Tax management is critical in eCommerce to ensure legal compliance, avoid costly penalties, and provide accurate pricing for customers across different regions. 

Spree gives you a clear and customizable way to set up and manage taxes for any region, product type, or pricing style, whether you include tax in your prices (like VAT) or apply it at checkout (like U.S. sales tax).

To manage Tax configurations, navigate to the Tax tab of the Settings menu.

You’ll notice two separate subtabs here for managing Tax Rates and Tax Categories.

Let’s take a look at each in more detail:

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Tax Rates

The Tax Rates overview displays all existing tax rates with key information such as:

  • Name: A label for storefront and internal display
  • Tax Category: Which group of products this rate applies to
  • Zone: Where the tax applies (configured separately in the Zones section)
  • Amount: The tax percentage (e.g., 20%)
  • Included in Price: Whether this tax is part of the listed price
  • Show rate in label: Whether this tax rate appears as part of the price label on the storefront

From here, you can:

  • Add new tax rates
  • Edit existing tax rates

Tax rates in Spree rely on the Zones feature to determine where each rate applies. Zones define geographic regions (like countries or states), allowing you to target specific tax rules based on a customer’s shipping address.

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Add a New Tax Rate

To add a new tax rate click New Tax Rate in the top right corner, and you’ll be directed to a tax rate creation form.

Simply fill in the form with the relevant information:

  • Name
  • Zone (select from existing zones)
  • Tax Category (select from existing Tax Categories)
  • Amount (e.g., for 5% enter 0.05)
  • Included in Price (Yes/No)
  • Show Rate in Label (Yes/No)

Once the data has been entered, click Create to save the new tax rate.

This tax rate can now be applied to products with the matching category and shipping to the selected zone.

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Edit a Tax Rate

To edit a tax rate, simply click on the tax rate’s row in the Tax Rates overview.

The edit form looks more or less identical to the New Tax Rate form, but with pre-filled data, and Update buttons rather than Create buttons.

Simply update fields as needed and then click Update to save changes.

Changing a tax rate will affect all future orders using that rate, but not past orders.

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Delete a Tax Rate

To delete a Tax Rate, simply navigate to the edit form for the Tax Rate you wish to delete, and click the ‘Delete’ button on the lower righthand side.

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Tax Categories

Tax categories are used to organize products based on how they’re taxed. 

Note: A product variant can be assigned one tax category at a time.

The Tax Categories overview displays all existing tax categories with key information such as:

  • Name: e.g., Standard, Reduced, Exempt
  • Tax Code: Optional code for integrations or accounting
  • Description: Internal notes on what this category covers
  • Default: Whether this is the default category for new products

From here, you can:

  • Add new tax categories
  • Edit existing tax categories

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Add a New Tax Category

To add a new tax category click New Tax Category in the top right corner, and you’ll be directed to a tax category creation form.

Simply fill in the form with the relevant information:

  • Name
  • Tax Code (optional)
  • Description (optional)
  • Default (Yes/No)

Once the data has been entered, click Create to save the new tax category.

This category will now be available for assignment to products and tax rates.

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Edit a Tax Category

To edit a tax category, simply click on the tax category’s row in the Tax Categories overview.

The edit form looks more or less identical to the New Tax Category form, but with pre-filled data, and Update buttons rather than Create buttons.

Simply update fields as needed and then click Update to save changes.

You can switch the default tax category if needed, but only one can be default at a time.

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Delete a Tax Category

To delete a tax category, simply navigate to the edit form for the tax category you wish to delete, and click the ‘Delete’ button on the lower righthand side.

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Complex Tax Rules & Integrations

Spree supports tax extensions and API integrations with services like:

  • TaxJar
  • Avalara
  • Custom logic via Spree’s extensible tax calculator system

Get in touch with us if you’d like help implementing advanced tax solutions tailored to your business.