Set up sales tax

Sales tax in OnTote is off until you turn it on. With the master switch off, nothing changes: no tax is calculated, estimated, or shown anywhere. That is the safe default while you are setting up.

Only owners and managers can change tax settings.

Step 1: Turn tax calculation on

1. Go to Settings, then Taxes, then General.

2. Under Tax calculation, click Enable tax calculation.

Off is a complete no-op, so toggling it on is the moment tax starts appearing. You can turn it back off the same way.

On the same page, decide how prices are entered and shown:

• Product prices include tax: the prices you enter already contain tax. The storefront shows the price as-is.
• Product prices exclude tax: the prices you enter are pre-tax, and tax is added at checkout. The storefront shows an estimate plus a note that final tax is calculated at checkout.

Pick one. Switching it later changes how prices are interpreted, so set this before you publish your prices.

Step 2: Set your rates

Rates live in two places, and they work together:

• Product tax profiles (under Settings → Taxes): one or more tax components, each with a Tax description, a Tax rate (%), and a Jurisdiction. A region can carry several components (for example, a state component and a city component), and the order's tax is the sum of the components. Mark one profile as the Default profile so new products inherit it.
• Customer tax profiles: rules for specific customers, like a Kind of exemption with an Override rate (%), plus an Exemption certificate reference and a Certificate expires on date for exempt customers you need to track. A customer with an exemption shows as exempt on the order instead of being taxed.

OnTote works out which rate applies from the order's location: it uses that location's tax region, or your Default profile if the location does not have one. Locations can't be given their own region from the dashboard yet, so in practice the Default profile is what applies, and you should always mark one. Each customer and product can then adjust that starting point.

Step 3: Mark items taxable or not

Each product carries a Taxability setting: Taxable, Exempt, or Inherit from category. Exempt items are never taxed, even when tax is on.

A product tax profile is assigned to the product, and a customer tax profile can be assigned on the customer record. Together with taxability, these decide the final tax on each line. The order stores a tax snapshot, so a tax refund or dispute later shows exactly what was charged.

What customers see

While browsing and at checkout, the storefront shows a tax estimate based on the location they are shopping from:

• With prices excluding tax: an Est. tax line with the dollar amount.
• With prices including tax: an "incl. est. tax" note under the total.

In both cases the page adds: "Final tax calculated at checkout." The estimate is advisory; the real tax is calculated when the order is confirmed.

When the region cannot be worked out

If OnTote cannot determine a tax region for an order (the location has no tax region and there is no default region), it does not guess. Tax is left unresolved on the order rather than silently charged or silently skipped, and the dashboard flags it.

There is a second safety net on the Taxes → General page. If tax is on but some location is missing a region with no default to fall back on, a warning appears:

"Tax is on, but a location has no tax region and there is no default. Storefront checkout will not complete until you set one."

Fix it by giving the location a tax region or setting a default region. Until you do, storefront checkout for that location is blocked, which is the correct behavior: no order should complete with unresolved tax.

If something looks wrong

• No tax appears anywhere. Confirm Tax calculation is enabled. With it off, everything is a no-op by design.
• An item is not being taxed. Check its Taxability setting (it may be Exempt or inheriting an exempt category) and whether the customer has an exemption on their record.
• The storefront shows an estimate but checkout charges differ. That is normal. The estimate uses the storefront location's region before the final address is known; the final calculation uses the resolved region and customer profile at confirm time.