Collecting Sales Tax

Please contact your tax advisor or local taxation agency regarding the taxation rules for your online store. You should enter the sales tax rules for your state/country into your SOLO Server account. You are responsible for reporting this tax to the appropriate agency.

Currently, SOLO Server offers three tax calculation methods which can be used during the checkout process. The tax calculation method is selected through the Store / Cart Options page.

Tax Rules
Individual tax rules configured either globally, or by country, by US state, or by Canadian province. This is the only option for non European Union authors. When calculating taxes in this mode:
  • For international (non US/CA) orders, the system will first look for a country tax rule and apply it if found. If not found, it will next look for a global tax rule and apply it if found.
  • For US/CA orders, the system will first look for a state/province specific tax rule and apply it if found. If not found, the system will next look for a US/CA country tax rule, and if found this will be applied. If neither is found, the system will finally look for a global tax rule and apply that tax if found.
  • Note: If only a global tax rule is specified, tax will be applied prior to the customer either logging in or registering. Otherwise, tax will not be applied until the customer either logs in or registers since the customer country must be known in order determine the applicable tax rule to use.
European Union VAT
European Union VAT rules. This option is only available to European Union based authors. When this method is selected:
  • During checkout the customer will be prompted to supply a VAT number if they are from a European Union country.
  • If the VAT number is supplied and validated against the EU VAT database, no VAT is charged if the customer country is different from the author country.
  • If the VAT number is not supplied or cannot be validated VAT is charged.
  • Customers from the country of the author are always charged VAT.
  • Non EU customers are charged no VAT.
Avalara
Tax is calculated in real time through Avalara AvaTax. This is currently supported only for US based addresses, and requires acquiring a separate account with Avalara, which SOLO Server will integrate with. For non-US addresses, or in the event of a failure to calculate tax through AvaTax, SOLO Server will fall back to using tax rules, so when using this option, you should also configure tax rules to be used in the event of a fall back for US customers as well as for any other countries where tax collection is required. For further information, see Avalara AvaTax Configuration.

NOTE: In the near future the tax calculation method option is going to be removed and both European Union VAT rules and standard Tax Rules will be able to be used simultaneously. Prior to making this change to the cart logic, we have rewritten the sales tax configuration page with this future change taken into account. As a result, you can now set up both Standard rules and EU VAT rules regardless of the selected tax calculation method, however if you are using the EU VAT tax calculation method, ONLY the EU VAT rules will be considered by the cart.

Regardless of which option is selected, individual tax rule(s) need to be defined for the tax rates. To configure these rules, from the Authors menu choose Store / Sales Tax Rules. This will display a list of current tax rules, broken into the following categories:

To view, edit or delete existing sales tax rules, click the View, Edit or Del links. To add a new rule, click the Add New button at the top of the listing. Each rules is defined by the following properties:

Tax Rule Type
The tax rule type, which can be one of the following values:
  • Standard - Standard tax rule set up for a specified country, US state, or Canadian province.
  • European Union VAT - EU VAT tax rule. Note that these are currently only considered when the tax calculation method is set to EU VAT.
  • Global - Standard tax rule set up globally.
Country
The country the tax applies for. Available only when the Tax Rule Type is Standard.
State/Province
The US state or Canadian province the tax applies for. Available only when the Tax Rule Type is Standard and the country is US or Canada.
Tax Type
Whether the tax should be applied to physical delivery only, electronic delivery only, or both. Physical delivery products are those products with the "Requires Shipping" checkbox checked on the option details page.
Tax Rate
The tax rate as a decimal (0.07 instead of 7%).
Include Shipping
Whether the tax should also apply to shipping costs. This is only available for "Physical Delivery" or "Both Physical and Electronic Delivery" Tax Types.