A tax class is a category of goods, such as clothing or books, that you tax at its own percentage. Each tax zone can set a percentage for each active tax class.
This article explains how to create, rename, deactivate, and delete tax classes. To set the percentage for a class in a specific area, see Tax Zones and Rates. To choose the products your tax charges post to, see Tax Products.
Prerequisites
- You need administrator access to Orders & Inventory's tax setup.
Where to Find It
Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Taxes › Classes to see every tax class in your account. Select Create Tax Class, or select a row's edit or clone icon, to open the class form.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Any text | Empty | The name staff see for this class on rates and lists |
| ID | Suggested from the name; letters, digits, underscores, dashes, and the pipe character only | Generated from the name | The permanent identifier saved with tax rates. You can edit it only when you create or clone a class |
| Status | Active / Inactive | Active | Controls whether tax zones show a percentage field for this class |
A tax class has only these three settings. You assign a product to a class in the product's financial setup, using the Tax Class selector there. A product can belong to one tax class at most, or to none.
Setting up tax zones and rates for your classes does not make any product taxable by itself. Rhythm adds tax to an order only when the product also has tax enabled in its own financial setup. If a product is not picking up tax as expected, check that product's financial setup along with your zone and rate configuration.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Deactivating a class does not immediately remove it from your rates. The old percentage stays on record until you open and save the tax zone. If you reopen the zone while the class is inactive, the class no longer shows a field, and saving the zone drops its stored percentage. The form does not warn you when you switch a class off.
- Reactivating a class does not restore what was dropped. After you switch the class back on, the next time you open and save a zone, that zone gets a new 0% field for the class instead of the percentage it had before.
- You cannot delete a tax class while any tax zone's rate still names it, or while any product's financial setup still uses it as the product's tax class. Remove the class from every rate and product first. If you might need the class again, deactivate it instead.
- Deactivating a class is reversible at any time and never blocks other work. You do not need to deactivate a class before deleting it. You can delete any unused class, whether it is active or inactive.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Renaming a tax class does not affect the rates that use it. Every rate that already named the class keeps working under the new name. Deactivating a class is fully reversible. Deleting a class cannot be undone from this screen; Rhythm must restore a deleted record from its audit history.
Warning
An identifier you delete is held for about an hour before you can reuse it. If you need to recreate a class with the same identifier right away, create a new class with that identifier; that action clears the hold and succeeds.
Permissions
Creating, editing, cloning, deactivating, and deleting tax classes requires administrator access to Orders & Inventory's tax setup. See Orders & Inventory Staff Access Policies.
Validation and Errors
| Message contains | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Please enter an appropriate value for Name | The name is empty | Enter a name |
| Please enter an appropriate value for ID | The identifier is empty | Enter an identifier |
| Unable to save Tax Class | The identifier is already in use, contains a character other than letters, digits, underscores, dashes, or the pipe character, or another save rule refused it | Correct the identifier and save again |
| Unable to load item | You tried to open a class that does not exist, or belongs to a different account | Return to the list and choose a valid class |