Learn how to combine several taxes into one tax scheme, assign it to your prices, and read the tax breakdown on your orders, receipts and invoices.
1. What is a tax scheme?
Some regions charge two or more taxes on the same sale. In Quebec, for example, every ticket carries the federal GST (5%) and the provincial QST (9.975%).
A tax scheme groups 2 or more of your existing taxes. You assign the scheme to a price instead of a single tax, and Smeetz calculates and shows each tax separately on every order, receipt and invoice.
Each tax in a scheme keeps its own name, rate, Tax ID and Price is VAT included setting. If you have not created your taxes yet, start with Create and manage taxes.
2. Create a tax scheme
📌 How to access: Account details > Taxes > Tax schemes
Open the Tax schemes tab and click Create.
Enter a Name for the scheme, for example "Quebec GST + QST".
Select your first tax in the empty row. A second row appears.
Select your second tax.
To add more taxes, click Add tax and select a tax in the new row.
Click Save scheme.
👉 Rules to keep in mind
A scheme needs at least 2 taxes. Save scheme stays disabled until 2 taxes are selected and no row is empty.
Each tax can appear only once in a scheme.
All taxes in a scheme must share the same Price is VAT included setting. Once you pick the first tax, the list only shows taxes that match it.
Only live taxes are listed. You cannot create a new tax from inside the scheme, so create it first in the Taxes tab.
Every tax is calculated on the price before tax. Taxes are never calculated on top of each other
Tax schemes currently support the combined method only. Support for the compound method will be added in a later release.
3. Assign a tax scheme to a price
📌 How to access: Products > select a product > Tickets > select a ticket > Prices
Select the price you want to update, for example "Adult".
Open the Tax dropdown. It is grouped under two headers: Taxes and Tax schemes.
Select your tax scheme. It replaces any tax previously assigned.
Click Save.
A price can carry one tax or one tax scheme, never both.
4. How taxes are calculated
We have 2 tax calculation methods, only the combined method is active currently
Combined tax scheme: every tax in the scheme is calculated on the same base price, then the amounts are added together.
Example: price 100.00, GST 5% and PST 7%GST = 100.00 × 5% = 5.00
PST = 100.00 × 7% = 7.00
Total = 112.00
Compound tax scheme: taxes are applied in sequence, and each tax is calculated on the base price plus the taxes applied before it (tax on tax).
Example: price 100.00, GST 5% then PST 7%GST = 100.00 × 5% = 5.00
PST = (100.00 + 5.00) × 7% = 7.35
Total = 112.35
In short: combined taxes are independent and order does not matter; compound taxes stack, so the order of the taxes in the scheme changes the result.
5. What your orders, receipts and invoices show
Order overview and order edit
Below the subtotal, each tax in the scheme is listed as its own line with its rate and amount, for example "GST (Excluded - 5%)". The tax scheme name is not shown.
Orders with several tickets on the same scheme show one combined breakdown per tax. When you change a quantity in order edit, each tax and the balance update straight away.
Receipts
The totals block shows three lines: Total excl. tax, VAT (the sum of all taxes) and Total incl. tax.
The tax summary table shows one row for the scheme with its effective rate, then one indented row per tax with its rate, amount and taxable base.
Receipts print rates only, not tax names, for example (5.00%), (9.975%) and (14.975%).
Invoices
The Tax rate column lists every rate of the scheme, for example "5.00% + 9.975%".
The tax summary shows the scheme name in bold with its effective rate and total tax, then one indented row per tax with its name, rate and amount.
Receipts, invoices, refunds and exports always use the taxes recorded at the time of sale. A reprinted receipt or regenerated invoice is identical to the original.
6. Edit a tax scheme
📌 How to access: Account details > Taxes > Tax schemes > select a scheme
Before the first sale, you can change everything: the name, the taxes and their order.
After the first sale, the scheme is locked to protect your tax records:
You can still rename the scheme.
You cannot add, remove or swap taxes.
To change a locked setup, create a new tax scheme and assign it to your prices instead.
7. Remove a tax scheme
In the Tax schemes tab, open the row menu of the scheme.
Click Remove. The scheme moves to the Deleted status.
⚠️ You cannot remove a scheme that is still assigned to prices. Assign another tax or scheme to those prices first, so you can delete the scheme. Past orders keep the deleted scheme.
The same applies to taxes. A tax that is part of a live scheme cannot be removed until you remove it from the scheme, or remove the scheme itself.