and shipping address are provided, tax will be calculated based on the shipping address. Make sure to click the Publish button to ensure these changes appear on your live sales page!
(Optional) Selecting a Tax Category
SamCart provides hundreds of Tax Categories to choose from! In the Taxes section on the Details tab inside your product, you will have the option to select a tax category. If you have a specific tax category that you would like to select, you can do so by using the Select Tax Category dropdown menu. Please note that selecting a tax category is optional and is not a requirement for collecting taxes with SamCart.
By default, the Tax Category will be set to None. The None option will provide the full taxable rate for every locality (country, state, city) we have data for.
If you'd like to have the exact sales tax calculation for the product you sell you will want to select your product's category from the Select Tax Category dropdown.
For example, if your product is taxed at a reduced rate, you will need to adjust the Tax Category to ensure you are not over-charging your customers.
Note: Tax Categories are exclusively used for US sales tax calculations. The Tax Category is not referenced on non-US VAT calculations.
Changes To Your Checkout Page
Once a customer enters their Billing or Shipping Address on your checkout page, a Tax line will appear in their Order Summary:
Tax will also be clearly noted on the Order Summary Page:
As well as in the Order Summary view within your SamCart Marketplace:
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will turning on taxes for a product impact existing subscriptions?
A: No - current subscriptions will continue on their current cadence for the amount that the customer agreed to pay during checkout. Moving forward, if taxes are turned on for a subscription product, all new subscriptions will charge taxes.
Q: Why do I need to have my Marketplace address entered to collect taxes?
A: To properly calculate tax charges, we need to know both your physical business address and the customer’s address.
Q: What if taxes are not showing up on a product where taxes are turned on?
A: If the tax is not showing up on your checkout page, first ensure that the customer billing address is correct and filled in. If the customer billing address is filled in and taxes are still not showing, it is likely that taxes do not need to be collected for the purchase. No sales tax is collected if you do not have nexus in the same state (US) or country as the customer's delivery address.
Q: How are taxes calculated for Order Bumps and Upsells?
A: Order Bumps and Upsells will only be charged tax if the primary product has tax collection turned on.
Q: What if I’m currently using Taxamo to calculate taxes? Can I convert to SamCart’s tax calculation (via Taxjar)?
A: You can convert from Taxamo to Taxjar, but there are some advanced features that Taxamo offers that may not have equivalencies in SamCart’s implementation of Taxjar.
Q: I am in Canada. Can I charge CAD taxes?
A: Yes, this is a new option for Marketplaces selling within Canada! You can now charge CAD taxes. To do this, you will need to reach out to Support at support@samcart.com. A Support Agent will then have you fill out a CSV file with the percentage of tax you would like to charge for each Providence in Canada and they will enable CAD taxes for you.