Settings & Configuration | Tax Registrations, Overrides & Exemptions

Settings → Taxes covers your rates and registrations (see Settings & Configuration | Taxes). This guide is the layer above: when the standard rate is the wrong answer.

Registrations decide where you collect

Your tax registrations tell the store which countries/states you actually collect in. No registration in a region, no tax charged there — which is correct until your sales cross a registration threshold, at which point it very much isn't. Review when you expand into new markets.

Product-level overrides

Some products don't follow the standard rate — reduced-rate, zero-rated or special-category goods depending on jurisdiction (children's items, books, foodstuffs are the usual examples). Mark products non-standard with the tax class on the product — isTaxable and tax class live in the product editor — rather than bending your global rate.

Customer-level exemptions

Genuine exempt buyers (qualifying businesses with valid numbers, for example) are marked on their customer record — the profile's tax status field (see Customers | Adding a Customer). Checkout then doesn't charge them. Keep evidence for exempt customers; your tax authority asks about the customer list, not the software.

Tips

• Test the basket maths after any override: a zero-rated item plus a standard-rated item should tax only part of the order.

• Tax software configures liability; it doesn't decide it. When turnover crosses into new obligations, talk to your accountant before changing settings.