Simple Sales Tax

Description

Simple Sales Tax integrates your WooCommerce store with TaxCloud to automate sales tax calculations, reporting, and filing.

With affordable service fees and support for product level tax exemptions and tax exempt customers baked in, Simple Sales Tax is the most capable and cost effective sales tax automation solution for WooCommerce.

Key Features:

• Affordable — TaxCloud’s competitive pricing provides the best value in the industry.
• Accurate sales tax calculations — Calculate sales tax in real time for every state, county, city, and special jurisdiction in the US. Rates are updated automatically so you never have to worry.
• Advanced reports — Cut your sales tax prep time significantly with TaxCloud’s advanced, return-ready reporting.
• Exemption certificates — Optionally enable tax exemptions and collect exemption certificates from exempt customers.
• Product level exemptions — Handle product-level exemptions by assigning an appropriate Taxability Information Code (TIC) to each of your products.
• Multi-state support — Whether your business has presence in dozens of states or just one, Simple Sales Tax has you covered.

Other Notable Features:

• Marketplace integration — Simple Sales Tax supports popular WooCommerce marketplace plugins, including Dokan, WCFM Marketplace, and WC Vendors.
• Recurring payments — Simple Sales Tax is fully compatible with the WooCommerce Subscriptions extension by Prospress and will automatically calculate the sales tax for recurring payments.
• Multi-destination shipments — Simple Sales Tax supports multi-destination shipments created with the WooCommerce Shipping Multiple Addresses extension.
• Customer support — Simple Sales Tax is backed by TaxCloud’s world class support team.
• Compatible with WooCommerce Checkout Blocks

Supported WooCommerce Extensions

Simple Sales Tax is fully compatible with the following WooCommerce extensions:

• Subscriptions
• Shipping Multiple Addresses

Need us to add compatibility with another extension? Drop us a line at [email protected].

Translation

If you would like to translate Simple Sales Tax into your language, please submit a pull request with your .po file added to the “languages” directory or email your completed translation to [email protected].

Thanks in advance for your contribution!

Screenshots

Installation

Step 1: Create a TaxCloud Account

If you have not yet registered for TaxCloud, click here to get started. Registration can be completed in minutes and is entirely free.

Step 2: Configure your TaxCloud account

Now that you have created your TaxCloud account, there are a few important matters to take care of. Please log in to your TaxCloud account and complete all of the items below.

1. Add your website. While logged in, go to Settings -> Stores & Websites. If your store is not listed on this page, you will need to add it by clicking “Add Store” and following the on-screen prompt.
2. Select a default TIC for your website. To ensure that your customers are taxed correctly, you will want to set a default Taxability Information Code (TIC) for your website. To do so, click the “Modify Settings” button for your store on the “Stores & Websites” page.
3. Add business locations. If your business has a physical presence in the United States, it is imperative that you register your business locations, including stores, warehouses, and distribution facilities, with TaxCloud. To do so, navigate to Settings -> Locations and click “Add Location.”
4. Select your tax states. Navigate to Settings -> Manage Tax States. You will be presented with a map of the United States. Click the map to highlight those states where you would like to collect sales tax.

Step 3: Install and Activate Simple Sales Tax

To install Simple Sales Tax, log in to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the Plugins menu, and click “Add New.”

In the search field type “Simple Sales Tax,” then click “Search Plugins.” Once you’ve found our plugin, you can view details about it such as the point release, rating, and description. Most importantly of course, you can install it! Just click “Install Now,” and WordPress will take it from there. Finally, click “Activate” to finish the installation process.

Step 4: Delete Existing Tax Rates

If there are one or more rates in your WooCommerce tax rate tables, you will be presented with a notice like this when you log in to WordPress. In most situations you should click the “delete” link to delete all existing tax rates, since your customers will be charged double sales tax otherwise. The only situation in which you should choose to keep your existing WooCommerce tax rates is if they are for tax types that are not handled by TaxCloud and Simple Sales Tax.

