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Manual Tax Overview

Manual tax is the simplest way to run tax in eshopOS. It is designed for merchants who need one clear store policy, not a destination-based tax engine.

If the merchant is selling primarily in one market and does not need separate registrations, rules, or product-specific tax codes, manual tax is usually the correct starting point.

What Manual Tax Is For​

Manual tax answers a narrow but common business question:

“What is the normal tax policy for this store?”

That means it is appropriate when the merchant wants to define:

  • a default tax country
  • a default rate
  • whether prices already include tax
  • whether shipping should also be taxed

It is not designed to handle a large rulebook. If the merchant needs a different outcome depending on destination or product type, the advanced workspace is the better fit.

What the Manual Settings Represent​

The manual configuration is intentionally small so merchants can make confident choices:

Tax Country​

The tax country is the store’s primary tax context. It tells the system which country the merchant is primarily configuring against.

Tax Rate​

The tax rate is the default percentage the store applies when using manual tax.

This is the simplest version of tax calculation. It does not express jurisdiction-specific exceptions, and it does not create multiple rule paths.

Tax Included in Prices​

This setting answers whether the catalog prices already contain tax.

  • If enabled, product prices are interpreted as inclusive.
  • If disabled, tax is added on top of the displayed price.

This concept is explained further in Checkout Behavior.

Apply Tax to Shipping​

This setting tells the store whether shipping should also be taxed under the manual model.

This is a store-wide setting. It is not a per-jurisdiction shipping rule. If the merchant needs different shipping tax behavior by location, that belongs in Advanced Tax Rules.

When Manual Tax Is the Right Choice​

Manual tax is the right choice when the merchant wants clarity and low operational overhead.

Common cases:

  • a single-country store
  • one standard rate for most catalog items
  • no need for threshold monitoring
  • no need for per-country collection differences
  • no need for product-specific classification

In those situations, manual tax is not “less professional.” It is often the correct operational choice because it keeps the configuration surface aligned with the actual business complexity.

What Manual Tax Does Not Try to Do​

Manual tax is intentionally limited. It does not create:

That is why advanced tax exists as a separate workspace instead of being crammed into the same page.

Relationship to Advanced Tax​

Manual tax remains important even when advanced tax exists.

Think of the relationship like this:

  • manual tax is the baseline store policy
  • advanced tax is the specialized engine for complex collection behavior

If the advanced engine is not enabled, checkout can still behave correctly using the manual configuration. That is why advanced tax should not be treated as mandatory.

  1. Choose the store’s main tax country.
  2. Set the default tax rate.
  3. Decide whether prices are entered inclusive or exclusive of tax.
  4. Decide whether shipping should be taxed.
  5. Run a few checkout tests to confirm displayed totals match the merchant’s expectation.

If the merchant later realizes that one destination or product category needs different logic, that is the signal to review Advanced Tax Overview, not to overload the manual setup.

Common Misunderstandings​

“Manual tax is only for small merchants.”​

Not true. Manual tax is for simple tax models. A large merchant with one consistent tax policy can still be a good fit for manual tax.

“Advanced tax is always better.”​

Not true. Advanced tax is only better when the merchant actually has more complex requirements. Otherwise it adds cognitive load for no gain.

“Manual tax means checkout cannot be accurate.”​

Not true. Manual tax can be completely appropriate when the merchant’s business really does have one stable default policy.

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