Sales tax gets complicated quickly for brands selling across Canada and the US. Canada has GST, HST and provincial sales taxes that differ by province. In the US, rates and rules vary by state and local jurisdiction, and economic nexus rules mean an online seller can owe tax in a state where it has no physical presence. Add wholesale customers with exemption certificates and international orders with duties, and handling it by hand stops being safe.
We set up tax so it is calculated in the platform at the moment of sale, using the right rules for the customer, the product and the destination.
What the work covers
- Tax calculation. Native platform tax or a dedicated engine such as Avalara, configured for every jurisdiction where you collect.
- Product tax codes. Categories mapped correctly, since clothing, food, supplements and digital goods are often taxed differently.
- Exemptions. Tax-exempt wholesale and B2B accounts stored against the customer so their orders are calculated correctly every time.
- Cross-border orders. Duties and import taxes, and whether they are collected at checkout or on delivery.
- Records and reporting. Transaction data passed to your tax tool and ERP so filing runs from the same numbers as your sales.
Where we stop and your advisers start
We are not tax advisers, and we do not decide where you register or what you owe. Your accountant makes those calls. Our job is to turn their decisions into platform settings, integrations and tests, and to flag anywhere the current setup does not match what they expect. That split keeps responsibility clear.
Testing before it matters
Tax mistakes tend to surface months later in an audit or a filing. Before launch we run sample orders across provinces, states, customer types and product categories and compare the results with what your advisers expect. Rate changes are then handled by the tax engine, so nobody on your team is updating tables by hand.
Tax settings usually change when you open a new market, which ties this work to multi-market ecommerce and ERP integration. It is part of our omnichannel and B2B commerce service.
