In Retail POS, you can create and save customer-specific tax rules and apply custom tax rates to customers who are tax-exempt or wholesale buyers or customers from outside your region who are subject to a different tax than your local sales tax.

By default, all customer accounts are subject to the default store tax rate unless otherwise indicated. You only need to save a tax rate to a customer if they require a different rate than your store default.

If a product has a particular tax saved to it, that tax will override the customer rate. You can remove product-specific taxes in the Sell screen.

Once a custom tax rate has been created, all users have permissions to set up a tax rate and add associated notes on a customer’s file.

Setting tax rates for new customers

To set a different tax rate for a new customer:

1. Navigate to Customers > Add customer.

   

2. Enter customer contact details, then click Details.
3. Enter additional customer information, if needed.
4. Under Settings, locate the Tax Rate field and choose the custom tax rate from the dropdown menu.

   

5. In the Note field, enter additional information, if needed.
6. Click Create new customer.

   

   You may also add a custom tax status from the sales screen by typing the customer name into the search, clicking Add as new customer, and following the above instructions.

   

Setting tax rates for existing customers

1. Navigate to Customers.
2. Click on the pencil icon (Edit) beside the customer name.

   

3. Click Details.
4. In the Taxes field, enter the custom tax rate from the dropdown menu.
5. In the Note field, enter additional information, if needed.

   

6. Click Save changes.

Deleting custom tax rates

To delete custom tax rates from a customer, click the trash icon (Delete) beside the rate in the dropdown menu. This will return a customer's tax rate to your store default.

You can change tax rules for individual customers but not customer group taxes.

Updating customer-specific tax rates using the Retail Imports Team

If you need to import or update customer-specific tax rates in bulk, you can submit a request to the Retail Imports Team:

1. Export your customers list by navigating to Customers > Export list.

   

   Filter your list to include only the customers you want to update using More filters next to the Search button. 

2. In the export file, delete all the columns except for customer_code, first_name, and last_name.
3. Add a new column called tax_name.
4. In the tax_name column, add the name of the tax you want to assign to the customers. The tax name must be written exactly as it appears in Retail POS.

   

5. Save your file as XLSX (preferred) or CSV.
6. Verify your file before submitting to avoid issues that may cause the data import to fail:
   1. Remove special characters, like ™, ☺ , ©, etc.
   2. Erase cells with N/A so the field is blank.
   3. Format scientific numbers (4.001E+11) as regular integers (40010000000).
   4. Format all cells (including cells with numbers) as plain text. In Google Sheets, click Format > Number > Plain text.
7. Submit your file to the Retail Imports Team.