Opening this thread here for any possible solutions, and also to warn other Canadians using Webflow Ecommerce. The current limitations of TaxJar (the service Webflow uses for tax calculation) and Webflow Ecommerce mean we cannot charge the correct tax rates for some items in some provinces.
I have confirmed this with Webflow Support and received the following reply after going back and forth:
Currently, the product tax class settings only apply for states in the US and some EU countries.
All products will have a 12% tax applied. 5% for GST and 7% for PST.
This is specific to BC - but the same applies to other provinces multiple types of sales tax. There is currently no option to only apply 5% GST. This means Canadians selling clothing or food (and some other categories) in certain provinces like BC cannot use Webflow Ecommerce.
Webflow Support says adding custom tax rates (when automatic is disabled) is on the roadmap for Q2 2020… but not guaranteed.
This is very disappointing - custom tax rates seems like a basic feature – I wonder why they chose to have TaxJar be the only option. I wish they were more clear about this when I first inquired, before setting up my client’s store using Webflow Ecommerce.
To clarify, our only option right now is to advertise all products as “tax included”, then do the manual bookkeeping after sales are processed to extract the correct tax based on what category the item’s in.
Really? It works for me. I’m from Alberta and my tests have calculated only 5%. Just ran a test for Toronto and it calculated the proper 13% (5% GST and 8% PST). But I agree, we should have been able to input custom tax rates from the get-go.
Alberta and Ontario both only have one single tax rate. Alberta has only 5% and Ontario has only 13%. (Ontario used to be PST/GST, but no longer).
The problems arise in provinces like BC where there’s two different sales tax rates: PST and GST, and some products like clothing and food are GST only. There’s no way to do GST only in BC.
Even if your business is based in Ontario, and you need to collect 5% GST from your BC customers – you cannot do this. So this affects all Canadian businesses that are required to collect tax across the country.
True about Toronto having HST, but what I was looking for was proper calculation, and it calculated 13% total. I just tested Vancouver, and it calculated 5% GST and 7% PST.
@Mercs You’re correct. Perhaps I’m not explaining this correctly. Ontario is no problem… Alberta is no problem…
But if you have a customer in BC and you’re selling them an item where only GST is to be collected (Books, Clothing, Food, as just a few examples), there’s no way to charge just 5% GST. Webflow forces you to collect both GST and PST on all transaction (or none at all).
As per my original warning:
Canadians selling clothing or food (and some other categories) in certain provinces like BC cannot use Webflow Ecommerce.
Did you find a workaround to this? I have customers who are noticing the GST and PST and I would like the tax to just say HST when they are ordering. Or is there a way to have it just say “taxes”?
No fix yet. The tax options in Webflow Ecommerce are just so awful. TaxJar is not a good solution and I’m shocked they actually have the pay for it. I was told a fix is coming in Q2, but that never happened.
We need the exact same setup as custom shipping options (by location) but for tax rates based on location. + subregions (like provinces and states) within countries.
@nderic@Chad_Davis@janinedesigns@robertfit@Mercs , allow me to purpose a solution: you can either use https://foxy.io or https://snipcart.com/ for eCommerce instead of Webflow’s eCommerce. There are two benefits. The first is that you’ll only need a CMS plan instead of an eCommerce plan and the second is that they both seem to allow you to charge the correct taxes. Now you can do research on both of these solutions to figure out if they would be a fit for what you want to do. I know @foxy is reliable and has a very friendly support staff, so you can always shoot them an email.
Really frustrating that TaxJar is the only option and it can’t be overwritten. Adding manual tax calculation settings seems like an easy solution but Webflow has not added this feature yet.
Unbelievably frustrating. I’ve been using Webflow for years for marketing sites. We’re now at the point of testing our first eCommerce site and have run into this tax issue. From what I’ve read, it doesn’t seem like Webflow is taking this very seriously. As far as I’m concerned, this is s a deal breaker for any eCommerce stores in Canada. While I’m a big fan of Webflow, this experience has really put a damper on things. I thought they had left a lot of features half-baked because they were working on a great eCommerce platform. Turns out the eCommerce is half-baked too. Webflow needs to pick a lane and stick with it until they get things right in that one lane, then move on to the next. Now we have to go and look at Shopify for this project. Complete waste of time!
Hi folks! Just wondering if this issue was solved? I’ve just pitched a Canadian client on using Webflow e-commerce for their new site and need to make sure tax will be calculated properly. Appreciate any help!
