Tax services: Avalara AvaTax and TaxJar

If you already calculate sales tax in an Avalara AvaTax or TaxJar account, connect it and Aglyn asks it for the tax on every sale — at your storefront's checkout and at the register — instead of using a flat rate, while your store's Taxes are set to Manual rates. Under Stripe Tax it is not used. Your paid orders and refunds are recorded in that account, so its reports and filings start from what you actually sold.

You remain responsible for your sales tax

Aglyn asks your tax service for a figure and records your sales there. It does not register you anywhere, file your returns or pay the tax you collect. Where you are registered, what you file and when are decisions for you, your tax service and your own advisor. Stripe Tax mode is the same for a store on its own Stripe account. Only on a platform-managed (Express) account, set up before stores got their own, does the platform collect and remit Stripe Tax for you.

Tax services come with every plan that includes selling, at no extra cost. You need your own AvaTax or TaxJar account; Aglyn does not sell one.

Before you start

• Set your store's Taxes to Manual rates (the Taxes card on Products → Taxes), with a rate for where you sell, and leave Prices include tax off. A tax service is used only then — see When the service is not used. Your own rates stay as the fallback: when the service does not answer, the sale is taxed at them instead.
• Avalara AvaTax: your account id (a number) and a license key, from AvaTax → Settings → License and API keys. If your AvaTax account has more than one company, the company code to file under.
• TaxJar: an API token, from TaxJar → Account → TaxJar API. List the states where you collect tax (your nexus) in TaxJar: it charges no tax anywhere else.

Both vendors offer a free sandbox account for testing. Connect it as a sandbox first, place a test order, then connect your production account.

Connect

1. Open Products → Taxes and find the Tax service card.
2. Choose Avalara AvaTax or TaxJar, and Sandbox or Production.
3. Enter your credentials and select Connect. Aglyn tests them with the vendor first and stores nothing they refuse. The credentials are encrypted on the server and are never shown again, not even to you.
4. Enter the ship-from address: the street, city, state and postal code you ship or sell from. Aglyn checks it with the service. It is the origin of every sale and the place an in-person sale is taxed.

Connecting, testing or disconnecting a service and changing its address takes Manage the tax engine connection, which a site's admins hold by default (custom roles). Test connection checks the stored credentials again whenever you like; the card shows the answer.

When the service is not used

A connected service applies only when Taxes is set to Manual rates with Prices include tax off. With any other setting it is not asked for the tax on any sale, and new orders are not recorded in it:

• Stripe Tax (automatic): Stripe Tax calculates the tax instead.
• Prices include tax: your prices already include the tax.
• Don't collect sales tax: no tax is added.
• Not chosen yet: checkout is off until you choose.

The Tax service card says so while it is the case, with Go to Taxes to change the setting. Your connection, product tax codes and exempt customers are kept, and the service is used again as soon as Taxes is back on Manual rates.

How sales are taxed

Where	What the service is asked
Storefront cart and Buy now	The tax on each line, after discounts, at your ship-from address. The shopper's address is collected inside the payment page, after the tax is set, so these online sales are taxed at your address, as your own rates are.
Register	The tax on each line, after the cashier's discount, at your ship-from address.

• A product you marked tax-exempt is sent as non-taxable and charged no tax.
• A subscription keeps your own recurring rate: a quote taken today cannot price next month's renewal.
• Shipping charges are not taxed at checkout, as with your own rates.
• If the service does not answer within 5 seconds, or refuses, the sale is taxed at your own rates and goes through. The order says which service was asked and that it fell back, so you can review those sales.

Product tax codes

Each vendor has codes for kinds of goods taxed differently from the general rate, such as clothing or food. Set a product's Tax code in the product editor, and a Default tax code on the Tax service card for products without one. A product with neither is sent as general goods.

Exempt customers

Under Exempt customers on the Tax service card, record a customer who does not pay sales tax — a reseller, a nonprofit, a school, a government buyer — by their email address, with the reason, their certificate number and, if the exemption covers only some states, those states. A sale to that email address is sent to the service with the exemption, and the service decides the tax. AvaTax receives the reason and certificate number; TaxJar receives the reason. Keep the certificates themselves: the service and your auditors may ask for them.

Recording orders and refunds

With Record paid orders and refunds on (the default), each paid order is recorded in your account under its order id, at the tax the buyer actually paid. Recording it again — a retry — updates the same record rather than adding one.

• A refund, in full or in part, and a return at the register reverse their share of the sale in the service.
• A canceled order that was never refunded is voided.
• The order's Tax service record shows where it stands: Recorded, Recording (the service was busy; Aglyn tries again), Not recorded (with the service's reason, and Record it again once you have fixed it) or Voided.

Disconnect

Disconnect forgets your credentials. Sales are then taxed at your own rates again. What was already recorded stays in your account, and your product tax codes and exempt customers are kept for when you connect again.

What is sent to the vendor

For each quote and each recorded sale: your ship-from address, the buyer's address (or yours for an in-person sale), the order id, each line's product, name, quantity, amount and tax code, and any exemption you recorded. AvaTax also receives the buyer's email address as its customer code. No payment details are sent. The data goes to your own Avalara or TaxJar account, with your own credentials, so the vendor acts for you and is not an Aglyn subprocessor; the subprocessors page names both among the services a merchant connects.