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Canadian tax

The extension can calculate Canadian sales tax — GST, HST, PST and QST — on orders you ship to Canada, and report those orders to TaxCloud the same way it reports US orders.

Canadian tax is off until you turn it on, and it needs two things:

  1. Canada enabled on your TaxCloud account. This is an add-on that TaxCloud switches on for you. Contact TaxCloud support and ask for Canadian tax to be enabled on your account.
  2. Calculate Canadian Tax set to Yes in Magento, on a store that uses the V3 REST API.

Either one without the other gives you no Canadian tax.

Before you start

  • Your store must use the V3 REST API. The setting does not appear while API Type is V1 SOAP (legacy), and has no effect on a store view that uses V1 SOAP. See Choosing your API.
  • Your shipping origin stays in the United States. Canadian tax is calculated for orders shipped from a US origin to a Canadian address.
  • Ask TaxCloud support to enable Canada on your account, and wait for them to confirm before you rely on it.

Turning it on

  1. Go to Stores → Configuration → Sales → Tax → TaxCloud Settings.
  2. Pick the scope in the Store View switcher. Like every TaxCloud setting, this one can be different per website or store view — see how scope works.
  3. Set Calculate Canadian Tax to Yes.
  4. Click Save Config.

When you save, the extension checks straight away whether your TaxCloud account has Canada enabled, and shows the answer at the top of the page next to the save confirmation. It checks again whenever you save a change to the API type or credentials while the setting is on. The setting is saved whatever the answer is.

Setting Default Shown when
Calculate Canadian Tax No TaxCloud is enabled and API Type is V3 REST
Check Canada Access (button) — Calculate Canadian Tax is Yes

Checking that your account has Canada

The Check Canada Access button, shown under the setting, asks TaxCloud to calculate tax on a sample sale: one general-goods item worth $100, shipped from your origin to Toronto, Ontario. It uses the settings already saved for the store view you are looking at, so save any changes first.

You get one of three answers:

Answer What it means What to do
Canada access confirmed — with the sample rate, for example 13% Your account prices Canadian sales. Nothing. Place a test order to a Canadian address.
Canadian tax does not appear to be enabled on your TaxCloud account TaxCloud refused the sample, or charged no tax on it. Every province taxes general goods, so either one means Canada is not on for your account. Contact TaxCloud support to enable Canada, then check again.
Could not check Canada access Something else is wrong — rejected credentials, an unknown Connection ID, TaxCloud unreachable, a store not on V3 REST, or an incomplete shipping origin. The message names the problem. Fix that problem first. Verify Credentials helps with credential issues. This answer says nothing about Canada.

The sample sale is only a calculation. Nothing is filed or reported as a sale. It shows up in your TaxCloud account as a cart named taxcloud-canada-access-check, and repeat checks update that same cart.

What happens at checkout

For a shipping address in Canada, the extension asks TaxCloud for tax as it does for a US address, and applies it to the products and to shipping.

  • The province decides the rate. Ontario charges 13% HST, British Columbia 5% GST plus 7% PST, Quebec 5% GST plus 9.975% QST, and Alberta 5% GST only. The customer must pick a province.
  • The postal code must be a real Canadian postal code, such as M5H 2N2. Customers can type it in lower case or without the space. An address with an invalid postal code gets no tax, and the reason is recorded in the log.
  • One tax amount per line. TaxCloud returns a single combined rate, so an Ontario order shows one tax amount of 13%, not separate GST and PST amounts.
  • No address verification. TaxCloud verifies US addresses only, so a Canadian address is used exactly as the customer entered it, even when Verify Address is enabled.
  • Prices in US or Canadian dollars both work.
  • Addresses outside the United States and Canada still get no tax from TaxCloud.

If TaxCloud refuses the calculation for a Canadian address, the log entry says that Canada may not be enabled on your account, and the order is handled like any other failed lookup: Magento's own rates if Fallback to Magento Tax Rates is enabled, no tax otherwise.

Orders, refunds and cancellations

Canadian orders are captured, refunded and cancelled in TaxCloud exactly like US orders.

Turning the setting off stops Canadian orders reaching TaxCloud

Whether a Canadian order is reported is decided when it is captured, not when it is placed. If you set Calculate Canadian Tax back to No while Canadian orders are still waiting for their capture — for example, unpaid orders when Capture in TaxCloud is On payment — those orders charged the customer Canadian tax but are not reported to TaxCloud. The log records each one. Let those orders be captured, or cancel them, before turning the setting off.

Exemptions

Exemption certificates cover US states only. A Canadian order is always taxed, even for a customer who holds a certificate, and no certificate is recorded on it.