My site shouldn’t charge out of state sales tax. However, for the third time now, I’ve gotten a random out of state sale that my site charged sales tax on. One was from the same customer that ordered the same thing twice. The first sale it didn’t charge sales tax as it shouldn’t. The second sale was the same exact thing, but my site charged out of state sales tax. I’m at a lost and don’t know who to ask. I’m worried that I’m going to get into some sort of trouble for incorrectly collecting taxes.
Topic summary
A merchant is experiencing intermittent issues where their Shopify store incorrectly charges sales tax on out-of-state orders, despite being configured to collect tax only in their home state. The problem has occurred three times, including two orders from the same customer where tax was charged on the second order but not the first.
Troubleshooting steps suggested:
- Verify Settings → Taxes and duties to ensure only nexus states are listed
- Remove any “All states” regions or incorrect state entries
- Check third-party tax service settings (TaxJar, Avalara) for conflicting configurations
- Place test orders to non-nexus addresses to confirm proper behavior
Current status:
The merchant confirmed their tax settings appear correct and only show their home state. They’re now seeking guidance on how to open a Shopify support ticket to investigate the underlying cause, as the settings don’t explain the sporadic tax charges. The issue remains unresolved and requires Shopify’s technical review of transaction logs.
Hello @Tom666 ,
First, head into Settings → Taxes and duties (or Settings → Taxes).
Under the United States section, click Manage. You should only have the states where you have sales tax nexus listed. If you see a single “All states” region or any states you don’t actually collect in, that’s why Shopify is charging out-of-state orders.
Remove any states or catch-all regions that don’t apply, save your changes, and then place a quick test order to a non-nexus address (you can even use an incognito window) to confirm taxes aren’t applied.
If you’re using a third-party tax service (TaxJar, Avalara, etc.), double-check your nexus settings there as well, since sometimes they push overrides back into Shopify.
Finally, if it still happens after cleaning up your nexus list, open a support ticket with Shopify and share your Settings screenshot—they can pull logs and see exactly why tax calculated. And it never hurts to run this by an accountant to make sure your nexus list is spot-on.
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Thanks for the rely. It seems like all the settings are correct in the taxes and duties settings. It is set to only collect in my state. How do I open a support ticket with shopify ?
Thanks for the help.