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Tax Configuration ​

The Tax Configuration screen is the control center for your store's tax behaviour. Here you decide whether tax is collected at all, how prices are interpreted (inclusive or exclusive of tax), which customer address is used for tax calculations, how the breakdown appears at checkout, and how VAT reverse-charge is handled for EU customers.

Getting these settings right is the foundation for accurate calculations everywhere else: rates, EU VAT, per-product overrides, receipts.

Accessing Tax Configuration ​

  1. From your WordPress dashboard, go to FluentCart > Settings.
  2. In the left-hand menu, click Tax Settings > Configuration.

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You can also set the basics during the install Onboarding Wizard's Tax step. It writes to the same settings, so anything you choose there shows up here and can be edited later.

Tax Configuration Settings ​

This block holds the global rules that govern tax across your entire store.

Enable Tax ​

The master switch. When on, FluentCart applies your tax rules at checkout and a confirmation reads "This store is now collecting tax." When off, no tax is calculated and all per-variation tax controls are hidden.

Prices entered with tax ​

Tells FluentCart how your product prices are entered:

  • Included: the price you set on a product already contains tax. At checkout, FluentCart splits the tax out for reporting, but the customer pays the same number you see in the product editor.
  • Excluded: the price you set excludes tax. At checkout, tax is added on top.

This single choice has the biggest downstream effect on what customers see, so set it deliberately. Individual variations can override this; see Per-Variation Tax Settings.

Tax-Inclusive Price Mode ​

Visible only when Local Reverse Charge is on. Controls how a reverse charge affects products whose price was entered tax-inclusive:

  • Fixed: the listed price stays the same. The invoice shows the same total, but the tax line is zeroed.
  • Dynamic: VAT is stripped from the price. The customer pays the net (ex-VAT) amount.

Practical example. A €120 inclusive price (€100 net + €20 VAT) sold to a B2B EU buyer with reverse charge:

  • In Fixed mode, buyer is invoiced €120 with a €0 VAT line.
  • In Dynamic mode, buyer is invoiced €100 net.

Calculate Tax Based On ​

Picks the address used to look up the right tax rate for an order:

  • Customer Shipping Address (typical default for physical stores)
  • Customer Billing Address (often correct for digital-only stores)
  • Store Location (uses your store's address; common in jurisdictions that tax at origin)

Price Suffixes ​

Short pieces of text shown next to your prices on the storefront, to make tax handling transparent. There are two independent fields so you can show different copy depending on how each price was entered:

  • Price Suffix (Tax Included): shown on prices that already include tax. Example: (incl. tax).
  • Price Suffix (Tax Excluded): shown on prices that exclude tax. Example: + tax.

Leave either field blank to skip its suffix.

Tax Display Style ​

Controls how tax is presented to shoppers and on your documents — the checkout and cart summary, receipts, PDF invoices, order emails, and the order views in both the admin area and the customer dashboard. Pick a style from the Tax Display Style dropdown:

  • Simplified (single line + details): tax is shown as a single, tidy line (one label and one amount) with a See details link that expands the full per-rate breakdown on demand. Per-item tax badges are hidden to keep the summary clean. This is the Amazon-style presentation most storefronts expect.
  • Itemized (per-item tax + breakdown): the detailed presentation. Every taxable line item carries its own tax badge, and the full tax-breakdown-by-rate table is always visible. Choose this when you want tax spelled out on each line.

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Stores upgrading from an earlier version keep Itemized, so nothing changes unexpectedly, while brand-new installs start on Simplified. You can switch styles at any time.

Tax Label (Simplified mode) ​

When Simplified is selected, a Tax Label field appears so you can rename that single tax line to whatever your customers expect — for example VAT, GST, or MwSt. Leave it as the default Tax if a generic label suits your store.

How tax appears at checkout ​

Your customers see the tax context directly in the Order summary on the checkout page. In Itemized mode, each taxable line item carries a tax label badge (for example Tax (15%)); in Simplified mode those per-line badges collapse into the single tax line you labelled above. Either way, a dedicated TAX block totals the tax for the whole order, and exactly how it reads depends on your Prices entered with tax setting.

When prices Tax Include, the line badge shows the tax already contained in the price (for example incl. $1.68) and the TAX block reads Total tax in this order. The order total stays the same, because tax was already part of the price.

When prices Tax Excluded, the line badge shows the tax added on top (for example + $1.94) and the TAX block reads Total payable tax. This amount is added to the order total.

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When an order mixes items taxed at different rates, FluentCart lists one tax line per rate (with the rate percentage and its amount) instead of a single combined figure — in the always-on breakdown under Itemized, or inside the See details popover under Simplified. This per-rate breakdown appears everywhere the order is rendered: the checkout summary, order emails, receipts, PDF invoices, and the order views in both the admin area and the customer dashboard. Reverse-charge (B2B) orders use the very same table, showing a VAT reversed total in place of a charged amount. Orders placed before FluentCart 1.5.2 keep their original single-line tax total.

Saving Your Settings ​

Click Save in the top-right corner to apply changes. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+S (macOS) or Ctrl+S (Windows/Linux), handy when you're tweaking several fields in a row.

VAT Reverse Charge Settings ​

If you sell to business customers in the European Union, you'll likely need to handle the reverse-charge mechanism, where the buyer is responsible for self-accounting VAT instead of paying it to you. This sub-section configures that behaviour.

Local Reverse Charge ​

Toggle. Default: off. There are no other settings for this option.

  • On: home country reverse charge applies when the customer is in your home country (some jurisdictions require this; check with a tax advisor).
  • Off: home country reverse charge does not apply. Reverse charge still applies when the customer is in a different EU country than your home country.

Exclude Categories from VAT Reverse ​

A multi-select product-category picker. Any category you select here is never reverse-charged: VAT is always added, even when the customer has a valid EU VAT ID. Use this for product types that are explicitly outside reverse-charge scope.

Pick the one that matches how your accounting and contracts are written.

Automatic Reverse-Charge Notice ​

When an order qualifies for reverse charge, FluentCart prints the required legal mention automatically — you no longer ask customers to type their own declaration. The default notice reads:

Reverse charge — Article 196, Council Directive 2006/112/EC. Customer is liable for VAT.

This mention appears at checkout and on every generated document — order and renewal receipts, refund notices, PDF invoices, and order emails — satisfying the EU VAT Directive's Article 226(11a) requirement. Orders placed before the upgrade keep whatever declaration was stored with them at the time.

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Developers can customise the wording with the fluent_cart/tax/reverse_charge_notice_text filter.