Webhooks: taxes

Snipcart has a tax management system in the merchant dashboard. But if you need full control over how taxes are calculated, then webhooks are the way to go. They will allow you to programmatically return the taxes you need for each order.

Snipcart will send an HTTP request to your server with all the current cart details. Based on those details, your application will be responsible for returning the applicable taxes.

Snipcart will make a POST request to your application. The request body will be a JSON object like the one below:

{
  "eventName": "taxes.calculate",
  "mode": "Test",
  "createdOn": "2017-05-01T19:05:18.1321539Z",
  "content": {
    "ipAddress": "127.0.0.1",
    "lang": "en",
    "token": "5af47604-61ef-454b-92c9-37f64684e5e5",
    "version": "2.0",
    "email": "geeks@snipcart.com",
    "mode": "Test",
    "status": "InProgress",
    "shipToBillingAddress": true,
    "billingAddress": {
      "name": "Geeks at Snipcart",
      "company": "Snipcart",
      "address1": "226 rue St-Joseh E",
      "address2": "",
      "city": "Québec",
      "country": "CA",
      "postalCode": "G1K3A9",
      "province": "QC",
      "phone": ""
    },
    "shippingAddress": {
      "name": "Geeks at Snipcart",
      "company": "Snipcart",
      "address1": "226 rue St-Joseh E",
      "address2": "",
      "city": "Québec",
      "country": "CA",
      "postalCode": "G1K3A9",
      "province": "QC",
      "phone": ""
    },
    "completionDate": null,
    "invoiceNumber": "",
    "shippingInformation": {
      "fees": 10,
      "method": "Shipping"
    },
    "paymentMethod": 0,
    "metadata": {},
    "items": [
      {
        "uniqueId": "abb5bd38-ae77-4feb-8d05-c674e302f986",
        "token": "",
        "id": "1",
        "name": "An item",
        "price": 300,
        "description": "Item description",
        "url": "/",
        "image": "http://placehold.it/50/50",
        "quantity": 1,
        "minQuantity": null,
        "maxQuantity": null,
        "stackable": true,
        "shippable": true,
        "taxable": true,
        "taxes": [],
        "customFields": [],
        "duplicatable": false,
        "metadata": null,
        "unitPrice": 300,
        "totalPrice": 300,
        "totalPriceWithoutTaxes": 300,
        "addedOn": 1493665299,
        "initialData": "",
        "modificationDate": 1493665299
      }
    ],
    "discounts": [],
    "customFields": [],
    "plans": [],
    "refunds": [],
    "taxes": [],
    "currency": "usd",
    "totalWeight": 3000,
    "total": 310,
    "discountsTotal": 0,
    "itemsTotal": 300,
    "taxesTotal": 0,
    "plansTotal": 0,
    "taxProvider": null,
    "modificationDate": 1493665318,
    "creationDate": 1493665299
  }
}

We expect to receive a JSON object back from your server like this:

{
  "taxes": [
    {
      "name": "Tax1",
      "amount": 10.00,
      "numberForInvoice": "TAX-001",
      "rate": 0.05
    },
    {
      "name": "Tax2",
      "amount": 20.00,
      "numberForInvoice": "TAX-002",
      "rate": 0.10
    }
  ]
}

If you need your taxes to be included in price, you will need to specify it in the tax returned by your webhook with the includedInPrice property. When this is the case, the customer will still see the taxes in the order summary. However, they won't be added on top of cart total.

{
  "taxes": [
    {
      "name": "Tax1",
      "amount": 10.00,
      "rate": 0.05,
      "numberForInvoice": "TAX-001",
      "includedInPrice": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Tax2",
      "amount": 20.00,
      "rate": 0.10,
      "numberForInvoice": "TAX-002",
      "includedInPrice": true
    }
  ]
}

If your tax is included in price, you might also specify if it applies on shipping costs as well. You can use the appliesOnShipping property.

{
  "taxes": [
    {
      "name": "Tax1",
      "amount": 10.00,
      "rate": 0.05,
      "numberForInvoice": "TAX-001",
      "includedInPrice": true,
      "appliesOnShipping": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Tax2",
      "amount": 20.00,
      "rate": 0.10,
      "numberForInvoice": "TAX-002",
      "includedInPrice": true,
      "appliesOnShipping": false
    }
  ]
}