Sales tax

Does Squarespace collect sales tax on our behalf and remit those taxes to the states on our behalf?

Thank you for your prompt reply. I was not expecting that response and I am a little confused by it

I made a test purchase on my site using a real credit card. Squarespace charged me the cost of the item, shipping, and sales tax. Later on, I received the funds from Stripe and the taxes were taken out (as well as their fee). If Squarespace did not collect the sales tax, did Stripe collect them?

On 10/7/2023 at 3:58 PM, roguetroop said:

I made a test purchase...Later on, I received the funds from Stripe and the taxes were taken out (as well as their fee)

I can't answer questions about a specific transaction as I don't work for Squarespace and don't have access to your account. However, I would expect to see deductions for the Stripe charges (flat rate plus percentage) and, if you aren't on a Commerce plan, the 3% transaction fee charged by Squarespace.

For a definitive answer, I encourage you to get in touch with Squarespace directly by raising a ticket through Squarespace Customer Care. For the benefit of others, please let us know how you get on 🙂.

Hi,

I am also curious about this topic as it is quite critical for any commerce seller.  I'm very interested in this topic because I would desperately like to get off of Amazon and jump back onto SS. Let's look at some scenarios and examples:

1. If you sell physical products on the Amazon marketplace, as a third party seller, Amazon have the following policy on sales tax.

"Amazon calculates, collects, and remits tax on sales made by merchants shipped to customers located in the states that have enacted Marketplace Facilitator, Marketplace Fairness, or similar laws. These laws shift collection responsibility from the merchant to the marketplace facilitating the merchant's sale."

This means that if I have nexus in Illinois, and I sell my $19.99 product to someone in Fairfax, VA, Amazon apply the appropriate 6% ($1.20) sales tax and remits to VA.  I have Amazon reports that show this very action.  What Paul2009 is stating is that SS is not a marketplace and therefore do not follow these laws.  Fair enough.

2. If I set up a SS commerce site, so I can completely get away from Amazon, and I sell my product to someone in Fairfax, VA, how exactly is sales tax calculated and remitted to VA?  This is baffling to me that SS is not set up as a marketplace.  How on earth do all the SS commerce sites remit sales tax to all the states where individuals are selling to?  If the answer is that they simply don't calculate sales tax on those out of state sales, well that's great I suppose since they are sticking it to the man.  It would seem as if SS have someone how skirted the marketplace laws.

Any discussion on this is greatly appreciated as I would love to leave Amazon.  Thank you.

55 minutes ago, shavebowl said:

If I set up a SS commerce site, so I can completely get away from Amazon, and I sell my product to someone in Fairfax, VA, how exactly is sales tax calculated and remitted to VA?

If you sell in the United States, you can use the TaxJar Extension to calculate sales tax automatically at checkout. See the guides, Setting up automatic tax rates in the US and Using TaxJar with Squarespace.

Hi and thank you for your response.

However, I am confused based on your previous response to the original poster, on October 7th.  You stated that SS do not collect and remit sales tax to the states.

Did this change in the last 5 months?  Or are you simply stating that SS do not do this, TaxJar do it?

I just seen a video from Squarespace about their new Squarespace Payments which will eliminate the need for stripe or another payment processor. My question is… will Squarespace be implementing collection and  remittance of taxes for us and acting as a merchant of record?  This would be huge if so.  There are so many small businesses that sell stuff online and with all the confusing sales taxes around the globe, Squarespace could capitalize on offering this service. I would even be willing to pay another 3% fee. 
Amazon, YouTube, Thinkific, Skool, teachable, paddle, and more are now doing this.  As a small business owner it is not feasible to handle all the different sales taxes rules and changes. It can also be expensive to use Taxjar and other payment providers add ons for this.  Please let me know if the New Squarespace Payments will have this or if it is something in the future?

thanks

6 hours ago, Seylerg said:

will Squarespace be implementing collection and  remittance of taxes for us and acting as a merchant of record?

There are no published plans for Squarespace to offer this.