Does square calculate sales tax for me or do I need to add them all individually to the tax section?

[MelissaCG]

I'm so confused. I hate hate hate accounting. Life would be so much easier if I can just tell it to autocalculate the taxes for sales I do through square and I don't have to worry about it. 

[Valentina]

Hi hi @MelissaCG + welcome back to the Seller Community!

Are you asking about tax rates for items you are selling via your Square Online website?

Or items you created in your Item Library to sell using Square Point of Sale? 

Or both?

I'm happy to dig in a bit more here once I know a little more about how you're running your business 😊

[MelissaCG]

Both. 🙂

[Valentina]

As long as you’re located in the United States, we provide an automatic tax calculator for your Square Online website!
You can learn all about that right here on this page 👀

In regards to items you are selling through your Square Point of Sale app, you will need to create your own taxes and apply them to items as needed by following the directions laid out here. Will you be selling in many different counties and need to apply different tax rates depending on where you are, or are you always selling in an area with the same tax rate, @MelissaCG? 🧼

[MelissaCG]

US only for now. It's too complicated to try to sell to other countries. The frustration is that everywhere in the US has different taxes. Every city, every parish/county, every state. It's really frustrating. I'm about ready to hire someone to enter them for me because I don't know what applies where and I think Louisiana (where I live) charges taxes no matter what. In my city, they don't charge taxes for some groceries but do charge for others which makes it even worse. 

[Valentina]

Oh, whoops - I was asking about counties, not countries, @MelissaCG! 😊

Taxes can be frustrating to understand and apply properly, absolutely 💫
 

Remember - items sold through Square Online will have their tax automatically calculated, unless you enter your own rates. However, if you're doing any pickup and delivery through your Square Online website, and need to get more granular with tax rates on items there, check out this post I wrote.

I recommend taking a peek here to learn more about applying taxes to some items and not others, using Square Point of Sale (not online). This post from Tom has some helpful advice about physically (not online) selling in multiple areas.

I hope these help - let me know if I can point you to any other resources!

Feel free to get in touch directly if you need more hands-on help, over the phone.

[MelissaCG]

Oops, that was my misunderstanding. I'll be selling online, in my own parish and another parish (a parish is a county in Louisiana). I also need the taxes for the cities I will be selling be. 

[Valentina]

Got it @MelissaCG! 

The links I shared above should get you where you need to be, but if you need more hands on help, don't hesitate to reach out directly by logging into your Square account and heading to this page - I recommend a phone call 📞

[MelissaCG]

Thank you Valentina

[OliverJacob12]

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@MelissaCG wrote:

I'm so confused. I hate hate hate accounting. Life would be so much easier if I can just tell it to autocalculate the taxes for sales I do through square and I don't have to worry about chances of finding a man calculator. 

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The amount of sales tax charged on an online purchase is determined by applying the tax rate to the total price of taxable items in an order. Optionally, you can include tax in the item price, charge tax on shipping and delivery fees and use item-level tax rates for pickup, delivery, and self-serve orders.