How to Sell Products with the “Tax Included” Message

Selling the product with “tax included” simplifies the purchasing process, providing customers with a clear and straightforward understanding of the total cost, inclusive of taxes.

By incorporating taxes upfront, customers can see the total cost without encountering issues during checkout, making the whole shopping experience super easy.

Before we dive into the settings, let’s better explain what Tax Included means.

What “Tax Included” Means (with Reverse Charge Explained)

When you set your product price to “Tax included,” the advertised price already contains any applicable tax (like VAT).
This means customers always see and pay the same total price, whether they are consumers or businesses.

Example:

• Product advertised at $100 (tax-inclusive)
• Consumer (B2C): pays $100 total → base $83.33 + $16.67 VAT
• Business (B2B with valid VAT number): still pays $100 total → base $100 + $0 VAT (reverse charge applies)

When a business enters a valid VAT number, the reverse charge mechanism applies.
That means:

• You don’t charge VAT on the invoice.
• The buyer self-reports the VAT in their own tax return.
• The total price stays the same because the advertised amount already includes VAT.

This is the standard legal practice in most tax jurisdictions. Stripe, Shopify, and other major platforms behave the same way:

“When set to inclusive, the amount your buyer pays remains constant, regardless of the tax amount (zero or positive).” — Stripe Docs

So, entering a VAT number doesn’t provide a discount; it simply ensures the correct tax treatment (avoiding double taxation) rather than reducing the total.

Now, let’s get started on the settings side.

• Before you follow these steps, ensure you have Tax Collection enabled on your SureCart Tax settings page.

• Enable the Tax Included option located just below the previous one.

• Click on the Save button to apply these changes.

Tax Included will be displayed for all products to which tax applies. Customers will see the text “Price includes $tax” during checkout, as well as in the order summary, receipts, and all relevant sections.

The type of tax collected depends on your region. For instance, VAT is applied to the above product because the provided address falls within the European region. You can configure tax regions in your SureCart settings based on your location.

We hope this guide helped you. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. We’re here to help!

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