Step 5: Configure Simple Sales Tax

1. Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Integrations > Simple Sales Tax in the WordPress dashboard.
2. Enter your TaxCloud API ID and API Key in the relevant fields, then click “Verify Settings” to validate your API credentials. You can find your API ID and API Key under Settings -> Stores & Websites in the TaxCloud dashboard. After entering and validating your credentials, click Save changes to import your business locations from TaxCloud.
3. Under Address Settings, you should now see a list of your TaxCloud locations in the Shipping Origin Addresses field. Select all of the addresses you ship your products from.
4. If you have tax exempt customers like schools, churches, or wholesale purchasers, enable tax exemptions and fill out the fields under the Exemption Settings heading.
5. Optionally change the default settings under Display Settings and Advanced Settings. Do not change Advanced Settings unless you understand the consequences!
6. Click Save changes to finalize your changes.

Step 6: Configure Your Products

If you sell products that do not fall into the category indicated by your site’s Default TIC, you will need to assign appropriate TICs to these products. For your convenience, Simple Sales Tax provides three methods by which you can do this:

1. Category-level TIC assignment: To assign a TIC to all products in a category, navigate to Products > Categories and select the category in question. Click the button next to “Taxability Information Code,” make your selection, and click “Save Changes.”
2. Bulk TIC assignment: To assign a TIC to a group of products, start by navigating to the Products screen and ticking the checkbox next to each product. Next, select “Edit” under “Bulk Actions” and click “Apply.” You will then see an option to set a TIC for the selected products.
3. Product-level TIC assignment: To assign a TIC to a single product, edit the product and scroll until you see the “Product Data” meta box. Under the “General Tab”, select the correct TIC, and then update the product to save your changes.

Step 6b: For multi-state businesses only

If you ship items from more than one business location, you also need to indicate the shipping origin addresses for each of your items, i.e. the locations from which they will be sent. This is important because a handful of states use the origin address to determine the sales tax rate to apply.

By default, all products in your store will be configured to ship from the Shipping Origin Addresses you’ve selected on the Simple Sales Tax settings page. If you need to change the default origin addresses for a product, you can do so on the Edit Product screen under Product Data > Shipping > Origin addresses.

Step 7: Testing

Now that Simple Sales Tax is installed, you should perform several test transactions to ensure that everything is working properly. To do so, add some items to your cart and go through the checkout process to make sure sales tax is calculated and applied. After checking out, don’t forget to go to the WooCommerce -> Orders page to mark your test order as “completed.” It is imperative that you complete at least one test order.

While testing, you may review your transactions by logging in to TaxCloud and navigating to the “Transactions” tab.

Step 8: Go Live!

Now that you have tested your website and verified that Simple Sales Tax is working properly, it is time to switch your TaxCloud account from test mode to live mode. To do so, log in to TaxCloud and you should see the “Go Live Advisor” and click “Go Live” – if you don’t see a Go Live button, you should see instructions on what needs to be done in order to complete your account setup.

Please feel free to contact us if you need help with any step of this process.

FAQ

What does TaxCloud cost?

Please consult the TaxCloud Pricing page for details on the cost of TaxCloud.

Does the plugin support recurring payments?

Yes! Simple Sales Tax is fully compatible with the official WooCommerce Subscriptions extension.

What versions of WooCommerce and WordPress are supported?

Simple Sales Tax supports WooCommerce 3.0+ and WordPress 4.5+.

Does Simple Sales Tax work with marketplace plugins like Dokan?

Yes! Simple Sales Tax supports Dokan 2.9.11+, WCFM Marketplace 6.5.0+, WC Vendors 1.5.8+, and WC Marketplace 3.4.0+. When a supported marketplace plugin is installed, Simple Sales Tax will calculate the tax for each seller’s shipment separately and sum the results to present a single tax total to the customer. Sellers can also set an appropriate Taxability Information Code (TIC) for each of their products through the seller dashboard so products that qualify for exemptions or reduced rates are taxed correctly.

Currently we only support the use case where the marketplace acts as the seller of record and collects sales tax on behalf of all sellers through a single TaxCloud account. We believe that this is the best way to handle sales tax compliance in the marketplace setting – especially for marketplaces based in the U.S. – but if you would like us to add support for more advanced use cases, please leave us a message at [email protected].

Reviews

Great service and reliable solution

yammarketplace August 11, 2024

We recently started integrating with taxcloud and have had a great experience so far.We had some trouble integrating with woocomerce but the support and development team were able to help very quickly. Looking forward to using the product more!

