Sales tax

You do not type in a tax rate. Delitero works out the sales tax on every order from the rules that apply at your business address, and on a delivery order from the address the order is going to. Where a state or a city requires the tax to be broken out, the receipt shows those lines separately, with the labels that jurisdiction uses.

Where the rate comes from

Each state Delitero operates in has a rule set behind it: the state rate, the local rates that apply on top, which categories are treated differently, and how the state handles delivery fees, service charges and container deposits. When you save your business address, the rules for that address are what your orders price against. Settings shows you the resulting rate and the components it is made of, as a fact you can check rather than a field you fill in.

If your address has not been entered yet, Settings says so and asks for it rather than guessing. It never falls back to a plausible number.

Delivery orders are taxed at the destination

In most states a delivery is taxed where it arrives, not where it was cooked. So on a delivery order the tax is worked out again once the customer has typed a full delivery address at checkout, and the total can move by a few cents between the menu and the payment step. That movement is the correct answer arriving, not a fee appearing: the tax is the only number that changes, and the customer sees the whole breakdown before paying.

Until the address is complete, the cart prices at your premises rate. That is honest rather than blank, and it is exactly what an in-person sale would be.

Itemized tax lines

Some places want more than one tax row. A Canadian-style order shows GST and PST separately. Florida requires gratuity, each operations charge and sales tax to appear as separate line items on the receipt. When the rules for an address produce more than one line, every surface that shows money renders those lines with the labels the rules supply, word for word: the cart, the checkout summary, the confirmation, the order status page, and the emailed receipt. Delitero never composes its own label for a tax and never sums the lines back into one invented row.

What is taxed, and what is not

• Tips are not part of the 5%. In most states they are not taxed either. New Hampshire is the exception: it taxes the portion of a gratuity above 18% of the meal, and where that applies the receipt shows it as its own line. That tax goes to the state, not to Delitero.
• Delivery fees, service fees and container deposits are taxed or not according to the same rules, per state. You do not configure this, so you cannot get it wrong by configuring it wrongly.
• Alcohol is excluded from Delitero's 5% entirely, along with its own tax and any deposit on it. See Selling alcohol.

What stays yours

You are the merchant of record for every sale, on your own Stripe account. The tax you collect is your money to remit, and reporting and remitting it is your responsibility, exactly as it is for a sale over the counter. Delitero calculates and shows the tax; it does not file returns, does not remit on your behalf, and is not your tax adviser. If a number looks wrong for your address, tell us: a wrong rule set is a bug we want to fix, not something for you to work around.

If you move

Changing your business address to a state Delitero has not opened yet is refused rather than silently repriced, and Settings explains why instead of failing quietly. Some states also require you to confirm you hold the licences or the health permit that state asks for before an address in it can be saved. When that applies, the checkbox appears at the moment it is needed and never before, and it is never ticked on your behalf.