Many organizations prefer to manage tax rules internally rather than relying on external services like Avalara. This feature provides an intuitive interface that allows admins to set and update tax rates easily—whether applying a global rate or country-specific rates—without technical expertise. It ensures accurate tax application, helps maintain compliance, and provides a seamless checkout experience for learners or customers.
Use Case Information
This feature introduces a new interface for configuring custom tax rates at the global or country level. When enabled, it replaces the existing Avalara integration as the default tax calculation source, allowing admins greater control over how taxes are applied to transactions across multiple countries.
When configured, you can control the following:
- Provide a cost-effective tax solution without relying on external integrations.
- Simplify tax management for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) with a straightforward, in-house approach.
- Enable a small operations team to easily administer tax rates without the complexity of third-party tools.
Who Is This Feature For?
- Businesses with a Global or Multi-Regional Presence
- Key Challenge: Dealing with varying tax laws across countries or states/provinces.
- How They Benefit: The flexibility to set rates per country or fallback to a single global rate simplifies tax management in complex, multinational scenarios.
- SMBs (Small and Mid-Sized Businesses) Without External Tax Integrations
- Key Challenge: High costs or unnecessary complexity associated with third-party tax tools like Avalara.
- How They Benefit: A cost-effective, in-house approach to tax that can be administered by a small operations team.
Why Use Custom Tax Rates
In many scenarios, organizations want to manage tax rules in-house rather than relying on external integrations like Avalara. This can be due to:
- Cost & Complexity: Minimizing reliance on third-party tax services or subscriptions.
- Regional Tax Variations: Handling different tax rates for global and country-specific transactions without extensive custom coding.
- Flexibility & Control: Allowing admins to quickly update or change rates if tax laws or business rules shift.
By providing an intuitive, easy-to-use interface, this feature empowers admins to manage tax settings efficiently without the need for technical expertise or external tools. With clear options and straightforward controls, organizations can:
- Accurate Tax Application: Either a single global rate or a specific country-based rate can be applied at checkout.
- Compliance: Admins can update rates promptly if regulations change in specific regions.
- Improved User Experience: Learners or customers see correct tax amounts based on their billing address.
Key Capabilities
Explore the key capabilities that give admins greater control, flexibility, and accuracy when managing tax rates:
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Global Tax Configuration
- Enter a single percentage (value between 1–100) that applies to all transactions unless overridden by country-specific rules.
- Option to save the global tax rate, update it, or remove it.
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Country-Specific Tax Configuration
- Look up any country (as managed by Foxy) and define a custom percentage (value between 0–100).
- The country search automatically filters out those countries that already have a rate applied.
- Once saved, transactions for learners/customers from that country will be taxed at the specified rate.
- Ability to edit or delete rates at any time.
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Toggle Between Global and Country-Specific Mode
- Switch from a single global rate to multiple country-level rates, or vice versa.
- If switching tax types, a confirmation step warns that old rates will be deleted before proceeding.
How To Use Custom Tax Rates
The Country Specific Control feature is behind a feature flag.
Navigate to the Apps area in your instance to request to have this feature enabled on your site.
Now, let’s walk through the steps to set up custom tax rates.
Configuring a Global Tax Rate
- From your Admin homepage, navigate to Ecommerce > Settings.
- Select the Tax page.
- In the Custom Tax tab, toggle the Global tax option.
- Enter your desired Percentage (valid range: 1–100).
- Click Save to store the rate.
- (Optional) If you need to remove or change this rate, edit the field and click Save again or select Remove.
Note
A callout on this screen explains that global tax rates can be paired with country restrictions set at checkout. If a user’s billing country matches a country restriction, the global rate applies unless a country-specific rate is also configured.
Configuring a Country-Specific Tax Rate
Follow these steps for setting up a country specific tax rate:
- From your Admin homepage, navigate to Ecommerce > Tax.
- Switch from Global to Country-Specific.
- Use the Search Field to look up a country.
- Once the country is found, enter a Tax Rate (range: 0–100).
- Click Save to add the tax rate.
- Repeat for any additional countries where you need specific rates.
- Use Edit or Delete at any time to modify or remove an existing country-specific rate.
Switching Between Global and Country-Specific
To adjust your tax settings, you can switch between a global tax rate and country-specific rates. Follow these steps to make the change:
- If you have an existing global tax rate and decide to switch to Country Specific, you’ll be prompted with a confirmation that older settings will be deleted.
- Confirm to proceed or cancel to retain the previous configuration.
- Likewise, if you’re in Country Specific mode and choose Global, the system will warn you that country specific rates will be removed upon switching.
FAQs
Can I have both Global and Country-Specific rates at the same time?
You may configure one or the other. However, you can combine a global rate with country restrictions at checkout. When you enable Country-Specific mode, the global rate is removed.
What if a country isn’t listed in Foxy’s database?
Only countries recognized by Foxy’s system can be configured. Contact your platform admin if you need additional countries added.
What if I select country-specific tax rates but don’t set any rates for any specific countries?
No taxes will be charged.
Is there a way to revert to Avalara?
Yes. Delete all global or country-specific tax rates from the tax settings page. Have a Thought Industries representative turn off the E-Comm 2 Custom Tax: Country-Specific Control feature flag. The, follow the directions in the Avalara Tax support article to reconnect and reconfigure Avalara integration.
Why does the feature limit the percentage field to 0–100?
Tax rates typically fall within that range. If your business case requires a special handling outside this range, consult your development team.