POS location and sales tax

Retail & Point of Sale
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Topic summary

Main issue: Shopify POS calculates sales tax using the configured ZIP code of the store’s Shopify location, not the device’s current location at markets/pop-ups.

Context: The user enabled Shopify Tax and granted the POS app location access, referencing release notes stating “rooftop accurate” (address-level) tax on POS orders. Despite this, taxes still reflect the primary location’s ZIP code.

Workaround used: Create a new Shopify location for each market and transfer inventory for the event. This is cumbersome.

Latest update from support: Official guidance is to continue creating a new location for each market or pop-up; POS does not currently apply tax based on the device’s live location. A feature request to improve mobile POS tax handling was submitted by support.

Status: No built-in solution yet; workaround required. Outcome is effectively closed pending potential future product changes. No attachments beyond referenced release notes.

Summarized with AI on December 16. AI used: gpt-5.
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I’ve seen variations of this question posted in various places, but never a definitive answer.

We have a primary location in Shopify for our inventory and online store. We also sell at markets using the Shopify POS app. The issue that we’re having is that the app always bases sales tax on the configured zip code of the location in Shopify. However, based on release notes from last November, it seems like the POS app could be calculating sales tax based on the POS location: “Your point of sale experience has been upgraded with more accurate tax collection, powered by our rooftop accurate calculations”. I’ve validated that Shopify Tax is enabled and that the POS app has access to location services on my device.

The only way that I’ve found to apply the correct sales tax rate is to create a new location for each market then transfer inventory to it for the event. Needless to say, that is a really painful process.

Has anyone successfully had the Shopify POS app correctly apply sales tax based on the location of the device when the sale is made?

1 Like
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I ended up chatting with support today. Unfortunately, the answer remains to create a new location for each market or pop-up.

I did ask the support rep to submit a feature request to better support sales taxes in the mobile POS use case and they assured me that they would.