Financing, tax rates, and accounting
Our business is based in Illinois, and taxes have been setup for this state.
However, we noticed that shopify is not collecting the required taxes for customers outside of illinois.
The state of Illinois requires that we charge sales tax on ALL sales from customers that live outside of Illinois at a rate of 6.25%.
Currently it is IMPOSSIBLE to set this up.
This needs to be fixed immediately!
Hey @StevenFGM,
Thank you for reaching out to the Community! I can certainly provide guidance on setting up taxes for the state of Illinois. As Illinois is an origin state with special tax rules, you will want to refer to our US Tax Reference Documentation for further insight on what this entails.
Shipping specifically is not taxable if the actual cost of shipping is listed on a separate line on the invoice and there is a choice of means to get the product (i.e local pick up). You can however, choose whether you'd like to charge taxes on shipping.
Illinois also follows Origin Souring rules for sales within the state and Destination Souring for out-of-state sales. The breakdown of this, can be located within our Tax Sourcing guide and outlines:
To set up taxes for Illinois, you will want to ensure you have registered with the tax agencies and have your Sales Tax ID. Once this has been completed, you can begin setting up your taxes by:
For more information on setting up your taxes, you can check out our Setting Up US Taxes documentation. Please be sure to consult with your local tax authority or tax professional to verify taxes are charged correctly, and to ensure you file and remit your taxes correctly.
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Blair | Shopify
- Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know!
- Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
- To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog
After this is setup do I have to worry about anything else or is the money automatically collected
I realize this is an old post, but wanted to reply because I too was confused about this before 2024 and was temporarily set up to collect sales tax for customers outside of IL at 6.25%. I wrote an email to IL Dept of Revenue in 2024 and they confirmed IL only requires you to charge sales tax to customers whose shipping address is in IL.
This is the reply I received from REV.TA-Sales@illinois.gov:
Hello,
Sales to customers in other states is considered interstate commerce and is not taxable.
You would include these sales in your total receipts, but deduct them on line 5 on the Schedule A of the ST-1.
They would need to take possession of the item in Illinois for it to be taxable.
TITLE 86: REVENUE
CHAPTER I: DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
PART 130 RETAILERS' OCCUPATION TAX
SECTION 130.120 NONTAXABLE TRANSACTIONS
So I just heard about this yesterday. I live in IL and heard we have to collect tax from every county and city people purchase from outside of IL. It's called Retailers Occupation Tax (ROT). Are you saying we don't have to do this? I was thinking if this is required I might have to shut down. I am not sure about how to go about that.
Discover how to increase customer engagement on your store with articles from Shopify A...
By Jacqui Apr 23, 2025Hey Community 👋 Did you know that March 15th is National Everything You Think Is W...
By JasonH Apr 1, 2025Discover how to increase the efficiency of commerce operations with Shopify Academy's l...
By Jacqui Mar 26, 2025