Create and manage sales tax settings
About sales tax settings
With Square, you can automatically apply Goods and Services Tax (GST) to your in-person and online sales, and create custom taxes with specific rules. You can also enable your team members to edit taxes at the time of sale through your team permissions, and track your taxable and non-taxable sales from your Square Dashboard.
You can customise your tax setup to match your business needs—choosing between automatic or manual GST configurations. The platform also supports various GST scenarios, including taxable or non-taxable GST charges on delivery and shipping fees, default GST rates for some online fulfillment methods, and the option to include or exclude GST within item prices. This versatile tax system lets you create custom tax rules to accommodate your specific business requirements.
Square’s processing fees are taken out of the total amount of each transaction — including taxes and tip.
Before you begin
You can create sales taxes from your Square Dashboard and point of sale app. You can manage them for specific order fulfillment methods from Square Dashboard only.
GST collection is enabled by default for in person sales and online orders.
Create sales taxes
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Settings > Account & Settings > Payments > Sales taxes.
- Click Create tax.
- Under Details, enter a tax name and rate, and select the locations where the rate applies.
- Under ‘Tax application’, click the drop-down menu and choose either All current and future taxable items at selected locations, or Select items to choose specific items to apply the rate to. If an item is set as non-taxable, taxes won’t be automatically applied to the item on any in-person or online orders.
- Toggle on Apply tax to custom amounts to apply the tax to any custom amounts added to the cart.
- Under ‘Tax calculation’, choose either Additive tax to add the tax as a separate line item on your customers’ receipts, or Inclusive tax to include the tax in the item price.
- Under ‘Tax exemption’, toggle on Add exemption rule to specify when this tax should not be applied.
- Click Save.
- From your point of sale app, tap ≡ More > Settings > Checkout > Sales taxes.
- Tap + to create a new tax.
- Enter a tax name and rate.
- Under ‘Tax application’, tap either All items and services (current and future), or Select items to choose specific items to apply the rate to. If an item is set as non-taxable, taxes won’t be automatically applied to the item on any in-person or online orders.
- Toggle on Custom amounts to apply the tax to any custom amounts added to the cart.
- Under ‘Calculation method’, choose either Additive tax to add the tax as a separate line item on your customers’ receipts, or Inclusive tax to include the tax in the item price.
- Tap Save.
Manage GST sales taxes for online fulfilment
GST sales tax collection is enabled by default for delivery, pickup, and QR code orders, or you can choose to manually configure tax rates. Manual tax rates are not available for QR code orders.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Settings > Account & Settings > Payments > Sales taxes.
- Under “Delivery and pickup tax overrides,” click Manage settings.
- Under “Delivery sales tax,” choose from the following:
- Manually apply taxes based on destination (click Manage manual tax rates to set up your manual rates)
- Apply default sales tax
- Do not collect taxes
- Under “Additional settings,” optionally Exempt delivery fees from tax.
- Under “Square Online QR code sales,” you will see the following option auto-selected:
- Apply default rates for QR code sales tax
- Under “Square Online pickup sales,” choose from the following:
- Manually apply taxes based on destination (click Manage manual tax rates to set up your manual rates)
- Apply default rates for pickup sales tax
- Under “Automatic and manual taxes calculation method,” choose either
- Additive tax to add the GST as a separate line item on your customers’ receipts, or
- Inclusive tax to include the GST in the item price (default option)
- Click Save.
GST sales tax collection is enabled by default for shipping and non-physical orders, or you can choose to manually configure tax rates. GST can also be applied or excluded on shipping fees.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Settings > Account & Settings > Payments > Sales taxes.
- Under “Shipping and non-physical tax overrides,” click Manage settings.
- Under “Domestic shipping and non-physical sales taxes,” choose from the following:
- Manually apply taxes based on destination (click Manage manual tax rates to set up your manual rates)
- Do not collect taxes
- Under “International shipping and non-physical taxes,” click Manage international tax rates.
- Click Add tax rate and choose a country from the dropdown menu.
- Enter a Country Tax Rate (%) and customer-facing Tax Name.
- Click Save > Done.
- Under “Additional settings,” optionally Exempt shipping fees from tax.
- Under “Automatic and manual taxes calculation method,” choose either:
- Additive tax to add the GST as a separate line item on your customers’ receipts, or
- Inclusive tax to include the GST in the item price (default option).
- Click Save.
Disable or delete sales taxes
You can disable or delete your sales tax rates at any time from either your Square Dashboard or your point of sale app. Disabling a tax makes it no longer applicable to purchases. If you delete a tax, you cannot undo the deletion, and you will have to create the tax again.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Settings > Account & Settings > Payment > Sales taxes.
- Under Sales taxes, select the tax you want to disable or delete.
- Select the Actions drop-down menu and select Disable tax or Delete tax.