Sales tax · Autessa Payments
Sales tax calculation
Autessa Payments calculates sales tax, VAT or GST for the places where you tell it you are registered. It works out the rate and whether your sale is taxable from your customer’s address and what you sell, shows estimated tax as you build an invoice, and locks the tax on the invoice when you send it.
The problem it solves
Sales tax trips up most small businesses
Rates change by state, city and product, and getting it wrong is expensive. Autessa handles the arithmetic and record keeping; your job is to register where you need to, tell Autessa about those places, and file the totals it gives you.
What you get
- Add a place with Add a location: a country, and for the United States a state.
- Each place shows Active, or Scheduled if it starts later.
- Invoices to customers in your places include tax automatically; until you add one, no tax is added.
- Tax needs your business address, saved under Business details.
- The invoice Summary shows estimated tax for the customer’s address as you type; it is locked at send.
- Subscription renewals and checkout payments get tax on the billing address too.
- Autessa doesn’t register you with tax agencies, file returns or collect in places you haven’t added.
How it works
How does sales tax calculation work in Autessa Payments?
Save your business address
Sales tax is calculated only after your address is saved.
Tell Autessa what you sell
The category decides how each place taxes your sales.
Add where you collect
Each state or country where you are registered.
Invoice as usual
Tax is estimated, then locked when you send.
Every option
Who does what
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Autessa: rate and taxability | From your customer’s address and your category. |
| Autessa: lock and record | Adds tax to invoices, locks it at send, records it on every payment and refund. |
| Autessa: totals | Tax collected by place and month. |
| You: register | With each tax agency where you need to collect. |
| You: tell Autessa | Add each place you are registered. |
| You: file and pay | Returns and payments to each agency. |
Permissions
Who can do what?
| Who | Can |
|---|---|
| Owner, Admin, Accountant (or any role with Payments) | Add tax locations and set what you sell. |
| Your customer | Sees tax on the invoice, checkout and receipt. |
AI assist
How AI helps here
Ask the guide “How much tax would a $500 invoice to Seattle have?” It shows the subtotal, tax, rate, place and total, or explains why no tax applies. It can also add a place where you collect when you click Do it.
Nothing that creates, sends or changes money happens until a person confirms it.
About the Payments guide →Connected
How it connects to the rest of Autessa Payments
FAQ
Questions about sales tax calculation
How does Autessa Payments help at filing time?
It calculates, records and totals tax by place and month, so the numbers for each return are ready when you file and pay with your tax agencies.
Why is no tax on my invoices?
You haven’t added a place where you collect yet, your business address isn’t saved, or the customer is outside every place you collect in.
Does it handle VAT and GST?
Yes, for the countries where you are registered, including the UK, Canada, Australia and EU countries.
100% customizable, code and all
Make Autessa Payments fully your own.
Use it out of the box, then change anything. Ask Autobot, Autessa’s AI builder, for a new field, screen, report, workflow or agent and it builds it into your copy of the app. Or open the code and edit it yourself. Nothing is locked: the app, its data and its code are yours.
Start free and make it yours