Configuring Specific Tax Setups in WooCommerce

Using the WooCommerce tax settings and custom code (if required), it is possible to configure special setups to fit the needs of your business.

After reviewing the main Setting up Taxes in WooCommerce documentation, read on here for how certain scenarios can be achieved with either the default core WooCommerce settings for scenarios to match local or national tax configurations, or with code snippets.

These scenarios are not exhaustive and the team at WooCommerce.com can only help with the functionality options available in the core WooCommerce plugin, along with additional tax-related products available on the WooCommerce.com Marketplace.

Some merchants may require all customers are charged the same tax rate for the country or region the store is located in. This means all customers are charged the local tax rate that matches the Store Address.

First, WooCommerce needs to know how to charge customers the tax rate. For this scenario, the Store Address location is used so this setting should be chosen – WooCommerce > Settings > Tax > Tax options > Calculate tax based on > Select – Shop base address

Next, WooCommerce needs to set all customers location as the Shop base address – combined with the previous setting, this will charge the customers the local rate: WooCommerce > Settings > General > General options > Default customer location > Shop base address

Finally, add the tax rate only for the country and region of your Shop base address. More details for how to do this in the Setting up tax rates documentation.

The customer is now charged the tax rate for the store and the customer can add a specific billing and shipping address at Checkout without this affecting the tax rate.

Another general scenario is for store to charge the local, regional, or national tax rates for the customer billing address.

First, WooCommerce needs to know how to charge customers the tax rate. For this scenario, the customer location is used so this setting should be chosen – WooCommerce > Settings > Tax > Tax options > Calculate tax based on > Select – Customer billing address

Next, WooCommerce needs to have an address or region to return the correct tax rate. For this Geolocate is used, and the customer general location is send to WooCommerce from the browser, and combined with the previous setting, this will charge the customers the tax rate for their country/region: WooCommerce > Settings > General > General options > Default customer location > Geolocate

Finally, add the tax rate for all the countries and regions that you are selling to. More details for how to do this in the Setting up tax rates documentation.

There may be scenarios that you require code customization to achieve the tax setup you need. Our developers have written some technical level details about How Taxes Work in WooCommerce including some filters to change how taxes are shown/displayed:

• Defining Prices
• Tax Calculations (simplified)
• Cross-border/country/region taxes
  • Prices including tax – Default v2.5.x Behavior
  • Prices including tax – Experimental Behavior
• Showing 0 value taxes

Do you still have questions and need assistance? 

• Get in touch with a Happiness Engineer via our Help Desk. We provide support for extensions developed by and/or sold on WooCommerce.com, and Jetpack/WordPress.com customers.
• If you are not a customer, we recommend finding help on the WooCommerce Support Forum or hiring a recommended expert on our customizations page.