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A tax category groups products by how they should be taxed. Most stores need at least two, because not everything you sell is taxed the same way: standard goods at the full rate, and whatever your region treats differently, such as books, children’s clothing or food. A category holds no percentage of its own. It is a label you attach to products, and a tax rate then names the category and supplies the figure. Splitting it this way means one category can carry a different rate in every country you sell to. To manage tax categories, navigate to Settings → Tax categories, under the Selling group. The Tax categories list, showing each category and which is the default Each row shows:
  • Name - What the category is called, with its description beneath.
  • Tax code - The code an external tax service knows this category by, if you use one.
  • Default - The category products fall back to when none is set.

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How to Create a Tax Category

Click Add tax category. The Add tax category panel
  • Name - Name it after the tax treatment rather than the product type, such as Reduced rate or Zero rated. The same category usually covers several kinds of goods.
  • Tax code - Only needed when an external tax provider such as Avalara expects its own code. Leave it blank otherwise.
  • Description - An optional internal note on what belongs in this category. Worth filling in, because “Reduced Rate” means different things in different countries.
  • Default - Products with no category of their own fall back to this one.
Click Create tax category.
Setting Default demotes whichever category held it before. Only one category can be the default, and the switch does not warn you which one it is replacing.
A tax category charges nothing on its own. Until a tax rate names it, products carrying it are taxed at nothing. Create the category here, then give it a rate on the Tax Rates screen.

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How a Tax Category is Assigned

Categories are assigned on the product and on the variant within the product editor. When Spree works out the tax on a line item, it takes the first of these it finds:
  1. The variant’s own tax category, if it has one.
  2. The product’s tax category, if the variant has none.
  3. The store’s default category, if neither has one.
A product’s category is therefore the default for all of its variants, and you only set one on a variant where it needs to differ from the rest.
A product whose variants are taxed differently does not need splitting into separate products. Set the product’s category to whatever most variants need, then override it on the ones that differ.

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How to Edit a Tax Category

Open the row menu and choose Edit. Renaming a category is safe, because products and rates point at the category itself rather than its name.

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How to Delete a Tax Category

Open the row menu and choose Delete.
Deleting a category moves its goods onto a fallback. A variant falls back to its product’s category, and a product without one falls back to the store’s default. Check that the fallback has a rate covering everywhere you sell before deleting, because goods landing on a category with no applicable rate will be taxed nothing.

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Further Reading