WooCommerce store setup for US duties

This setup model is based on environment with no landed cost calculation for USA market. It presumes that you do not need to install additional plugins to your store. It is not necessary to have EAS EU compliance plugin installed

Scope : WooCommerce

Delivery destination :USA 

Applicability: 29, August 2015


WooCommerce store setup for US duties

This setup model is based on an environment with no landed cost calculation for the USA market.  It presumes that you do not need to install additional plugins to your store. It is not necessary to have an EAS EU compliance plugin installed to use this configuration in your shop.  Examples provided below are shown from the shop with installed EAS EU and UK compliance plugin. 

Goods classification and grouping 

An essential part of the setting is proper classification of your goods in accordance with applicable US tariffs. You will need to identify applicable HS codes and apply to the country of origin.

For this setup model there is no practical need to install HS codes into your shop but we advise that you need to do it. Irrespective of the actual placing of the HS codes in the shop the HS codes have to be transferred to your logistics agent along with the country of origin.  

The proposed setting requires creation of additional tax classes for all identified product groups. A product group for the purpose of these settings is a group of items with the same HS code and the country of origin. A T-shirt made in China and a T-shirt made in the UK belong to different product groups. 

Only physical products are subject to US tariffs, downloadable products should not be configured to attract US duties. 


Taxation setup


  • Identify WooCommerce tax classes for US deliveries.  

The configuration process starts with identifying product groups. You may have multiple product groups and their actual number depends on the content of your inventory. You should remember that the applicable tariffs first of all depend on the country of origin. For example, if you sell in your store t-shirts made in China, Austria, the United kingdom  and Mexico you need to create 3 new tax classes (names are optional):

  1. “USrate1”.Goods included: for T-shirts made in China, HS code 610910004 (HTSUS) , US tariff rate  61.5 rate

2.”USrate2”.Goods included: for Austrian and UK made T-shirts, HS code 610910004 (HTSUS), US tariff rate 26. 5 rate

  1. T-shirts made in Mexico are not subject to special duties in the US and can be sold without a special tax class in WooCommerce. 


You can identify applicable HS codes and US tariffs  for your items using the Shopify AI enabled HS code finder standalone tool : https://tariffguide.ai/ . The tool will provide both US (HTSUS) and WCO basic 6 digit HS codes. When transferred into your logistics supply chain it is best that you use HTSUS codes for US deliveries. 

Example of the Shopify classification solution results: 

tariffs

  • Creating tax classes in the tax settings. 

Go to your store WooCommerce settings and choose the “Tax” tab. In the “Additional tax classes” section manually add names of the new tax classes “USrate1” and “USrate2”:  


tariffs2


  • Filling new tax classes with relevant tax settings.

In the Tax option string  choose “Standard rate” :

 


 

Download csv file with existing VAT rates : 



Save the resulting file on your computer. 


Open the file and add the name of the new tax class (“USrate1” in the example) and add a new line for US with applicable US tariff rate (bottom line in the example). Save the file to your computer with a new name. 



Upload file to the appropriate tax class. Make sure that the name for the tax class that you added to the last column in the file and the tac class to which you upload the rates are the same:



Screenshot 2025-08-28 at 12.42.37




After upload check the rates in the tax class . You should see the existing EU rates upended by US rate of 61.5 percent: 


Screenshot 2025-08-28 at 12.43.30



Repeat the process for every tax class/product group  that you have identified  

Your tax setup is complete.




Products setup


Now you need to assign products that are in specific tariff  groups to created and configured tax classes . You can use bulk edit or configure all products individually.  We further will display the process for the bulk edit.


Choose all the products that are in the same product group and enable bulk edit 



Assign the chosen items to the US tax class and ensure that they are taxable. 



Your store  setup is complete