If your SHOPLINE store sells products in the United States, you need to calculate and collect taxes. Therefore, SHOPLINE launches Avalara Connector that is designed to help with taxation for merchants running business in the United States. It integrates with Avalara's tax calculation and management services. Avalara then automates tax calculations and the tax filing process and provides up-to-date tax rates in real-time, ensuring the tax compliance for businesses operating in the United States.
Once you have subscribed to the SHOPLINE Enterprise plan, you can connect your Avalara account and set tax codes for product types. Avalara will then automatically retrieve the appropriate tax rate for your store based on your shipping address and customer delivery addresses, and collect the tax accordingly.
Note: Avalara is available to merchants in nearly every country and region. Avalara Connector will expand its availability to more countries or regions in stages. |
In This Article
- Registering and Configuring Your Avalara Account
- Enabling Avalara Services in SHOPLINE Admin Panel
- Setting up Tax Codes for Product Types
- Calculating and Filing Taxes with Avalara Connector
Registering and Configuring Your Avalara Account
You need to register an Avalara account on the official Avalara website before using Avalara Connector to help calculate taxes. If you already have an Avalara account, follow the steps below to configure tax collection:
- Log in to your Avalara account.
- Set up your company and the regions you collect tax.
- Configure the license key: Go to Settings > License and API Keys and click Generate License Key or Generate new key. Confirm your action, and a new license key is created. This key will be used during the integration.
For any issues with your Avalara account settings, please contact Avalara customer service.
For tax configurations in the United States, consult a professional tax agency.
Enabling Avalara Services in SHOPLINE Admin Panel
Once you have an Avalara account, you can connect it to your SHOPLINE store to enable the tax calculation service.
To set up Avalara tax calculation service, follow the steps below:
- From your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Settings > Taxes and Fees.
- From the Tax Collection Areas list, find or search for United States, and click the pencil icon on the right to go to the tax configuration details page.
- In the Tax calculation service section, click the Change the service button, and select Avalara in the pop-up window. Click Confirm to return to the details page.
- Click Connect account next to Avalara,
- Fill in your Avalara account and license key, select Production environment, and click Next.
- Select your company from the Tax calculation company dropdown menu, and check Enable tax calculation service. Then, select Calculation only if your business wants to file taxes on your own, or select Calculation and submit if you want Avalara to file taxes for you. Click Connect account once finished.
Check the following configurations to ensure the tax calculation service works as expected:
- In the product details page, check the Tax required box.
- In the Settings > Taxes and Fees page, turn on the Collect toggle for the United States.
- Your Avalara account is in the production environment and connected to SHOPLINE.
Note: If your Avalara account has issues, to ensure your store’s ability to calculate taxes, the rules in SHOPLINE’s basic sales tax settings will be used. Even if you integrate Avalara for tax calculation, we recommend configuring basic sales tax settings for risk management. |
Setting up Tax Codes for Product Types
Avalara Connector calculates taxes at the product level during checkout, based on the tax codes you enter for product types. Once you have selected and connected your Avalara account, you can set tax codes by clicking the Set tax code button.
On the Tax code page, fill in the tax code for each product type or import a CSV file for batch editing. fill in the tax code for each product type or import a CSV file for batch editing. Please note that the tax codes for products in the Other types tab cannot be managed using a CSV file. You need to provide the tax codes manually. If the tax code for Logistic fee is empty, Avalara Connector will use the tax code “FR010000” by default.
You can download the template CSV file. It has two columns:
- ID: The product type ID. It is a unique identifier for the product types. You can find it on the Tax code page or the exported CSV file.
- TaxCode: Visit the Avalara Tax Codes Search page to find a tax code that suits your needs.
If you want the taxes for your products to be calculated based on the tax code you set, ensure the following configurations:
- In the product details page, the product is correctly associated with the product type.
- The product types are associated with tax codes.
- Logistics fee, Custom product, and Gift card product types are associated with tax codes.
Note: If your products are not associated with a tax code, Avalara will calculate taxes based on the highest tax rate. |
Calculating and Filing Taxes with Avalara Connector
Important Note: Avalara Connector does not directly file tax with local governments. For tax-related issues, please contact Avalara's customer service representatives.
When you choose to calculate and submit taxes using Avalara Connector, Avalara Connector will monitor any subsequent order changes and submit them to Avalara. Avalara will then assist you with tax filing and refund processing.
Initiation of Tax-filing Transactions
Once an order is fully paid, Avalara Connector starts submitting tax filing requests for the order to Avalara.
Partially paid orders will not trigger tax-fling transactions. During the transaction process, if you have partially paid orders and want the order to trigger the tax-fling transaction, you need to change the order status to Paid.
Multiple Tax-filing and Refund Transactions for Order Changes During Sales
During the sales process, you may perform actions on orders, like partial returns or refunds, and exchanges or additions of items, which will change the items in or the amount of the order. After you complete the operation, Avalara Connector will calculate the tax changes for the order, determine the tax-filing and refund transactions that require updating, and submit them to Avalara.
This process may generate multiple tax-filing and refund transactions due to the complexity of the order change process and is intended to help you correct taxes.
Tax Refund due to Order Cancellation
Order cancellation is the final state of an order and is considered a terminated transaction.
After you cancel an order, Avalara Connector will calculate the order tax change, determine the tax-filing and refund transactions that require updating, and submit it to Avalara.
Note: In rare cases where an order is overpaid, the overpaid amount will not trigger a tax-filing transaction. Similarly, a refund for the overpaid amount will not trigger a refund transaction. |
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