Set up Stripe Tax
Enable Stripe Tax to automatically calculate and collect tax.
To set up Stripe Tax, configure your tax settings through the Dashboard on the tax settings page. Alternatively, you can use the Tax Settings API. Depending on your integration, add one line of code to enable tax.
If you’re a platform that wants to set up Stripe Tax for your connected accounts that are responsible for collecting, filing, and reporting taxes, see Tax for software platforms.
Get started with a video demo
This short video shows you how to enable automatic tax collection through the Dashboard.
Set your origin address
Origin address is where your business is located or, if you sell physical goods, the address where you’re shipping goods from.
By default, we set your origin address to your Stripe business address so you only need to review and confirm that your details are correct on the tax settings page. Alternatively, you can retrieve and update your origin address using the API.
Select your preset tax code
A tax code is a classification of your product or service for Stripe Tax. We use this to make sure that the correct tax rate is applied to your transactions.
- Preset product tax code: The preset product tax code is the default tax code that applies to your Products when you don’t explicitly specify a tax_code. To learn more about the relationship between products, prices, and tax codes, and how they impact tax behavior, see the products, prices, and tax codes documentation.
You must select the most appropriate product tax code for every product or service you sell. Visit the tax settings page to select a preset product tax code to serve as the default. Afterwards, visit the product catalogue to confirm that the default is correct for your existing products. If not, edit each product to select a more appropriate product tax code for it.
- Default shipping tax code: The tax treatment type applied to shipping or delivery fees added to your charge. Some countries levy a distinct tax rate specifically on shipping fees. The default shipping tax code is used to identify this unique tax treatment.
If you’re selling digital goods or services, or if your business is based in the EU, you typically don’t need to select a tax treatment. However, if neither of these conditions apply to your business, select the tax treatment that’s most relevant to you. In the absence of a specific shipping tax code on a shipping rate, we default to using the tax treatment you’ve selected.
Select whether prices include tax by default
Tax behavior is a setting that determines whether Stripe should add taxes on top of your price, or if the price already includes taxes. This ensures that taxes don’t affect the total amount charged to your customers.
To calculate the total amount, Stripe needs to know the tax behavior of each price in the transaction. The default tax behavior is the default setting that applies when you don’t explicitly specify the tax_behavior on a Price object.
You have three options:
- Exclusive: You want to exclude tax from prices so that you add tax on top.
- Inclusive: You want to include tax in prices so that tax doesn’t affect the total.
- Automatic: You want to use the currency of prices to let Stripe decide whether to include or exclude tax. Stripe excludes tax from prices in USD and CAD, but includes it in prices for all other currencies.
Learn about tax behavior for products and prices.
Add registrations
Before you start collecting tax from your customers, you must register with the local tax authority. A tax registration lets Stripe know that your business is registered to collect tax on payments within a region, enabling you to automatically collect tax. Our monitoring tool in the Dashboard helps you understand where you might need to register with the local tax authority.
Visit Registrations in the Dashboard to add your tax registrations. If you haven’t registered yet but are planning to, you can also schedule a tax registration to take effect at a date in the future. You can also use Stripe to register on your behalf.
Enable Tax in your Stripe integration or use the Stripe Tax API
The final step in setting up Stripe Tax is to enable automatic tax on your Stripe integration. Here’s how:
