now if you want to charge taxes on your
e-commerce website you can also do that
with woocommerce but we have to enable
that feature first so here in the
WordPress dashboard let's go to
woocommerce and click on settings then
here under General let's scroll down and
next to enable taxes let's take this
option enable tax rates and calculations
then let's scroll down and click on Save
changes and now up here we can see a new
tab called tax so let's click on it and
here we can now set up our tax rates so
first I'm going to show you how to
manually add your tax rates here and
then I'm going to show you another way
how to automate calculating your tax
rates using a plugin so to enter our tax
rates manually we can just click on
standard rates up here then insert a new
row and now I'm going to make an example
with Switzerland because that's where I
live and we have a Statewide tax of 8
.1% so first I'm going to have to enter
the country code right here but we can
also look for it by just typing in the
country name so here it is Switzerland
and the country code is CH then because
it's a Statewide tax I don't need any
state code here and also no PO Code zip
code and no City and the tax rate is
8.1% and the name is V value added tax
and then we have the shipping option
right here which is ticked which means
that the tax rate will also be charged
on the shipping price if that's not the
case for your area you can just uncheck
this option now let's click on Save
changes and then let's see if this works
by going to our online store going and
opening up our shopping cart then
proceed to check out and here currently
we don't see any tax rate that is added
to the price and this is because the
country region is selected to the United
States but when we change this to
Switzerland then we can see the vat the
value added tax is added it's going to
be
$8.98 which is
8.1% of the
$110 so now we can go back to Wordpress
and add as many tax rates as we want for
as many areas as we want and up here you
can see that there are different types
of rate as well that you can enter like
the reduced rates for example many
countries will have products where they
charge less tax on like medical products
or books and stuff like that and if
you're are selling these on your store
you can add separate tax rates for those
products and once you add them in
woocommerce you can set the tax rate you
want to use for that product and you can
also change the name of these additional
tax rates by going to tax options and
then here under additional tax classes
you can change the name and you can also
add more tax rates but just entering a
new line and then adding the name of
this tax rate and now if you actually
have any products on your store where
this special tax class will apply you
can set that up in products so let's go
to products right here then let's say
this is a product where the special tax
class will apply so let's click on edit
then let's scroll down and go to product
data and here under tax class we can
change it from standard to reduced rate
or to zero rate and then you definitely
want to go through these options as well
and make sure it's set up correctly for
your business so for example here for
prices entered with tax it's set to I
will enter prices exclusive of tax which
means that if I enter a product for $40
then at the checkout the tax will be
added onto those $40 and it's not
included in the $40 if you want to have
it included then you need to change the
option to yes I will enter prices
inclusive of tax but I'm going to switch
it back to this option for now then we
have calculate tax based on this is also
very important because for example in
the US some states are charging tax
based on your shop location and not on
the location where you are shipping to
so if you are in California for example
then you need to set it to shop Base
address which means that the taxes that
you have to charge are based on your
business location and not on the
destination location so let's go ahead
and save our changes and now I'm going
to show you a very easy way how you can
automate your tax rate calculation using
a plugin called woocommerce shipping and
tax but before we do that I want to
quickly show you what countries that
plugin works for so right here we have a
list of all of the countries where this
automated tax plugin works for so just
want to take a quick look if the country
where you do business is actually on
this list and if yes then I recommend to
use this method and if it's not on this
list then you probably want to enter
your tax rates manually as we've just
done before so let's go ahead and
install this plugin by going to plugins
add new plugin and then let's type in
woo Commerce tax and install this
plug-in right here install now and
activate then let's go back to
woocommerce settings and now before we
can enable this feature to automate our
tax calculation we first need to connect
our website to
wordpress.com so right here let's click
on connect and click on continue then we
want to go to our email inbox and look
for an email from wordpress.com
saying connect to woocommerce shipping
and tax so let's open this email and
then here click on connect and now our
site is connected so we can go back to
our tax settings and here we now have
automated taxes which we can enable by
just switching it to enable automated
taxes then scroll down and click on Save
changes and now in order for this to
work correctly you want to make sure
that you enter your shop or business
location correctly here in W Commerce so
here under General here under store
address you want to make sure to enter
your store address