How to manage taxes in OpenCart 2.0.x?

Taxes are crucial component of price formation in many countries and legislations. OpenCart 2.0.x has a feature-rich taxes functionality and in this post I will walk you through the configuration of your taxes.

Where to find taxing options in OpenCart settings menu?

To set the way taxes are applied to prices go to System->Settings->Options tab and navigate to the fourth section with the heading Taxes.

To modify the taxing settings go to System->Settings->Localisation. There you can see the links to Taxes and Geozones. The submenus in Taxes modify the taxing rules, while in Geozones you can determine to which countries and areas to apply them.

Modifying the settings

When you open System->Settings->Options tab, there are three options with which to control the tax applying in your OpenCart website. The group of two radio buttons allow you to switch between showing the product prices with or without taxes. The next two dropdown menus affect the taxing formation when the customer is logged in or logged out. The ‘Use Store Tax Address’ one uses the store address to calculate taxes if no one is logged in. You can choose to use the store address for the customer's shipping or payment address. The ‘Use Customer Tax Address’  one allows you to use the customer's default address when they login to calculate taxes. Again, you can choose to use the default address for the customer's shipping or payment address.

In System->Settings->Localisation->Taxes->Tax Classes, you can set what type of taxes are applied to each class of products. The menu System->Settings->Localisation->Taxes->Tax Rates, gives you the opportunity to set the tax calculation rules-whether it will be a percentage of the whole price or a fixed amount and what the rates are going to be.

The last option which concerns taxing can be found in System->Settings->Localisation->Geo Zones. There you can define geographical zones and then set them to the different taxes back in the Tax Rates menu.

To sum up

As you can see, managing taxes has been made an easy to understand and deal with task in the new OpenCart version. The possibilities given cover every aspect of taxing and price formation. If there are any questions left unanswered towards tax managing, let us know in the comments section below.