Great plug in + excellent customer service! ??

hanahsalas July 25, 2024

I have been using Simple Sales Tax by Taxcloud for years for my small business. It comes in handy every time I need to report my Sales and Use Tax, which are such a pain. This takes the frustration and confusion out of the Sales and Use Tax process! Simple Sales Tax breaks down sales by State and Jurisdiction so you can easily calculate sales. Aside from the app being easy to use and great the customer service is NEXT LEVEL AMAZING. I have honestly stayed this long bc the customer service is so good. When i email with a question they respond quickly and Rianna, Melanie, Horst and Ryan have been absolutely fabulous. I’ve even gotten detailed video and voice message responses that have saved my butt! Im not great with technology so their explanations have been so helpful! Def check this out! 10/10 recommend!

Affordable service that just works

efox December 11, 2022 1 reply

I’ve been using this plugin on my site for several years now, and overall it has worked flawlessly. I have customers all over the United States and this plugin (and the related TaxCloud service) makes it dead simple to remain in compliance with state sales tax laws. I encourage other reviewers complaining about the price of TaxCloud to take a close look at the price of competing services like TaxJar. TaxCloud is FAR more reasonably priced (particularly if you have a lot of orders each month). I’m very happy with this plugin and TaxCloud.

User Beware: SCAM! And the charges don’t end

rainbowprophet May 26, 2021 1 reply

When I tried this service it was great at first. It automatically opened my tax paying accounts to various states. The charges made sense considering most of what they’re doing is automated. $9 a month; considering I barely make that I was pleased. Suddenly the charges changed to $30 a month. Then the plugin stopped working properly; the few sales I got weren’t being taxed. The website kept coughing out (which would ease up when I turned off the plugin). So I switched to their “free” version, and was still charged $30 a month with no actual work happening on their side. I was literally being charged for their plugin not to work properly. Then I started getting notices that my tax accounts were being closed. And here’s the final clincher: the Illinois tax ID I have to maintain? Not closed, however when I went to handle things professionally it turned out THE TAX ID WASN’T REAL. I had to apply and get one manually. So just like the accountant I kicked to the curb a few years ago when life was better, if I have to do all the work what am I wasting money for? I thought very long and hard before closing my account with these people. Despite all of the above, I almost called them to see why I was being charged for a nothing burger and trying to work it out. But then I said to myself, well I’m not making any sales anyway. It’s pointless at this time. So I closed the account when the last monthly charge went through. That should have been it. But it’s not. I just got notice they’re going to charge me the monthly fee again. And for what? I don’t even have an account anymore! I’m going to have to call my bank and try to block their charges, because I just tried to sign in again but couldn’t. Because you see, my account is *closed*. It’s theft at this point. EDIT: I’d managed to get back into my closed account by using the change of password feature to learn it had never been closed properly!! So be careful if you tell them to close your account!! Make sure all cards are unattached with them and that they have no way to keep things open and charge you anyway! Despite my initiating a closure of account a month ago, I am being charged for this last month *because they NEVER CLOSED IT!!!!*

Charges per API request get expensive

nikkuexe April 21, 2021 1 reply

The basic idea behind this plug-in and service is good, but the implementation is poor. Perhaps if the plugin cached data locally, that would speed up quotes and reduce the API charges.

Avoid Blood Sucking Parasite : TaxCloud

meakub April 6, 2021 2 replies

Service will start as free or very minimal fee per API call. After month or two you will be surprised with many bills. Don’t step into this money sucking service. When subscribed they told me I will be charged as per API call and for one purchase it will be 4/5 API calls. It will be charging couple of cents per API call. There were no required payment method setup option and first time they charged $30 minimum fee + $50 (payment attempt failure fee. At that point I just had one purchase in my website. I cancelled their subscription, agreed to pay $30 but $50 waived. After one month we received another bill of $65 saying for having open account for last two months. All these billing they never mention when you discuss but when bill is generated then you are in trap with no exit. It will kill hours and at some point you give up. Doing this you will loose at least $100-$200. When I wasn’t able to login, I did password recovery and it enabled my tax account for every states in USA and now they force you to pay full one month payment just because of their hidden way of enabling tax account. After spending hours in chat and emailing them, I end up paying $100 for one f… transaction. AVOID THIS SHIT, KEEP YOUR PEACE ALIVE.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

See Releases.