US & Canadian Sales Tax

We have recently released a beta feature for US & Canadian clients which allows sales tax to be automatically calculated and charged as required for each Canadian province/US state.

How does this feature work?

This feature uses TaxJar, a third-party tax calculation software, to apply the correct tax rate when checking out from your store and shipping from one US state to another, or from one Canadian province to another. This feature will also allow you to select the states in which you have reached nexus.

US Sales Tax

Please note: If you have previously had our team set up our temporary solution for charging US Sales tax, you will see two options for USA under Selected countries ("USA - Your state" and "USA - All other states"). These will not work with the new Automatic US Sales tax feature. Please get in touch with us at support@artlogic.net.

Integrated website

Steps

If you have an Artlogic database integrated with your Artlogic website, you will first need to set up the correct tax statuses in your database as these feed through to your website. 

Create a new tax status for your state

1. Log in to your Artlogic database (app.artlogic.net/YourAccountID).
2. Go to Accounts > Value lists > Tax statuses.
3. Add the correct sales tax status for your state (Eg titled ‘US Sales Tax - Your state’.)
4. Click save.

Next, update all relevant artworks with your new tax status

1. Go to Artworks > Views > Shared to Website.
2. Click Update Multiple > Financial: General  > Tax code and tax rate.
3. Select ‘US Sales Tax - Your state’ from the drop-down menu for 'Tax code'.
4. Select ‘​Apply the tax rate specified by the selected tax code’​ from the options for 'Tax rate'.
   
5. Click 'Update'.

Continue to the next steps below: Standalone website (and continued integrated clients).

Standalone website (and continued integrated clients)

Steps

If you have a standalone website, start the setup process here. If you have an integrated website, pick up the process here after completing the steps above.

1. Log in to your Artlogic website CMS.
2. Go to Online Sales Setup > Tax settings.
   Here, enable 'Show prices exclusive of tax', as these rates will change according to the province. Turning this off will ensure that the VAT-included price does not display on the website, as the VAT-included rate will vary based on Canadian province.
   
3. Next, scroll down to Automatic US/Canada Tax Rate Calculations.
4. Turn on Enable automatic tax rates and set Shipping from country to USA.
   
   
5. Save changes after selecting a 'Shipping from country' to update the list of states.
6. Once the page refreshes, you will see an option to choose 'Shipping from state'. Set this to the state that you are located in.

Selecting states in which you have reached Nexus

In the section States in which your business has tax nexus you may select which states your business has reached nexus in. This will allow the system to charge visitors who purchase works from your online store in states where you have met nexus the appropriate tax. 

Please note: Charging tax out-of-state depends on the rules of each state and whether you have reached certain thresholds, or Nexus. As we don’t advise on sales tax best practices, we recommend seeking advice from an accountant as to how this should work for your business. It is up to you to establish whether you have Nexus in each state. If you are collecting sales tax for other states, you will be able to select these states through the options in our Automatic US Tax Rate Calculations tool.

When the appropriate states have been selected, make sure to Save.

Setting up USA Shipping zone

In order to make sure the states you have selected are being charged tax, you will need to set up a Shipping zone for the USA that is tax applicable.

1. Go to CMS > Online Sales > Shipping settings to create a new shipping zone.
2. Create a shipping zone for USA if you have not done so already.
   
3. Make sure this zone is tax enabled.
4. Select USA from the list of Selected countries.
   
5. Create a Shipping Method for this new zone.
   
6. Finally, run a test transaction to make sure all works as expected. When testing, select the 'shipping country' as USA, you will then be able to select individual states, enter in applicable zip code, and sales tax will be charged accordingly.

Canadian Sales Tax

1. Log in to your website CMS > Settings > Online Sales > Tax Settings. Here, enable 'Show prices exclusive of tax', as these rates will change according to the province. Turning this off will ensure that the VAT-included price does not display on the website, as the VAT-included rate will vary based on Canadian province.
2. Next, scroll down to Automatic US/Canada Tax Rate Calculations.
3. Turn on Enable automatic tax rates and set Shipping from country to Canada.
   
4. Save changes after selecting a 'Shipping from country' to update the list of states.
5. Once the page refreshes, you will see an option to choose 'Shipping from state'. Set this to the province or territory that you are located in.
6. Once this is done, go to CMS > Online Sales > Shipping settings to create a new shipping zone.
7. Create a shipping zone for Canada if you have not done so already.
   
8. Make sure this zone is tax enabled.
   
9. Select Canada from the list of Selected countries.
   
10. Create a Shipping Method for this new zone.
    
11. Finally, run a test transaction to make sure all works as expected. When testing, select the 'shipping country' as  Canada, you will then be able to select individual Canadian provinces and sales tax will be charged accordingly.
    

Please note: The calculated tax rate will override the default rate that is set in the CMS, as well as any rate set in the artwork record for our integrated clients.