Tax settings

After setting up your store, you need to determine whether to configure tax settings for your store. This guide will walk you through how to set up taxes in Genstore.

Genstore supports two tax configuration methods, you can choose the one that best suits your business needs:

• Manual tax
• Automated tax

Manual tax

Manual tax configuration is suitable for businesses operating in regions where tax rates are relatively simple and stable. With this method, you must manually configure tax rates for each country or region where you collect taxes and update them whenever tax regulations change.

Configure tax collection areas

The first step in setting up manual taxes is to confirm the countries or regions where you need to collect taxes. The system will automatically sync the countries or regions you've configured in your shipping zones. You can then locate the corresponding country or region to configure tax rates and enable tax collection.

1. Navigate to Genstore -> Settings -> Taxes and duties.
2. Find the country or region where you want to configure taxes and click the pencil icon to open its tax settings page.
3. After configuring the tax rate, click Save.
4. Then return to the Taxes and duties page, enable the Tax collection switch.

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• If a country/region is missing, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery, add it to your shipping zones, and then return to the tax settings page.
• To temporarily stop collecting tax for a country/region, turn off its Tax collection switch.
• You can't directly delete a region from the tax list unless it has been removed from your shipping zones. Once removed, click Actions -> Remove. To learn how to remove locations from a shipping zone, see Shipping & delivery.
• If a region is no longer part of your shipping zones, Genstore will display a reminder: “This country is not included in your shipping zones.” You can choose to keep or remove it.

Configure tax rates by region

Click the pencil icon in the tax list to open a country’s tax settings page.

National tax

Set a flat tax rate that applies to all regions within the country, unless overridden by a more specific region-level rate.

Regional tax

If different regions within a country have different tax rates, you can set them individually.

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1. Regional tax override national tax when specified.
2. If a region doesn’t collect tax, you can set its rate to 0—even when a national tax is present.

Tax overrides

If certain products or shipping charges require tax rules that differ from your general configuration, use Tax overrides.

For example:

• Alcoholic products may be taxed at different rates.
• You may need to apply tax on shipping in certain regions.

Custom product tax

Use this when specific products need their own tax rates.

Steps:

1. Click Add tax override.
2. Check Product, then click Select products to choose the items requiring specific rates.
   • Already-added products cannot be selected again unless removed from an existing custom tax group.
3. [Optional] If you need to set tax rates for all regions, check Add all regions with one click.
4. Click Confirm.
5. You'll return to the country tax page. If you didn’t select “add all regions,” continue assigning regions for each product.
6. Click Save to finish.

Custom shipping tax

Use this to apply tax on shipping fees.

Steps:

1. Click Add tax override.
2. Check Shipping.
3. [Optional] If you want to set shipping tax rates for all regions, check Add all regions with one click.
4. Click Confirm.
5. Return to the country tax settings page. If not applied globally, continue adding regions manually.
6. Click Save in the top-right corner to complete.

More settings

Custom tax display name

You can customize how tax appears during checkout. By default, the name is Tax. You can also add a description to help customers understand what the tax includes.

Automated tax

For countries with complex tax regulations, we recommend using Genstore's automated tax solution powered by Avalara, a third-party tax service provider. Once connected to Avalara, all tax calculations for your transactions will be managed automatically. You won’t need to determine when and where to collect taxes or how much tax to charge.

Set up and configure an Avalara account

Before using automated tax calculations, you must create an Avalara account. You can sign up on the Avalara.

If you already have an Avalara account, log in and verify that the following configurations are completed:

Set up your company and tax collection locations in Avalara

1. Log in to Avalara and navigate to Settings -> Manage companies.
2. Add your company details.
3. Go to Settings -> Where you collect tax.
4. Click Add countries where you report tax to configure tax collection locations.

Obtain your account license key

1. Log in to Avalara, then go to Settings -> License and API keys.
2. Click Generate new key to obtain your license key.

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If you have any questions regarding your Avalara account setup, please contact Avalara customer support.

Connect your Avalara account and configure automated tax settings

1. Enter your Avalara account credentials and the license key you generated.

2. Select the account environment:

   • Production: For live transactions.
   • Sandbox: For test in non-production environment.
     • If you are unsure which environment to use, check with Avalara support.

3. Click Test connection to ensure the integration is successful.

4. Select the Tax calculation entity you configured in Avalara.

5. Choose your tax calculation method:

   • Tax calculation only: Avalara calculates the tax but does not sync transaction records to your Avalara account.
   • Tax calculation and transaction reporting: Avalara calculates the tax and syncs transactions to your Avalara account, which is useful for tax reporting and audits.

6. Manage tax code: To use automated tax calculations, your products must be mapped to the correct Avalara tax codes. Genstore allows you to map tax codes to product categories, so you don’t have to assign tax codes to individual products manually.

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   • You need to assign tax codes to the product categories you use. Products without a tax code cannot be taxed, which may prevent customers from completing their orders.
   • If you’re unsure which tax code to use, consult Avalara customer support.
   • For non-standard products that require taxation, use the Non-standard product tax code option. Currently, only Freight tax can have custom tax codes.

Enable automated tax calculation

Once all settings are complete, click Turn on tax calculation to start using automated tax services. If you need to disable it, click Turn off tax calculation.

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Once enabled, Avalara-related configurations (tax code mappings, category assignments) will be locked. Disable automation to make edits.

Additional settings

Configure tax display settings

After completing your tax configuration, you also need to set whether your product prices include tax:

1. Navigate to Genstore -> Settings -> Taxes and duties.
2. Choose whether product prices should be tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive.

How tax is calculated

• Based on address: Genstore calculates taxes using the customer’s shipping address for both manual and automated tax settings. Both self-pickup products and virtual products, the billing address is used. Currently, merchants cannot modify this setting.
• Based on product price: Genstore calculates taxes based on the discounted product price (Discounted product price = Product price - Product discount - Order discount). The order tax is the sum of all product taxes. Note: The portion paid with a gift card is not included in the deducted discount amount.

Tax rounding method

Genstore currently applies a product-level tax rounding principle, meaning that taxes are calculated individually for each product. The calculated tax amount is rounded to two decimal places, and the total tax amount is determined by summing the rounded values of all products.

Note: The decimal places for rounding are retrieved from Settings -> Markets -> Preferences -> Price rounding by default. If you need to adjust this setting, please update it in this section.

Tax calculation rules for different order types

When processing orders, the platform applies different tax calculation logic based on the order type, as follows:

Orders involving virtual products

• The billing address is used as the primary basis for tax calculation.
• If the billing address is empty, the store’s registered address will be used as the fallback tax reference.

Orders with in-store pickup as the delivery method

• The billing address is used as the primary basis for tax calculation.
• If the billing address is empty, the pickup address will be used as the fallback tax reference.

Orders with merchant delivery as the delivery method

• By default, the combination of each product’s shipping address (warehouse address) and the shipping destination address (customer’s delivery address) is used for tax calculation.
• If the product is shipped using a third-party fulfillment app and the shipping address synced to Genstore is empty, the store’s registered address will be used as the default tax reference.