Taxes & Fees

The Taxes & fees page (Settings > Taxes & fees) is where you configure how MemberZone calculates taxes and additional charges for every order you process - fulfillment cycles, releases, ecommerce, and in-person sales that flow through MemberZone.

Each US state (or, for a business in Canada, each province and territory) has its own profile, and each profile holds one or more line items that get added together at checkout based on the customer's shipping or pickup state or province. See Taxes in Canada. If you use a tax provider (VinoShipper, Avalara or ShipCompliant), some orders are taxed by the provider instead; see Tax Engine and Tax Providers.

Who can access this page

The page appears for teammates with the View Financial or Manage Billing permission. Viewing tax profiles takes View Financial; adding, changing or deleting profiles and line items takes Manage Billing. The Tax engine section shows only for teammates with Manage Group Settings. Owners have all three. If you don't see this page in your sidebar, ask your owner to grant the permission from Settings > Team.

How tax calculation works

When an order is placed, MemberZone looks up the customer's destination state (shipping address for delivery orders, pickup location's state for pickup orders) and finds the matching tax profile.

• If a profile exists and is enabled, every enabled line item is calculated and totaled.
• If no profile exists for that state, or the profile is disabled, no tax is collected.

With internal tax profiles, MemberZone never auto-detects rates. You decide what to charge in each state - keep your profiles in sync with your tax advisor's guidance. Orders taxed by a tax provider use the provider's figure instead (see Tax Engine and Tax Providers).

State tax profiles

The page shows a list of every state you've configured. Each row displays:

• The state code and full name
• An enabled/disabled toggle
• The number of line items configured
• A preview button to test the math
• A delete button to remove the profile

Adding a state profile

1. Click Add State (Add Province for a business in Canada).
2. The Add states sidebar opens ("Pick one or more states to configure their taxes and fees."; Add provinces in Canada). Pick one or more states from the list (all 50 states plus DC are supported; a business in Canada picks from its 13 provinces and territories). You can copy an existing profile's taxes, fees and shipping-tax setting into the new ones.
3. Click Add state (or Add N states).

The new profile starts enabled with zero line items. Add line items below to start collecting tax.

You can only have one profile per state per business group. If you operate multiple locations under one business group, the same profile applies to all of them; if you operate distinct business groups, configure profiles separately per group.

Enabling and disabling a profile

Use the toggle on each profile row. A disabled profile collects no tax for that state, even if line items exist. Use this when you need to temporarily pause collection without deleting your line item setup.

Deleting a profile

Click the trash icon on the profile row. This permanently removes the profile and all its line items. If you want to keep your configuration but stop collecting, disable instead.

Line items

A line item is a single charge that gets calculated and added to the tax total. Each profile can hold as many line items as you need - for example, you might have one for state sales tax, one for excise tax, and one for a fulfillment fee.

Each line item has:

• Name - what the customer sees on receipts and invoices (e.g., "WA State Sales Tax", "Excise Tax", "Compliance Fee")
• Calculation type - how it's computed (see below)
• Rate - the numeric value
• Display order - controls the order line items appear on receipts
• Enabled toggle - turn individual items on/off without deleting

Calculation types

MemberZone supports three calculation types so you can match how your jurisdiction expects taxes and fees to be assessed:

• Percentage - A percent of the order subtotal. Example: a 9.5% percentage line item on a $100 subtotal = $9.50. Best for state and local sales tax.
• Flat Rate - A fixed dollar amount per order, regardless of size. Example: a $2.50 flat fee on any order. Best for compliance fees, packaging fees, or per-shipment surcharges.
• Per Item - A fixed dollar amount per unit in the order. Example: a $0.50 per-item fee on a 6-bottle order = $3.00. Best for excise taxes, bottle deposits, or per-unit charges.

Adding a line item

1. Expand the state profile.
2. Click Add Line Item. The line item sidebar opens.
3. Enter a name, choose Tax or Fee, the type (%, Flat rate or Per item), the rate, whether it applies to Pickup, Shipping or Both, and whether it's Taxable.
4. Click Add.

The new item appears in the list immediately and starts applying to new orders.

Editing a line item

Click the line item to open it in the same sidebar, then click Save changes. You can change the name, calculation type, rate, display order, or toggle the enabled flag. Changes apply to future orders only - already-charged orders keep their original tax breakdown for accounting integrity.

Removing a line item

Click the trash icon on the line item. The item is permanently removed from that profile.

Reordering line items

Set the display order field to control how items appear on receipts. Lower numbers appear first. This is purely cosmetic - it doesn't affect calculation.

The tax estimator

Because tax math can get complex (especially when you mix percentage, flat, and per-item line items), every profile has a built-in Preview estimator.

1. Click the calculator icon on a profile row. The Preview sample order sidebar opens.
2. Enter a sample Subtotal (in your business's currency, default 100) and item count, and choose Shipping or Pickup.
3. MemberZone shows a breakdown of every enabled line item, the taxable base (including taxable fees) and Total taxes & fees.

Use this to sanity-check your configuration before you start collecting. The estimator runs the same calculation engine that real orders use, so what you see is what your customers will be charged.

Tax Engine and Tax Providers

Tax providers matter mostly to businesses that ship alcohol. If you don't use one, every order uses the state profiles above and you can skip this section.

Taxes in Canada

A business in Canada sets taxes per province:

• Without Avalara, the page's province profiles are what's charged: add a profile for each province you sell in, with line items for its GST, HST or PST rates. As in the US, MemberZone never fills in rates for you, and a province without an enabled profile collects no tax.
• With Avalara as your tax engine, Avalara works out GST, HST and PST from the real address, in Canadian dollars, and files in that currency.
• ShipCompliant and VinoShipper are US-only, so they aren't offered as tax engines or carriers in Canada.

