To understand how sales taxes work in Retail POS, it's helpful to think of your account as a filing cabinet that has a drawer for your location.

When you sign in to your account (filing cabinet) for the first time, the sales tax you set on the Welcome page determines the sales tax of your location (drawer). This sales tax, in turn, determines the default tax rate to apply when you sell taxable items at your location.

E.g. If your account (filing cabinet) is called "Shop of Things", your location (drawer) is in New York, and your location's sales tax is set to 8.875%, then all your taxable items are taxed at 8.875%.

If you need multiple sales taxes for a location, you can add them and either set them ahead of time under Settings > Locations > Customize > Settings or apply them on the fly during a sale. Applying a sales tax during a sale will be covered in the Point of sale section of the getting started guide.

E.g. If you're a merchant located in the United States and you have customers who purchase items over the phone from a different state, you need to create an Out-of-State sales tax. This way, you can tax these customers correctly by applying the Out-of-State sales tax to their sales.

Add a sales tax

1. From the main menu, click Settings > Sales Taxes.
2. Click + New Sales Tax.
3. Enter a tax name.
4. Enter a tax rate.
5. Click Save Changes.

Set a sales tax in your location settings

1. From the main menu, click Settings > Locations.
2. Click Customize for a location in the list.
3. From the submenu, click Settings.
4. From the Sales Tax drop-down, select a sales tax.
5. Click Save Changes.

What's next?

• Setting tax classes