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Taxes

Taxes represent extra charges on top of the base price of a product. There are various forms of taxes that might be applicable, depending on local laws and the laws of the regions that your business serves. Common forms of applicable taxes are:

  • Value added tax (VAT)
  • Goods and services tax (GST)
  • Sales taxes (as in the USA)

Tax Category

In Vendure every product variant is assigned a tax category. In many countries, different rates of tax apply depending on the type of product being sold.

For example, in the UK there are three rates of VAT:

  • Standard rate (20%)
  • Reduced rate (5%)
  • Zero rate (0%)

Most types of products would fall into the "standard rate" category, but for instance books are classified as "zero rate".

Tax Rate

Tax rates set the rate of tax for a given tax category destined for a particular zone. They are used by default in Vendure when calculating all taxes.

Tax Compliance

Please note that tax compliance is a complex topic that varies significantly between countries. Vendure does not (and cannot) offer a complete out-of-the-box tax solution which is guaranteed to be compliant with your use-case. What we strive to do is to provide a very flexible set of tools that your developers can use to tailor tax calculations exactly to your needs. These are covered in the Developer's guide to taxes.

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Edited Feb 3, 2026·Edit this page