If you already know a tax expert or you already know the tax rates, then it isn't too much of a pain to enter the tax rates manually. But if you don't know a tax expert, then it's a bit of work and it's probably cheaper and faster to use a third-party tool to calculate the tax rates for you.
One such tool that's geared for US businesses is TaxJar.
Using the following steps, we first download the free TaxJar plugin from WordPress.org:
- In the WordPress admin, click on the Plugins menu and then on Add New.
- Run a search for the
TaxJar - Sales Tax Automation for WooCommerceplugin. - Install and activate the plugin.
Now that we have the plugin installed, we have to configure it.
- From the WordPress admin, go to WooCommerce | Settings | Integrations.
- If TaxJar is the only integration you've installed, it will automatically be loaded. Otherwise, click on TaxJar.
- Make sure the Enable TaxJar setting is checked.
- Enter your API token in the API Token field. If you don't know where to find that in TaxJar, click on the link underneath the field.
- Enter the Ship From Zip Code and Ship From City fields.
- Click on Save changes.
Your store will contact TaxJar to calculate taxes before displaying them to the customer at checkout.
At the start of 2015, Europe introduced new legislation for taxing downloadable goods (such as e-books, video courses, and so on) being sold in the European Union. This affects all sellers and not just sellers in Europe. If you are selling digital goods to Europe, you should look into VATMOSS. One popular service that checks and calculates these rates for you is Taxamo.
For more information, go to http://www.woothemes.com/2014/12/handling-eu-vat-woocommerce/.