Register for sales tax, VAT, and GST
Learn more about your tax obligations and how to register with jurisdictions.
As a business, you’re required to identify the states, provinces, and countries where you have tax obligations. You must then register with the tax authorities in the applicable jurisdictions, and add your registrations to Stripe using the Registrations tab in the Dashboard or Tax Registrations API. You can also use Stripe to register on your behalf.
Registration requirements vary by jurisdiction, and you can trigger it in a few ways, including, but not limited to:
- Building offices
- Employee locations
- Inventory locations
- Products sold
- Buyer locations
When you’ve met the requirements to start collecting tax in a local jurisdiction or foreign country, register with that jurisdiction before you begin collecting. Typically the registration process requires submitting general business and industry information (like your product catalog), and financial information (like total sales). The time it takes to complete a registration varies by jurisdiction. Additionally, some jurisdictions might require you to file returns even if you don’t have any collected tax to remit. Stripe recommends you consult with your tax advisor to determine your businesses tax obligations in regard to registering for indirect or consumption tax. You can also use Stripe to register on your behalf.
Learn more about the locations Stripe Tax supports along with the different tax thresholds that apply and links to the tax authority websites.
Track your registrations in the Dashboard
Use the Registrations tab of the Tax page in your Dashboard to add and manage your local tax registrations. Adding your registrations allows Stripe to calculate and collect the taxes you’re responsible for remitting. It also allows you to manage the calculations and view reports for each location in which you collect tax.
You can register directly with local tax authorities, or you can request registration through your Stripe Dashboard. For tax jurisdictions in the US other than your business’s location, you can ask Stripe to register on your behalf. For tax jurisdictions outside the US, you can ask Stripe to register on your behalf through a Taxually account.
If you register directly with local tax authorities, then you need to add the registration in Stripe. If you register with local tax authorities through Stripe, then you don’t have to manually add that registration. The registration appears in your Dashboard automatically.
Add a registration manually
To calculate and collect tax for a location (often referred to as a nexus in the US), you must register with the local tax authorities and add the registration to Stripe Tax. You need to identify each state, province, and country where you have tax obligations and register with each of them. Registration requirements vary by location.
You can add a tax registration to Stripe using the Registrations API or by following these steps in your Dashboard:
- Open the Registrations tab of the Tax page in your Dashboard.
- Click +Add registration to open the Add a tax registration panel.
- Select the location of the registration to add.
- Select I’ve already registered and provide any requested information, then click Continue.
- Depending on the effective date of your registration:
- If your registration is already active, select Start collecting immediately and click Continue.
- If your registration isn’t active yet, select Schedule tax collection and enter the effective date of your registration. Optionally, enter the effective time. Then, click Continue.
- Confirm the tax rates and click Start collecting.
End a registration
You can’t delete a tax registration in Stripe Tax. If you deregister with local tax authorities and need to stop collecting tax in that location, expire the registration. You can expire a tax registration using the Registrations API or by following these steps in your Dashboard:
- Click the overflow menu () next to the applicable registration.
- Click Edit end date.
- Depending on the effective date of your deregistration:
- If you’re already deregistered, click End immediately to open a confirmation dialog. To stop collecting tax in that location, click End immediately.
- If your deregistration date is in the future, click Edit end date to open the Edit registration dialog. Select Set date to stop collecting and enter the end date, then click Save. Registration expiration is permanent. If you re-register with local tax authorities, you need to add a new registration in Stripe.
Pause or reschedule a registration
You can’t pause an active tax registration. To temporarily stop collecting tax in a location, you need to expire the registration and add it as a new registration when you want to restart collecting tax.
If you reschedule an active tax registration by deleting and re-adding it, you might need to handle tax collected on transactions while the registration was active in Stripe.
To change the start date of a scheduled tax registration or change a registration end date, follow these steps:
- Click the overflow menu () next to the applicable registration.
- Click *Edit scheduled dates to open the Edit registration dialog.
- Update the start or stop collecting date and click Save.
Registration status
Every added tax registration appears on your Dashboard with one of the following statuses:
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
| Collecting | A registration that Stripe is using to calculate and collect tax |
| Scheduled | A registration that Stripe is scheduled to start using to calculate and collect tax on a future date |
| Expired | A registration that Stripe no longer uses to calculate and collect tax |
| In progress | A registration that you requested through Stripe but that isn’t yet active |
Registration types
Stripe Tax supports the registration types listed on this page. If you can’t locate the region where you desire to register or to add a registration to Stripe Tax, use a registration type under the Other tab. For more detail about the following API values, see the Tax Registration object.