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With tax-exclusive pricing, your menu shows prices before tax and storekit adds the tax at checkout as its own line. This is how sales tax works in the US. This guide sets up a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, which charges 8.875% sales tax: 4% New York State, 4.5% New York City and 0.375% Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District (MCTD). Use your own rates in place of these.
A new US store already starts with Tax is added at checkout and a Sales Tax with your state rate. See Tax Defaults for New Stores. If that’s your case, step 1 is already done: check it and go to step 2.

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Before You Start

  • Your rates. Your state rate plus any city, county or district rates for the store’s address. Your state’s tax authority publishes them, and your accountant can confirm.
  • Your sales tax permit number (optional, but it’s printed on receipts and invoices).

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Step 1: Add Tax at Checkout

Go to Stores → your store → Settings → Taxes. Under Prices, choose Tax is added at checkout.
The Prices setting set to Tax is added at checkout
Your menu prices don’t change. From now on they are prices before tax.

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Step 2: Add Your Local Rates

Under Taxes, put all your rates in one tax, one rate per line.
  1. If the page has no tax yet, click Add tax and enter a Name, for example Sales Tax. Customers see this name as the tax line at checkout, so use one they’ll recognise.
  2. Enter the first rate’s name (for example NY State) and its percentage in each service column.
  3. Click Add rate for each local rate and fill it in the same way.
  4. Check Customer pays. It adds up the rates for each service and should match your total rate.
A Sales Tax with three rates, NY State 4%, New York City 4.5% and MCTD 0.375%, for Pickup and Delivery. Customer pays 8.875%.
There is a column for each service your store offers (In store, Pickup, Curbside, Delivery, Catering). Leave a cell blank where that rate isn’t charged for that service.

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Step 3: Choose What Is Taxed

Under Applied to, choose the tax for: Then enter your Sales tax permit number.
Applied to section with Sales Tax on items and the delivery fee, service charge and tip not taxed, and a sales tax permit number entered

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Step 4: Save and Check

Click Save. The change applies to new orders straight away. Orders already placed keep the tax they were charged. To check, open your store, add an item to the basket and go to checkout. The tax appears as its own line above the Total:
Checkout basket with a Sales Tax line between the service fee and the total

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Items Taxed at a Different Rate

Some items may be taxed differently. For example, in New York, bagels sold whole to take home aren’t taxed, but they are when eaten in the store. For items like these:
  1. Click Add tax and create a second tax, for example Grocery, with its rates only in the columns where it’s charged (here only In store).
  2. Click Save.
  3. Open the menu, click each item, and set its Tax field to the new tax.
See Give One Item a Different Tax.

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Common Questions

Yes. Under Prices, choose Menu prices include tax and click Save. Your menu prices stay the same, so customers then pay the menu price with the tax inside it. Review your prices first.
No. storekit charges the rates you enter and doesn’t track rate changes. When a rate changes, update it on the Taxes page.
storekit calculates tax from the settings you enter, but it doesn’t give tax advice. Check your rates, and what’s taxable in your state, with your accountant or your state’s tax authority.