Cannot get Square to stop charging sales tax on nontaxble items

[PaulaJ]

I work with a tiny volunteer-run non-profit. I set up Square for them years ago and it worked great until about 18 months ago.

Most of the transactions (memberships, donations, event admission) are not subject to sales tax. They do sell a few books and art prints which are taxable.

Square started adding sales tax to memberships and other non-taxable items which is wrong, annoying to the buyer, and embarrassing to the organization (which then as to issue a refund for the tax).

I have called Square Support twice for help and followed their instructions to the letter. The problem continues. I reached out to Square Support via a direct message on Twitter/X and after provided all the details they asked for.

After several messages, they suggested I call Square Support. Which, as I told them, I have done twice with no results.

Has anyone else had this issue? And found a solution?

[TheRealChipA]

Hi @PaulaJ.  I have a couple of thoughts.  First, though, a question.  Is this happening on your POS, website, or both?  I’m hoping that this issue is NOT happening on your POS, but only on your website/online store.  Also, if it is happening online, do you use Square Online or Weebly?

[PaulaJ]

It's online sales with Square Online.  We set up a Square Store years ago and have a menu link to it from the WordPress menu.  They do some POS, but (seriously) only a few a year and it's usually for books.

[TheRealChipA]

Ok.  Obviously, something changed recently with Square Online and automatic sales taxes and I missed the menu.  Here’s what I’m going to suggest.  You can Square Online to use the same sales tax definitions as your POS.  Just follow these steps.

1. Go to the online dashboard > Online > Shared Settings > Sales Taxes.
2. Scroll down to the section “Item level tax rates.”
3. Toggle on all three options, even if one doesn’t really apply right now.

As long as your sales taxes are set correctly for each item, then this will have the effect of using those item-level taxes for all online orders.

Let me know if you run into any problems, or have other questions.

[LSL1234]

I'm having the same problem.  I have an item marked as non-taxable.  When I include this item in an invoice, it is calculating tax on this item.  

[BernadetteA]

Hi @LSL1234 👋 

Can you confirm where you are seeing this? Is this an item that is also available on your Square Online website? Can you also let us know how you set up your tax rules? i.e. the Square Dashboard, Square Online dashboard, or one of the apps, like POS? Lastly, can you confirm the exact item name in question? 

Thanks so much in advance! 

[BLanding]

I'm having the same problem. We've been using Square POS for a year with no tax problems. Today we started selling tickets to an event through Square Online. The tickets should only have GST charged, and this is indicated in the item page. Customers are being charged PST as well, for all but one order that was correctly only charged GST (no indication what was special about that one order.)

I tried toggling all of the item level tax rates as @TheRealChipA suggested, but this didn't solve it (possibly because the orders are not pickup, delivery, or QR code orders, which are the three options you can toggle?)

I had a call with support this evening and they were unable to solve it- follow up scheduled for tomorrow. As far as they could tell, only GST should be charged on the item as it's currently programmed. Initially, the support team member said that it was an employee error on our end during checkout and that they must be manually adding the PST. I explained that this was an online transaction, so there wasn't an employee checking customers out. The support team member wasn't able to offer anything else beyond that.