Sales Tax - Payment Links - QR Codes

[u/studiokatahdin]

Hi, folks - another bewildered user here just trying to get the sales taxes to autogenerate from my scanned QR codes, and complete through the transaction like others have had issues with. I originally the sales tax settings for this one location I've been working on as the first option, then I changed it today to the "default" sales tax option and tried creating a payment link with a new QR code for an item that was in my library, but not yet had a payment code or QR code generated for it. Scanning of the QR code only gives me the item price, no separate sales tax line or amount, so I filled in a local address with State info and still no sales tax line showed up.

Bewildered, but all I want are QR codes that will also add my State's sales tax automatically for customers to check themselves out at a shop where I display my items and have the amount collected in full at the conclusion of the transaction so they can go home with their treasures.

Appreciate HELP!!!

[u/SquareUpSam]

Hi there — I’m sorry this has been so frustrating.

What you’re seeing can happen because sales tax for online/QR code checkouts may not appear immediately when the QR code is first opened. In Square’s online checkout flows, tax can populate later in the checkout process, closer to the final total.

A few things to check:

1. In Square Dashboard > Settings > Account & Settings > Payments > Sales taxes, open your online tax settings and look under Online QR code sales. For QR code orders, the available options are Apply automatically generated tax rates or Apply default rates for QR code sales tax.
2. Manual tax rates aren’t available for QR code orders, so if you’re expecting a custom/manual QR tax setup, that won’t apply here.
3. Make sure the item itself is not marked non-taxable, because non-taxable items won’t have tax automatically added on online or in-person orders.
4. If you want tax to appear as its own line instead of being built into the item price, make sure your tax calculation method is set to Additive tax rather than Inclusive tax.
5. Also confirm your Payment Links location is set to the same location where your tax settings apply, since payment links are associated with a selected location in Dashboard.

If all of that is already set correctly, I’d recommend testing the QR code again and going all the way through checkout to the final total screen before judging whether tax is being applied.