Magelia WebStore

  • Summary

Magelia WebStore QuickStart Guide

Configuring Taxes

If you do not want taxes to be calculated by your store please go directly to the next chapter.

Taxes will be the first thing that we configure within Magelia WebStore, because taxes can be applied to products, delivery charges, etc.

Configuring taxes is a process with four logical steps:

  1. Tax Zones: we will create tax zones that correspond, for example, to different countries. Within these zones, we will see how to create territorial exceptions where the taxes should not be applied or will be applied differently
  2. Tax Categories: we will define the tax categories because not all the products or services are subject to the same taxes
  3. Tax Rates: we will define tax rates
  4. Tax Preferences: country by default and tax zone by default

Did you know? One of the major strengths of Magelia WebStore is its capacity to:

  • apply taxes to the origin or the destination which is very useful in Europe
  • put several taxes on a single product or a single purchase, which is very useful in countries like Brazil
  • manage tax zones and particular cases such as zones for exclusion

These features make Magelia WebStore a powerful solution created for an international context.

Tax Zones

Tax zones determine where taxes will be applied. A tax zone can be defined as a country, a geographic zone smaller than a country, a state or province, or a zone smaller than a state. This allows you to tailor tax application when defining regions that have exceptions.

In the following example, we will show how a company based in the United States (Illinois for example) can apply sales tax to only those purchases made by shoppers in this state. In this case, online sales to shoppers in other states in the U.S. are not subject to sales tax.

Step-by-step procedure

To configure this classic case in the Magelia WebStore software, we are going to create a tax zone that corresponds to Illinois

To create a tax zone corresponding to a state:

  1. Go to the screen Tax and Shipping > Tax Zones. Click on “Add New” to create a new tax zone.
  2. Code: Enter “Illinois” for example. The code is simply the unique identifier of the tax zone.
  3. Continent / Country / State: Now choose the continent (North America), the country (United States) and the State (Illinois), then select “include” to indicate that the tax zone includes Illinois. Click on the “Plus” button and then, click “Save”.

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

We can also see the new tax zone that we have just created appears in the list.

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

Creating a Shipping Zone corresponding to all U.S. states except Illinois
We repeat the same procedure to create a tax zone corresponding to all U.S. states outside of Illinois, entering the following data:

  • Code: USA – IL excluded
  • Filter: Consisting of the USA: we select North America + United States + Include
  • Filter: To exclude Illinois from this zone, we select North America + United States + Illinois + Exclude

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

  • Click “Save”.

The two tax zones you have just created appear in the list:
Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

To create new tax zones, simply repeat the procedure given above.

Learn more

Additional help for tax zones:
/documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Tax.Zones.Edit?help=true

Video
In the new window, click the “Video” tab: /documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Tax.Zones.Edit?help=true
or watch on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsp8CqqHMjY

Help with regular expressions
/documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Tax.Zones.Edit?help=true
http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html

Tax Types and Tax Categories

Tax types simply refer to taxes like, for example, the VAT in Europe or sales tax in the United States. Tax types are especially useful for regrouping tax categories, which define the specific applicable taxes for products or services.

A tax category is assigned to a tax type and corresponds to a product category where all the same tax calculation rules apply. Tax categories are easy to assign to products and enable Magelia WebStore to automatically calculate the appropriate taxes.

Tax categories permit, for example, to determine products in Europe that are subject to the VAT standard rate or the VAT reduced rate, etc.

You can also determine tax categories according to merchandise classifications, commodity codes, etc.

Various tax categories can be assigned to a product in order to apply different taxes to the same product.

Step-by-step procedure

In this example, we are going to create a tax category for standard products.

Prerequisite: Prior to configuring tax rates, you need to have configured:

  • tax types

To create a tax category:

  1. Go to the screen Tax and Shipping > Tax Categories. Click on “Add New” to create a new tax category.
  2. Enter a tax type. Enter Sales Tax for example in the Tax type field
  3. Enter a code for the Tax category : the code for the tax category, for example “Standard products”
  4. Name in different languages: Enter the name of the categorie of taxes in the different languages. For example, “Standard Products” in English and “Produits Standards” in French. Then, “Save”.

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

Creating a second tax category for the Shipping and Handling

We repeat the same procedure to create a “Shipping and Handling” tax, entering the following data:

  • Tax Type: Shipping Tax
  • Code: Shipping and Handling
  • Local names: "Shipping and Handling" in English / "Services de livraison" in French

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

We can see that the tax categories appear in the list.

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

Repeat the procedure given above to create tax categories for services or products with reduced tax rates.

Learn more

Additional help for Tax Categories:
/documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Tax.Categories.Edit?help=true

Video:
In the new window, click the “Video” tab: /documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Tax.Categories.Edit?help=true
or watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD36TXnti4A

Tax Rates

A tax rate is determined by three factors: the tax category, the departure tax zone and the destination tax zone.

Use the tax rates feature to easily define, for example, that merchandise sent from Illinois and destined for Illinois is subject to a tax of x% and belongs to a given tax category.

In Europe, this is especially useful since in some cases either the departure tax or the destination tax may apply.

Step-by-step procedure

In this example, we are going to create a tax rate for a store shipping from Illinois to Illinois:
Prerequisite: Prior to configuring tax rates, you will first need to have configured:

  • tax categories
  • tax zones

To create a tax rate:

  1. Go to the screen Tax and Shipping > Tax Rates. Click on “Add New” to create a new tax rate.
  2. Tax category: select sales tax – Standard products
  3. Origin tax zone: Indicate the tax zone of the origin, Illinois in our example. If you ship only from one location and you systematically apply tax at the destination, you do not need to enter the zone of origin.
  4. Destination zone: Enter the destination tax zone, again Illinois.
  5. Tax rate: Enter the applicable tax rate, for example 6.25%.Click on the + button to save.

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

We can see the tax rate that we have just created appears in the list.

Creating a second tax rate for Shipping and Handling
We are creating another tax zone that will be applied to Shipping and Handling charges that are billed to clients in Illinois. The data to be entered is the following:

  • Tax category: Shipping Tax > Shipping and handling
  • Origin tax zone: Illinois
  • Destination tax zone: Illinois
  • Tax rate: 7 (for 7% - this is just an example)

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

If you wish to create other taxes, repeat the procedure given above.

Learn more

Additional help:
/documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Tax.Rates.List?help=true

Video:
/documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Tax.Rates.List?help=true
or watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwGmYQ_gr9g

Setting Tax Preferences

We are going to select tax preferences, meaning assuming where web shoppers are from and where they wish for their goods to be delivered.

This screen allows you to define the default rules of tax zones and shipping zones for the different countries where you intend to sell your products.

Why define these rules by default? When a potential customer visits a website, prices and taxes must be available for him/her to see, even if the customer’s location (e.g. delivery address) is unknown, meaning taxes and shipping rates cannot be applied. Tax and shipping rules are useful to assign default taxes and shipping when the shipping address, or location of the customer, is unknown.

Of course, when an order is finalized and the shipping address is known, the tax and shipping fees will be recalculated accordingly.

Step-by-step procedure

To create a tax preference, we are going to first define a default country – the country where the majority of our web shoppers come from – followed by a default tax zone:

To define a default country:

  1. Go to the screen Sellers-Stores > Store > Store Settings. This screen shows the store’s default configuration.
  2. We are going to just adjust the Default Tax and Shipping Country setting and put United States. By doing so, we assume that the majority of our web shoppers are coming from the United States and will expect tax and shipping rules to apply to their country.
  3. Save.

This setting is only useful as long as the web shopper has not already entered a shipping address. Once we know his precise address, we will apply the tax and shipping rules applicable to his/her address, country, or state of delivery.

Let’s now configure with more precision the default tax zone. Indeed, we have just set the default country, but we have not said whether as long we do not know the web shopper’s shipping address we should consider that he/she comes from Illinois (and in this case apply sales taxes), or from elsewhere in the United States (and in this case not subject to sales tax).

To choose default preferences (tax zones):

  1. Go to the screen Tax and Shipping > Preferences. This screen shows the list of the preferences by country already created. Click “Add New”.
  2. Specify the country where these preferences will be applied: we select United States.
  3. Default Tax Zone: we select USA except IL because we assume that most buyers will be for the from another state in the U.S. than Illinois.
  4. Default Shipping Zone: For now we put nothing here because we have not yet configured shipping zones.
  5. Click on Save

Thus, if we do not have more precise information, we will consider that a visitor that lands on our site will has the USA – IL exluded tax zone.
We see this preference appear in the list:

Magelia WebStore - Quick Start Guide

If you wish to create tax and shipping preference for other countries, follow the procedure given above.

Learn more

Additional help:
/documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Zones.Preference.List?help=true

Video:
/documentation/adminconsole/TaxAndShipping.Zones.Preference.List?help=true
or watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJFSzBAdfJo