Jessica
Updated :
At this point you are getting closer and closer to being launched. One of the next crucial steps is making sure that you have your taxes set up correctly regarding any taxes laws in your city, state, or country.
Now, while taxes are very important, and Art Storefronts wants you to set them up, the Art Storefronts team members can’t tell you WHAT your taxes should be. Members of the Art Storefronts team are not CPA, they aren’t accountants in any way and they do not know the tax laws for your specific area. You need to talk to a CPA or a local tax office to get more information about what your taxes should be.
Once you have that information you can come back to your taxes on Art Storefronts and update them, but in the meantime, we’re going to offer a simple solution to start with. This article is going to show you how to use our automatic tax method to calculate taxes for any zip code in your current state.
Table of Contents
Create Tax Method
- Make sure you are logged in to your Art Storefronts Control Panel. This is sometime called the back-end of the site or the Site Manager. Each of these mean the exact same thing.
When you’re sure you’re logged in, look at the upper right-hand corner of the screen and find the menu labeled Jump To. Click on it and Select the options titled Tax Method.
- You’re going to be taken to a new page and you need to find the section labeled Tax Calculation Determined By and in the drop-down menu, you’ll see a few different items that we will explain below, but you’ll need to select only one:
Tax Methods Only: No automatic tax calculations will be made. The only tax that will be applied to your orders will be based on the Tax Methods that you have created. You should choose this option if you do not want to use the automatic tax calculations.
Automatic w/ Tax Methods as Overrides: Taxes will be calculated automatically based on current tax rates by zip code within the State you specified in your address in the SITE SETTINGS You can override a specific rate for zip code(s) by creating a Tax Method below. Keep in mind that if you create a Tax Method, that Tax Method will always override the automatic tax calculation for the specific country, state, or zip code(s) specified. You need to select this option if you want to use the automatic calculations.
Please Note: Using the Automatic w/ Tax Methods as Overrides will ONLY calculate taxes for zip codes in your HOME STATE. It will not calculate taxes for zip codes in states that DIFFER from your home state.
- Now, you can click on the button titled UPDATE, so you can implement your tax method.
- You’ll receive a confirmation message saying Your Tax Choice Has Been Updated.
- Now, you need to scroll down the page. By default, there is a tax method created, but you’re going to click on the Red Trashcan next to it because you’re not going to need that tax method for the time being. With that, your basic tax method is up and running.
Troubleshooting
- When I choose my home state at checkout, taxes aren’t being calculated.
- If you’re not seeing taxes being calculated, you first need to make sure you’ve selected your state. Go to the back-end of the site. Click Site Settings. Scroll down and make sure your state is set.
- You may not have selected the Automatic option. Go back. Select it and save the page.
- My page won’t save.
- You may need to use an approved browser. If you’re using anything other than Firefox or Chrome, you should stop and use either Chrome or Firefox.
- If you’re using an approved browser, you may need to clear your cache. Check out how to clear the cache by using the article on How To: Clear your Cache.
What do I do next?
Because you're an artist who is fulfilling your own items, you're going to want to set up some form of shipping, even if it's going to be free shipping. This is going to be important for you to really think about and implement. To learn more, check out How To: Contend with Shipping.