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Setting up threshold taxes

Threshold taxes are only available to retailers with tax-exclusive stores.

Certain American states use a threshold tax system. In this tax system, products are taxed at a specific rate based on their total retail price.

Retail POS allows you to set up and apply threshold taxes based on certain price thresholds being met at the time of sale.

Creating a new sales tax

To set up a threshold tax, you first need to create a new sales tax rate. To do this:

  1. Navigate to Setup > Sales taxes.
  2. Click Add Sales Tax.

    Sales taxes page with Add Sales Tax button emphasized.

  3. Enter the Tax name and the Tax rate (percentage).

    Add Sales Tax pop-up with fields for Tax name and Tax rate.

  4. Check the Add exemption for clothing and footwear box.

    Add Sales Tax pop-up with Add exemption for clothing and footwear box checked.

  5. In the Threshold ($) field, enter the amount at which point the exempted products will be taxed.

    For example, a product with the tax code for clothing and footwear will only be eligible for Massachusetts Apparel & Fabric Goods tax if the retail price exceeds $175, and will only be taxed on the amount that exceeds that threshold.

    Pop-up with Threshold ($) field emphasized.

  6. (Optional) If you have products and outlets using another tax rate and want to update these items to the new tax rate, check the Change the sales tax currently used by outlets and products to this one box.

    Pop-up with Change the tax used... box checked and Existing Sales Tax dropdown visible.

  7. From the Existing Sales Tax dropdown menu, click the tax rate you will be replacing.
  8. Click Add Sales Tax.

Assigning a tax category to products

After the threshold tax has been created, you'll need to assign the default Clothing and Footwear tax code to product(s) in your store for any products eligible for threshold taxation.

  1. Navigate to Catalog > Products.
  2. Filter for the products you need to edit and click Edit product.
  3. Toggle on the Apply tax exemption threshold.

    Tax section of a product with Apply tax exemption threshold box emphasized.

  4. Use the Tax category dropdown to select the appropriate tax category.

    Tax category dropdown.

  5. Click Save.

Updating tax categories in bulk using the Retail Imports Team

If you need to make bulk changes after creating sales and threshold taxes and assigning a tax category to products, you can submit a request to the Retail Imports Team.

First, export your product list:

  1. Navigate to Catalog > Products.
  2. Apply any necessary filters to the products list and click Search.
  3. Click Export List...

    Products page with Export... option emphasized.

  4. Click a download format (XLSX or CSV).

    Products page showing XLSX or CSV export format options.

Once you've downloaded the file, edit the spreadsheet file. You'll submit this to the Retail Imports Team to apply the tax category updates to your catalog.

  1. Rename the column id to product_id.
  2. Add a new column to the right of the product_id column and name it tax_category.
  3. To remove the tax category, write remove in the tax_category field.

    Currently, Retail POS (X-Series) only supports the default tax category Clothing and Footwear. Set this by writing clothing in the tax_category field.

  4. Delete all columns except for product_id and tax_category.

    Example spreadsheet showing only product_id and tax_category columns.

  5. Save your file as XLSX (preferred) or CSV.
  6. Submit your file to the Retail Imports Team.

What's next?

Setting up taxes

Learn how to set up tax-inclusive and tax-exclusive stores.

Learn more

Supported hardware

Read about the purchasable hardware compatible with Retail POS.

Learn more

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