Taxation documentation

guides/taxation/custom-tax-calculator.md

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+# Custom tax calculator
+
+*Note that Solidus supports value-added tax (VAT) and sales tax out of the
+box. You would only need to create a custom tax calculator in extraordinary
+circumstances.*
+
+By default, Solidus uses a simple tax rate calculator. It multiples against an
+item price and adjusts for any promotions to determine tax. However, this tax
+calculator can be changed if you need to develop a more specialized tax
+calculator for your application.
+
+Every `Spree::TaxRate` you create will be connected to a `Spree::Calculator`
+instance that calculates the correct tax amount for a given shipment or line
+item. In most cases, you should be able to use the
+`Spree::Calculator::DefaultTax` calculator. It is suitable for both sales tax
+and VAT scenarios.
+
+If you need to change the default tax calculation behavior, see the [default tax
+calculator specs][default-tax-calculator-spec] or [its
+implementation][default-tax-calculator].
+
+[default-tax-calculator-spec]: https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/blob/master/core/spec/models/spree/calculator/default_tax_spec.rb
+[default-tax-calculator]: https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/blob/master/core/app/models/spree/calculator/default_tax.rb
+
+<!-- TODO:
+  This article is a stub, but it may be useful to provide a simple example, or
+  at least a checklist for any developer needing to create a custom tax
+  calculator.
+
+  It may also make sense to move this article to a [Calculators](/calculators)
+  guide in the future.
+-->

guides/taxation/displaying-prices.md

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+# Displaying prices
+
+Solidus allows you to display prices in a flexible way to comply with your local
+tax regulations.
+
+For example, in most countries that use value-added taxes (VAT), prices in a
+store's frontend need to include any taxes that will be charged to the customer.
+
+## Set up price display for value-added taxes (VAT)
+
+In order to comply with VAT-style tax regulations, you first need to set up the
+tax rates, tax categories, and zones that your store will use in production.
+
+After you have set up and tested your store's tax configuration options, you can
+update any of your existing products and variants with the "Rebuild VAT prices"
+checkbox selected.
+
+Solidus can then proceed to calculate the correct consumer prices for each
+country with `included_in_price` VAT rates. It also generates a fallback
+"export" price, where the price's `country_iso` is `nil`. New products will
+behave as if the "Rebuild VAT prices" checkbox were selected.
+
+If you update your tax configuration in the future, you will need to rebuild
+your VAT prices again.
+
+Any product can have several prices for the same country. By default, Solidus
+always uses the most recently updated price.
+
+## VAT is always included in backend prices
+
+In countries that use VAT, administrators expect backend prices to include their
+country's VAT.
+
+If you use the `solidus_backend` gem for store administration, all your prices
+are displayed including any valued-added tax (VAT) valid for the current
+country.
+
+You can change the configured country represented in your admin using the Spree
+`admin_vat_country_iso` configuration value. For example, if the store
+administrator lives in Germany, you could change the configured value to the
+ISO code for Germany:
+
+```ruby
+Spree::Config.admin_vat_country_iso == "DE"
+```
+
+## Anticipate the customer's tax jurisdiction
+
+When a customer first browses your store, you may not know which tax
+jurisdiction they live in. You can choose to make an assumption about your
+customers's location using the `Spree::Store` model's `cart_tax_country_iso`
+property.
+
+The `cart_tax_country_iso` property sets a default location for customers
+depending on the store that they are browsing. For example, if you have both a
+`us.store.com` and a `de.store.com` and the customer is browsing the
+`us.store.com`, your customer is more likely to be in the United States.
+
+Using the `cart_tax_country_iso` property can help you comply with tax
+jurisdictions where where it is required to display VAT as part of the price.
+
+Administrators can configure these values for a storefront using the "Default
+currency" and "Tax Country for Empty Carts" settings on the **Settings ->
+Store** page in the `solidus_backend` admin.
+
+Valued-added tax and price are intricately connected. If your store requires
+custom tax and pricing logic, you can change Solidus's pricing behaviour by
+creating a custom `Spree::Config.variant_price_selector_class` along with a
+fitting `Spree::Config.pricing_options_class`. See the [`price_selector`
+specifications][price-selector-spec] for the standard [price
+selector][price-selector], as well as the [`pricing_options`
+specifications][pricing-options-spec] for the standard [pricing
+options][pricing-options] for more information.
+
+<!-- TODO:
+  We could optionally create a tutorial article for setting up multiple
+  storefronts and creating custom pricing behavior.
+-->
+
+[pricing-options]: https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/blob/master/core/app/models/spree/variant/pricing_options.rb
+[pricing-options-spec]: https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/blob/master/core/spec/models/spree/variant/pricing_options_spec.rb
+[price-selector]: https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/blob/master/core/app/models/spree/variant/price_selector.rb 
+[price-selector-spec]: https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/blob/master/core/spec/models/spree/variant/price_selector_spec.rb