General set-up steps and tax reports

There isn't a formal list of steps to set up your taxes, but you can use the following process as a guide.

Several reports are available to help you file and remit your taxes or to provide to your tax accountant.

General steps to set up taxes

Follow the links for more detailed information:

1. If you're running an online store, then set up the countries you will be shipping to.

2. If you're using Shopify POS to sell in person, then set up the tax rates based on your retail locations. The default POS tax rates are based on the geographic location in which your in-person sales take place.

3. Set up the tax rates in the countries and regions to which you will be selling and shipping your products:

   • If you're in the United States, then choose automatic tax settings or manually specify the rates for state, county, and municipal taxes, including shipping taxes.
   • If you're in Canada and need to charge tax, then enter your tax registrations.
   • If you're not in the United States or Canada, then use the default values or specify the rates for countries and their regions. You also specify whether you will charge taxes on shipping.

4. If you sell digital products, then set up the taxes that apply to these items.

5. Override tax rates or exempt products from taxes where necessary. Any overrides that you set apply to online sales and to Shopify POS sales.

6. Optional: display your prices with taxes included. When this option is enabled, no additional charge for taxes is added to a customer's checkout. Instead, a calculation is done to determine what percentage of a product's price is tax.

As you set up taxes, you can access and review your settings on the Taxes page in your Shopify admin.

Tax reports

The Taxes finance report can provide a summary of the sales taxes that were applied to your sales.

The Sales finance report can help with your sales tax reporting. You can export this report as a CSV file that includes the order amounts, taxes, POS, billing, and shipping locations. To make the most of this report, make sure you choose the correct time period (such as the calendar year), and select Full report when you export it. This report helps you get the information that you or your accountant will need to work on your sales tax returns.

To learn more about these reports, refer to Taxes finance report and Sales finance report.

If you need information about 1099-K forms and you use Shopify Payments, then refer to Tax reporting.