Setting Up Sales Tax Collection

#Overview

CMS Max calculates sales tax based on where the customer's order will be delivered and where your business has a tax obligation. You can use a fixed per-state rate or TaxJar's address-level calculation. Once you select your tax locations, the system handles the calculation at checkout.

Note: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon do not have a state sales tax. Orders shipping to these states will never have tax applied, regardless of your settings.

For a complete guide to how tax is calculated and your TaxJar account options, see Sales Tax.

#Setting Up Tax Locations

A tax location (also called a nexus) represents a state where your business is required to collect sales tax — typically because you have a physical presence there, or because your sales volume in that state exceeds the state's economic nexus threshold. In Fixed Tax Rate mode, you can enter your own rate for a state or leave it blank to use the state-average default.

#Adding or Editing a Tax Location

1. Navigate to eCommerce > Store Settings.
2. Open Store Information.
3. Scroll to the Tax section.
4. Choose Fixed Tax Rate or TaxJar under Tax calculation method.
5. Select or remove states under States where you collect tax.
6. In Fixed Tax Rate mode, enter any overrides in Tax Rates, or leave a field blank to use the displayed state-average default.
7. Click Save.

Note: On multi-store sites, open eCommerce > Stores, edit any store, and scroll to Tax. These tax settings apply to the entire site, not only that store.

Repeat this process for every state where you are required to collect sales tax. If you are unsure which states apply to your business, consult a tax advisor.

Important: If a state is not selected, customers checking out with a delivery address in that state will see $0 in tax. Make sure every required state is selected.

#Quick Start: Collect Tax in Your Store's State

Turn on Use store address as tax origin in the Tax section, then save. Every US store's state is automatically added to your tax locations with the state-average rate. You can enter an override afterward if needed.

#Automatic Tax Collection When You Exceed Economic Nexus Thresholds

If your sales to any state reach that state's economic-nexus threshold (e.g., $500k in California), CMS Max automatically enables tax collection for that state — the state is added to your Tax Locations and collection starts on the next order shipped there. No action is needed; collection starts automatically to keep you compliant with the law.

If you believe you do not have a tax obligation in a state that was auto-enabled, remove it from the Tax section of Store Settings. It will not be auto-enabled again, even if your sales stay above the threshold.

#Assigning Tax Codes to Products

Most products use TaxJar's standard taxable rate. However, some product categories are taxed differently — or are exempt — depending on the state. For example, clothing under a certain price threshold is exempt in New York, or groceries may be taxed at a reduced rate.

Assigning the correct tax code to a product ensures the right rate is applied regardless of which state the customer is in.

#Setting a Tax Code on a Product

1. Navigate to eCommerce > Products and open the product you want to edit.
2. Open the Tax tab and choose a Tax Setting:
   • Default Settings — use the store-wide default tax category. This is the default.
   • Custom Product Tax Category — choose the appropriate category from the list.
   • Tax Exempt — mark the product as not subject to sales tax. Exempt products are excluded entirely from TaxJar calculations and order records; they contribute $0 in tax and don't affect tax on the rest of the cart.
3. Click Save.

Leaving a product on Default Settings treats it as fully taxable, or uses your store-wide default tax category if you have set one.

#Bulk Updating Product Tax Settings

1. In eCommerce > Products, select the products you want to update and choose Bulk Edit.
2. Use the Columns picker to show the Tax Setting column for row-by-row edits, or use Apply Tax Settings to All to update every filtered product at once.
3. Save the spreadsheet changes, or confirm the bulk apply action.

#Generating Tax Reports

CMS Max provides separate views for total paid order sales delivered to each state and for TaxJar tax details by jurisdiction.

#Running a Tax Report

1. Navigate to Reports > Tax Report in the admin menu.
2. Choose Sales by State for paid order totals based on shipping or delivery state, or Tax by Jurisdiction for TaxJar filing details.
3. Set your Date Range. It defaults to the last 30 days, with quick choices for Last 30 days and Last 12 months.

Sales by State groups destination cities under collapsible states and shows order count, subtotal, shipping, discounts, tax collected, and order total for each city and state. It includes paid orders whether tax was calculated by TaxJar or with a fixed rate. State groups stay collapsed after filtering so the state summary appears first; click a group to expand its city breakdown.

Tax by Jurisdiction shows jurisdiction type, taxable sales, and tax collected from saved TaxJar breakdown rows. Fixed-rate orders do not have TaxJar breakdown rows and therefore do not appear in this view.