Multiple Shopify store owners report sales tax not being collected at checkout, despite having tax settings enabled and products marked as taxable. Manual orders show tax correctly, but customer-initiated purchases often don’t.
Common troubleshooting suggestions:
Key technical issue identified:
Shopify’s tax collection is tied to economic nexus thresholds by state. The platform only collects tax in states where merchants have established nexus (physical presence or revenue thresholds, typically around $500K). This means:
Workarounds mentioned:
Ongoing frustration:
Many users report unhelpful support experiences and express concern about tax liability. The consensus is that if nexus isn’t established, the tax burden falls to buyers (use tax), not sellers—though this creates accounting complications for business customers.
I have Shopify set up to collect sales tax in my state and each product has the “collect sales tax” box checked. When I create a manual order, tax is automatically added in. But when a customer does it on their own through my store, taxes aren’t being added. What’s the deal here? I’ve had a bunch of sales this month and I’m going to have to dish out the tax on my own due to this error.
Any ideas?
My initials thoughts are that one of the following issues are occurring:
If you can provide some screenshots of your settings, as well as a link to your store, then I’d be happy to take a look and test your checkout, to see if it’s working on my end.
Also if you could provide a screenshot of an order where taxes should be charged, but aren’t being charged (with the customer’s name, email, phone, and street address blurred out – so we only see the product purchased + city/state/country of the order + order totals), then that would also help with troubleshooting the issue.
I’ve noticed mine is doing this too. How do I fix this?
Just helping folks. I’m confused as well and Shopify should have a better experience developed: As a company owner or website designer I need to know that my taxes are not being charged and configured before I hit a threshold so that I’m not panicking that I’m breaking the law. This should be on the initial taxes section. “For US taxes, [accurate description of expected behavior]” https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/taxes/us/us-tax-liability#threshold-periods
Hi, there! You can find the most accurate information on how to set up your taxes with Shopify’s settings in the Help Center. The page you linked is specifically about US tax liabilities, but if you’re looking for a general overview of US taxes with Shopify, this page here will be more helpful. You may also want to take a look over this guide on how to set up your taxes in Shopify.
Since tax liabilities and obligations vary depending on the specifics of each business and where they’re located, we can’t share any guidance on your legal obligations. However, we can help review your settings to ensure they work as you expect them to. We can also look into any unexpected issues you’re noticing. You can reach out to our support team for help through the Help Center here. We also always recommend speaking to a local tax expert to help you ensure you are collecting taxes correctly for your business.
I am with you, Just realized no one is being charged tax out of state… I just spent 2 hours with support trying to figure it out. None of the articles help, the best thing to doo is talk to a tax professional and verify which states you can add to your nexus list. This list is found in your Taxes and Duties tab under Settings. What I found out is that I need to talk with my Tax Advisor (not Shopify) to add each state available for taxation…
Having the same problem. My store has charged sales tax before, and now is not. All of the steps mentioned above are correct in my store too. What’s happened?
I am glad I am not the only one experiencing this issue at least…
What’s also inconsistent about this tax error on Shopify is that All established products are charged tax upon check out. With Custom Draft orders, it simply will not add tax unless you add the state/region of your customer into your Nexus list…
Can anyone please address this!?
Anyone found an answer to this?
Having the same issue. Any news from Shopify.com?
Hi Stephen, I’m having the same issue as SweetJulesVegan and JadenRose. My partner thinks it’s because I have the category set as Apparel & Accessories, and may not be specific enough (ie: Clothing). However, Apparel & Accessories and taxable in Idaho, and my customer’s all have Idaho addresses. This has happened on my last 3 stores, and I’m losing so much money by not having the sales tax collected. Can you help? I’m happy to send photos, and any information you need.
I’m having the same issue with my store. We are in NYC and use Shopify to allow customers to pre-order flower bouquets for pickup. Many of our customers have billing addresses in NJ, MA, PA and are not being taxed at all. It’s incredibly frustrating and causing a lot of headaches for our accountant. Is there a workaround??
I went to the chat session on Shopify. The initital few messages were clearly from AI, but then I asked to speak to a real person and got one. We messaged on Shopify until I had to leave for an appointment so she offered to continue the conversation via email. She gave me a workaround for my situtation which made absolutely no sense to me at all, but I will just have to research her suggestion the next time I set up a store. For your situation, you may not have to worry about collecting sales tax from other states unless you sell a certain amount of product. I would try the Shopify chat feature and ask for a living agent to help you.
I did some research because I was having the same issue and the following article helped:
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/taxes/us
“Nexus, or a connection between your store and a US state, determines whether you potentially have tax liability there. Nexus can be physical or economic.”
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In a destination state, the general rule is that the sales tax you charge is based on the address of your customer.
Hope this helps!
Anika
I’m having this smaw issue. Help! It shows tax to me but not when a customer checks out on the exact same item.
Hey, @RealKatieWolfe ! Are you based in the US? If so, I recommend reviewing the tax guidelines. Some customers may not be required to pay tax, depending on their location. We have a general guide here, but for the most accurate and tailored advice, I recommend consulting a tax expert.
I got bounced around repeatedly by polite Shopify staff to the point of annoyance but no real assistance in resolving this issue.
I believe this is it! I had the same problem where tax collected was checked but not adding it- and I had the category generic Apparel & Accessories. Deleted that and it started adding tax at check out. Will have to see how far down I need to go in the category to make both work!
I believe it’s the category you have selected (ie Apparel & Accessories for me) was too generic - I deleted the category and it now adds tax on.