Which engine taxes an order

• States VinoShipper ships for you - a shipped order to a state whose carrier is VinoShipper (your Default carrier, or the state's carrier under Carrier by state on Settings > Shipping & Compliance) is taxed by VinoShipper, because VinoShipper is the seller of record there and remits its own figure.
• Everything else - pickup orders, states you ship yourself, and charges with no shipment behind them use the Tax engine chosen at the top of this page: Internal tax profiles (the state profiles on this page), Avalara or ShipCompliant. Avalara and ShipCompliant need to be connected under Settings > Integrations first.

With Avalara or ShipCompliant as your engine, an order that doesn't ship is taxed at the street address of the location it belongs to: a pickup order at its pickup location, a digital order at the location it's sold from, and an access-only membership (nothing to pick up or ship) at its home location. VinoShipper never taxes these.

Tax previews at checkout and when joining

The tax a customer or your team sees before an order is placed is worked out the same way as the charge, so the preview matches what's charged:

• Shipped orders show the provider's tax once the order has a full address (street, city, state and ZIP). Before the address is complete, they preview with your state profiles.
• Pickup, digital and access-only orders show your engine's tax at the location's street address as soon as the location is known.

This applies to your store checkout, your program join pages, and the staff Create order form. The Preview estimator on this page always uses your state profiles.

Release joins are quoted with the items the customer picked and their address, the same way the charge is.

Shipping tax when shipping changes later

When an order's shipping changes after it was charged, for example a store order re-quoted after an address or item change, or shipping added by a switch to shipping, the shipping tax on the difference is worked out by the same engine or provider that taxed the order, using the order's own address and items. That keeps it in line with what checkout charged. If the provider can't be reached at that moment, your state profile prices that shipping tax so the change can still go through.

When a tax provider can't price an order

MemberZone never swaps in a guessed figure when a provider can't price an order, because what you collect has to match what the provider remits:

• An item isn't synced to the provider (VinoShipper, or ShipCompliant for shipped orders): checkout and program joins stop before payment and tell the customer "One of the items in this order can't be shipped right now. Choose pickup, remove it, or contact the business." Where your team sees the error, it names the item and why it isn't synced, for example: Estate Red isn't set up in ShipCompliant (Brand name is required), so ShipCompliant can't calculate tax for shipped orders. Fix the item and sync it again from Inventory.
• The provider is unavailable: checkout and program joins stop before payment with "We couldn't calculate tax for this order right now. Please try again in a few minutes." This can stop a pickup or digital order too, since those are priced by your engine.
• Starting a subscription: if the provider can't price a new member's first charge, the signup stops rather than charging $0 tax.

To clear an unsynced item:

• VinoShipper - open the item under Inventory > Items, go to its Fulfillment tab, and use Sync to VinoShipper (or Retry Sync) in the VinoShipper section. A failed sync shows VinoShipper's own reason there. See Vinoshipper Integration.
• ShipCompliant - an item is sent to ShipCompliant whenever you save it with shipping turned on and a SKU, volume and ABV filled in. Fix what the error names (or fill in a missing SKU, volume or ABV) and save the item again.

When your team places an order

The staff Create order form shows the same tax the order will be charged. If the provider can't price it, the form shows the reason in red and Charge & place order stays disabled until it's fixed:

• An item isn't synced: the message names the item and why, for example "Estate Red isn't set up in ShipCompliant (Brand name is required), so ShipCompliant can't calculate tax for shipped orders. Fix the item and sync it again from Inventory."
• The provider is unavailable: "Your tax provider couldn't calculate tax for this order, so it can't be charged yet. Try again in a few minutes."

The order can't be placed while the tax is still loading, so the amount charged always matches the tax shown.

Where taxes appear

Once configured, taxes show up in several places:

• Member checkout - pricing breakdown when joining a club, buying ecommerce, or completing a release selection.
• Receipts and order confirmation emails - itemized line-item breakdown.
• Member order detail page - under "Tax breakdown".
• Business Payments → Transactions - a tax field on each successful charge, broken down by line item where applicable.
• Business reports and exports - totals roll up so you can reconcile with your tax filings.

Common scenarios

"I ship to one state - what's the minimum setup?"

Add a profile for that one state, add a percentage line item with your sales tax rate, save. Done.

"I ship to multiple states with different rates"

Add a profile per state with its own percentage rate. MemberZone applies the right one based on the destination address.

"I have a tasting-room state and a pickup-only state"

Both work the same way - taxes are determined by the destination (shipping address or pickup location's state). Configure each state independently.

"I want to add a packaging fee that's not really a tax"

Create a flat-rate line item named "Packaging Fee" with the dollar amount. Customers see it in the breakdown alongside taxes. (We recommend naming it clearly so it's not mistaken for a government tax.)

"I want to stop collecting in one state temporarily"

Disable the profile (don't delete it). When you re-enable it later, all your line items are still there.

"Customer's address is in a state where I don't have a profile"

That order collects $0 in tax. MemberZone never charges tax for states without an enabled profile. If you intended to collect, add a profile for that state.

Compliance is your responsibility

MemberZone gives you flexible tools to collect what you owe, but you are responsible for:

• Knowing what rates apply in each state where you ship or sell
• Filing returns with each state's revenue authority
• Updating your line items when rates change
• Keeping records for audits

Talk to a tax advisor or accountant if you're unsure. MemberZone's exports and Payments dashboard provide the data you need to file.

Related

• Payments and Payouts
• Shipping Configuration
• Ecommerce Orders
• Releases