Tax
Setting the right levels of sales tax/VAT can be very complicated, especially in the U.S.A. where sales tax rates vary from state to state. Using TaxJar.com's automatic tax calculation service takes away all of this complexity.
The service works for users in North America, Europe and Australia. Users from the U.S.A. will also be able to export data from Inzu provided to file their tax returns - a real time saver.
Note: Tax charges will be applied to your list prices before a user pays for the item.
Tax settings
You can find the tax settings page in “Account settings”.
The first option on the tax settings page is whether to opt for automatic tax calculation or not. By default tax calculations are not provided. Note that by opting for automatic tax calculations you agree to the following disclaimer:
Disclaimer: Tax calculations are provided by TaxJar.com. To provide calculations you are required to provide accurate location information. You should always check an item's tax is being calculated correctly by following a test purchase to the point of payment (where the calculation is presented). Inzu does not take responsibility for calculations made or for figures filed by you to the tax authorities. Always double check figures before submitting them for filing. You will receive a receipt of tax charged each time a transactions is made.
By not using automatic tax calculations you take full responsibility for building in the appropriate amounts of tax for your products, and for filing tax with correct sums. In this situation if you are unsure of the tax laws you need to abide by, you are advised to consult a professional accountant. Always check tax calculations before filing and monitor tax charges as they are made.
TaxJar is a live service, if for any reason TaxJar is uncontactable your transaction will be processed without additional tax payments, in this unlikley situation you must manually account for the tax due.
Tax location
The tax location refers to the country where your business is primarily located. This information must be correct for an accurate tax calculation to be made. Users from the U.S.A. will also be required to provide a state of the primary business location.
Nexus
If you have businesses premises in a state in the U.S.A. that is not your primary business location, you must list that state and the zip code of the premises. Some states will charge a extra amount of tax if you have premises in their state, so to provide an accurate tax calculation your list of nexus states must be correct.
Digital goods exemption
This rule only applies to businesses in Europe. It refers to the VAT that is chargeable on downloadable goods such as music mp3s. Some countries will allow you not to charge VAT to customers in your home country if your turnover is below a certain amount. Please check this rule applies to you before including the setting as VAT will not be charged for those transactions!
Tax reports for taxjar.com
If you opt for automatic tax calculations it is possible to export your transaction history into a taxjar.com account. This means if you business in located in the U.S.A. you can file your sales tax reporting from taxjar.com very easily.
The tax report is found by clicking “Reports” on the admin home page, ensure the report format is set to TaxJar.
Product types
With automatic tax calculations set you will now be able to give an item a tax product category either by editing/uploading an item or by using a product group.
Because some products have a lower rate of tax it is important to make sure the product is set with the right product tax category. Notably, clothing is often taxed at a lower rate.
Custom tax rates
If for some reason you have a product type that is not on the product tax list and you know it has a tax rate different to standard rate, you can use the custom tax rate option when uploading/editing an item, or via a product group. The custom rate can be set to any percentage and the percentage rate is added to the cost of the product on checkout; e.g. a 10% rate applied to a $1.00 item will make that item $1.10 with tax. Note that these rates do not apply to shipping costs, only to items. Appropriate shipping taxes will still be applied.