Defining tax rates

The WebSphere Commerce Accelerator configures tax rates through the Tax notebook.

About this task

Specify all rates as a percentage value, and not a flat rate.

Procedure

Open WebSphere Commerce Accelerator
Click Store > Change Tax. The Tax notebook opens.
From the left navigation frame, click Rates.
If you created your store based on a starter store archive, the tax rates table contains a default tax, Shipping, which has an initial value of 0.00. In the Shipping column, for each jurisdiction within the table, type the tax rate that is charged for shipping. Leave the value as zero if you do not charge a shipping tax.
In the rest of the cells, type the tax rate for each combination of tax jurisdiction and tax category.
Click OK to save your settings and exit.
Optional: If the tax rates for the products often change, you can manage the effective dates of different tax rules through WebSphere Commerce Accelerator. You can enable a tax rates configuration page, which includes starting and ending dates.

To enable the starting and ending dates on the configuration page, and manage the start and end dates of your tax rates:
1. Open the following file in a text editor:
  - workspace_dir/CommerceAccelerator/WebContent/WEB-INF/struts-config-ext.xml
  - WC_eardir/CommerceAccelerator.war/WEB-INF/struts-config-ext.xml
2. Find the <forward> element with the name TaxRatesPanelView and change it as shown in the following sample:
```
<global-forwards>
	<forward className="com.ibm.commerce.struts.ECActionForward"
		name="TaxRatesPanelView" path="/tools/taxation/TaxRatesforDate.jsp">
		<set-property property="resourceClassName"
			value="com.ibm.commerce.tools.command.ToolsForwardViewCommandImpl" />
	</forward>
</global-forwards>
```
3. Open WebSphere Commerce Accelerator
4. Click Store > Change Tax. The Tax notebook opens.
5. From the left navigation frame, click Rates.
6. Select a tax category.
7. You can Add, Change, or Remove tax rate records.
  
  If you add or change a tax rate record, you can define the jurisdiction, rate, start time, end time, and priority. Click OK to save your changes.
8. Click OK to save your changes and exit the tax notebook.
Notes:
1. When two tax rates with same jurisdiction and tax category fall into the same time period, the tax rate with the higher priority takes effect. If they have the same priority, both of them take effect.
2. The new tax rate configuration page is an enhancement to the existing page. It is not recommended to reverse back to the previous version. To reverse the changes to the original page, remove any data that is created with the new page before you reverse the changes. Data that is configured with the original page can be used by the new page without issue.