Handling non-taxable deposit on a taxable item

Shopify Discussion
1

Hello,

We are currently selling bottles that are subject to sales tax, and in a few months we will be need for all sales to charge a non-taxable deposit fee of $0.25 per item.

We could create a deposit fee item in our Shopify store and each time we sell a bottle we manually add a deposit fee. The downside is that we constantly must remind ourselves to add the deposit fee, it is an error-prone process and it takes twice to time to enter the transaction (1 bottle + 1 deposit fee).

Ideally, we would like to have a single item, a “group” than contains a taxable item (the bottle) and the non-taxable deposit fee. Is such a thing possible?

Thanks.

Chris

2

Hi,

This is Richard at PageFly - Shopify Advanced Page Builder app.

While Shopify doesn’t have a direct “group” feature for items, you could explore a few creative workarounds to achieve your desired outcome:

1. Product Options:

  • Create a Single Product: This product represents the bottle.
  • Add a Product Option: This option would be the deposit fee. Make it mandatory and set the price to $0.25.
  • Tax Settings: Configure the tax settings for the main product to be taxable and the deposit fee option to be non-taxable.

2. Product Bundles:

  • Create a Bundle Product: This bundle would contain two items: the bottle and the deposit fee.
  • Set Pricing: The bundle price would be the sum of the bottle price and the $0.25 deposit fee.
  • Tax Settings: Configure the tax settings so that the bottle is taxable and the deposit fee is not.

3. Custom App Development:

  • Hire a Developer: If you’re comfortable with custom development, you could hire a developer to create a custom app that automates the process of adding the deposit fee to each order.
  • App Store: Check the Shopify App Store for apps that might offer similar functionality, though this might be a less common scenario.

Hoping my solution helps you solve your problem.

Best regards,

Richard | PageFly

3

Hey @Blackspot @PageFly-Richard

Hey Chris! This is a common need for bottle/container deposits and Canteen is built exactly for this.

Canteen lets you attach a mandatory fee to specific products — and you can configure whether the fee is taxable or non-taxable independently of the main product. So your bottle stays taxable while the $0.25 deposit is non-taxable, and it gets added automatically every time that product is sold (no manual steps, no forgetting).

It works for both your online store and Shopify POS, so you’re covered everywhere.

https://apps.shopify.com/canteen

Happy to answer any setup questions!