As a Storefront reseller, you are responsible for collecting and remitting the correct taxes for your customers' locations. Tucows does not manage tax collection on your behalf. Storefront's tax rule system lets you define the rates that apply at checkout based on where your customers are located, associate your Tax ID or VAT ID with those rules, and update or remove rules as your obligations change.
How tax rules work
Tax rules apply to logged-in customers at checkout, based on the country and state or province on their account. You can set rules at the country level (applies to all customers in that country) or at the state/province level (applies only to customers in that specific region). If both a country rule and a state/province rule match a customer's location, both rates apply and appear as separate lines in checkout.
The name you give a tax rule is visible to customers at checkout and on their receipts. Use a name they'll recognize for example GST, HST, VAT, and similar standard abbreviations work well.
Tax rules and the order export
Tax amounts, rates, names, and Tax IDs are included in your order export CSV alongside the order data. This is the primary tool for tax remittance reporting, Storefront does not generate a separate tax report. See Viewing and Managing Orders in Storefront for details on the export format.
Add a Tax/VAT ID
Your Tax ID or VAT ID appears on customer order confirmations and receipts. You can associate multiple IDs with your rules, for example, a GST/HST number and a VAT number.
- Log in to Storefront Manager.
- Navigate to Pricing → Taxes.
- Enter your Tax ID or VAT ID in the provided field and save.
Create a tax rule
- Navigate to Pricing → Taxes.
- Click Add Tax Rule.
- Complete the fields in the pop-up:
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Tax rule name | Visible to customers at checkout and on receipts. |
| Tax rate | Enter the percentage, up to 3 decimal places. For example, 9.975 for Quebec QST. |
| Country | Select the country this rule applies to. |
| State/Province | Optional. Leave blank to apply the rule to all regions in the selected country. |
| Tax ID / VAT ID | Enter a new ID or select one from the dropdown. The dropdown shows IDs already in use, with a count of how many rules use each one. |
- Click Add Rule.
If a rule already exists for the same country and state/province combination, Storefront shows an error and does not save the duplicate.
Edit a tax rule
- Navigate to Pricing → Taxes.
- Find the rule you want to update. Use search or filter to narrow the list.
- Click the three-dot menu next to the rule and select Edit tax rule.
- Update the fields and save.
Delete a tax rule
- Navigate to Pricing → Taxes.
- Click the three-dot menu next to the rule and select Delete.
- Confirm the deletion in the pop-up.
Storefront removes the tax rule immediately. Customers in that region stop seeing and being charged that rate from that point forward. Completed orders are not affected.
What your customer sees
Tax rules only apply to logged-in customers. At checkout, Storefront matches the customer's account location against your rules and displays each applicable rate as a separate line item, for example, one line for a federal rate and another for a provincial rate. The tax name you configured appears as the label. The same information appears on the customer's order confirmation email and receipt.
Logged-out visitors browsing your store do not see tax amounts until they sign in and proceed to checkout.
Tax reporting
Storefront does not generate tax remittance reports. Because you process payments through your own Stripe account, Stripe holds the transaction-level data you need for reporting. Tax amounts, rates, names, and Tax IDs are also included in your order export CSV. See Viewing and Managing Orders in Storefront for details.
Troubleshooting
A customer wasn't charged tax even though I have a rule for their region.
Tax rules only apply to logged-in customers. If the customer checked out as a guest, or if their account doesn't have a country or province on file, Storefront cannot match a rule. Ask the customer to confirm their account details are complete.
I'm getting an error when creating a rule for a region I've already configured.
Storefront allows only one rule per country/state/province combination. If a rule for that region already exists, edit it rather than creating a new one.
I deleted a tax rule but customers are still seeing the rate.
Tax rule changes apply immediately to new checkouts. If a customer has an active checkout session, they may still see the old rate until they refresh. Completed orders always reflect the tax rate that was active at the time of purchase.
Related articles
- Setting Up Domain Pricing in Storefront
- Viewing and Managing Orders in Storefront
- Setting Up Stripe on Your Storefront
Questions? Contact OpenSRS Support.
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