Stripe FAQ

Overview

Once you’ve integrated Anrok & Stripe, configured your Stripe account, and checked out our best practices for manual invoicing in Stripe, we understand you may encounter situations you haven't experienced before, which can bring about a few questions. Let's work through some of these commonly asked questions together:

Why is the tax amount showing as $0.00 on a manually created invoice?

1. Check if this is your first invoice.

The first invoice you create in Stripe will not have sales tax applied by Anrok. If this is a big limitation for you, please reach out to support@anrok.com for more information.

2. Make sure you've waited for the full 1-hour "invoice finalizing" duration before sending the invoice.

Once you've created an invoice, Stripe finalizes and sends the invoice in 1 hour. During this time frame, Stripe sends the invoice to Anrok as a draft invoice — which allows Anrok to apply its tax calculation to the invoice. While it usually takes no more than 5 minutes for Anrok's tax calculation to be applied, we recommend waiting the full duration to ensure the tax is applied.

3. Check if the accounting date is before the jurisdiction's tax collection start date.

CleanShot_2023-05-22_at_12.59.15_2x.png

If you've confirmed that the invoice has been saved and is present on your Transactions page, there is a chance that the accounting date listed is before your tax collection date. To check a jurisdiction's tax collection start date:

  1. In the Anrok app CleanShot 2023-07-19 at 15.13.02@2x.png, go to Jurisdictions. Take me there!
  2. Select the Remitting tab, then select the jurisdiction.
  3. Under Jurisdiction details, review the Tax calculation state date. 

4. Make sure the product does not have Include tax in price selected.

CleanShot

If the invoice is present on your Transaction page and is dated after the jurisdiction tax collection date, there is a possibility the product has tax included in the price. At this time, Anrok does not support a tax-inclusive pricing model, so all products are required to be tax-exclusive. To make a product tax exclusive:

  1. In the Stripe app CleanShot 2023-07-19 at 13.03.46@2x.png, go to Products. Take me there!
  2. Click the options menu button  stripe_options_button.png  next a product, then select Edit product.
  3. Under Price, deselect the checkbox  stripe_empty_checkbox.png  next to Include tax in price.
  4. When you are finished, click Save product.

5. Make sure you've turned off Stripe's automatic tax calculation.

CleanShot

Stripe's automatic tax calculation will block Anrok’s tax calculation from appearing on your invoice. It’s important to ensure automatic tax calculation is turned off on your Stripe account. To turn off automatic tax calculation:

  1. In the Stripe app CleanShot 2023-07-19 at 13.03.46@2x.png, go to Tax settings. Take me there!
  2. Under Automatic tax calculation, turn off the toggle  stripe_toggle.png  to Use automatic tax calculation.
  3. If you are using an integration, make sure your integration has automatic_tax[enabled]=false.

6. Make sure you've archived the product's default tax rate.

CleanShot

Default tax rates on your products will block Anrok’s tax calculation from appearing on your invoice. You are required to archive any custom tax rates present on your Stripe products. To archive a product's default tax rate:

  1. In the Stripe app CleanShot 2023-07-19 at 13.03.46@2x.png, go to Products, then select the Tax rates tab. Take me there!
  2. Next to an Active tax rate, click the options menu button  stripe_options_button.png, then select Archive tax rate.

Why am I receiving an "Unknown product ID" error on my Unprocessed Transactions page?

Configure the Stripe product into Anrok as a product ID.

This error occurs when Anrok receives a Stripe item that does not have a corresponding Anrok product ID. For Anrok to calculate tax on an item in your invoice, you will need to configure the item as a product ID in Anrok. Doing so ensures that the correct tax rate and taxability are applied to the item — based on the configured product type and tax category. To configure a Stripe product into Anrok as a product ID:

  1. In the Anrok app CleanShot 2023-07-20 at 12.02.21@2x.png, go to Data sources. Take me there!
  2. Under Integration sources, click the options menu button anrok_option_menu.png next to Stripe, then select Configure new products.
  3. Under New products detected, select a corresponding Product type and Tax category for each product detected. See What tax configuration should I select?
  4. If you'd like to assign a Product type and Tax category to multiple products at once, click the checkbox  anrok_checkbox.png  next to each product, then select Batch assign.
  5. When you are finished, scroll down and click Add products.

 

How does Anrok process Stripe's discounts, credit memos, and voids?

Anrok's Stripe integration assesses taxability for your transactions by taking into account discounts, credit notes, and voided invoices. The following is intended as a guide to help you understand the tax implications for each of these behaviors. 

Discounts

All discounts in Stripe must be applied prior to the invoice being finalized; any price adjustments made after that point are considered credit notes (see below).

Discounts applied in Stripe are pre-tax and are applied proportionally across the line items on an invoice. Pre-tax means that tax will be calculated based on the discounted value of the line item rather than the full value. Note: the implications of this may be significant in cases where you have multiple line items for different product types on the same invoice (e.g. a SaaS product with an additional services fee), especially if the discount is thought of as discounting or refunding a particular cost that has higher taxability than the other item(s).

If you want a discount to apply to a specific subset of line items, we recommend using negative line items associated with those products in order for tax to be assessed based on the distinct product categories of those line items.

Credit Notes

When issuing credit notes in Stripe, we recommend that you specify the line item(s) being credited, so we can take into account any differences in the taxability of line items on the invoice. You should not credit any tax amount that was added by Anrok; we will do this automatically via our Stripe integration. Tax credits will be reflected in Anrok and filed accordingly on your returns.

Please note that Stripe uses Credit Notes for refunds and Anrok updates the original transaction when they are received (instead of creating a new transaction). For this reason, Credit notes/memos are a required way of recording credits/refunds.

Voids

If an invoice is in dispute or considered uncollectible and you don't want to owe taxes on it, you need to void the invoice in Stripe. If the invoice is voided in the same tax filing period in which it was created, tax will be adjusted within that same period. If the void occurs after tax has already been reported and remitted, you will see a credit in the next filing period for the amount previously paid.

What address information does Anrok collect from Stripe?

Stripe stores address information in several different places. Anrok checks each of these locations in the following order:

  • Invoice shipping address: invoice.customer_shipping
  • Invoice billing address: invoice.customer_address
  • Customer shipping address: customer.shipping.address
  • Customer billing address: customer.address
  • Customer card payment method address: card.billing_details.address

Why when using Stripe test clock does my recurring subscription invoice not have tax applied?

If you’d like to test the behavior of the Anrok <> Stripe integration using Stripe test clock, please keep in mind the following: 

  • Anrok will provide a tax calculation to invoices dated up to 31 days in the future.
  • In order to produce an accurate simulation, it is important to carefully choose the Advance time of the Stripe test clock. Importantly, the Advance time should be a time when the invoice is still in a draft state. For a subscription, a draft invoice is created at exactly the moment of a new billing cycle. For example, if you have a weekly subscription that started on January 1st 0:00 UTC, you should set your first test clock Advance time to January 8th 0:01 UTC.  
  • If the test clock Advance time is set to a time when the invoice is in a draft state, tax will be applied. If the test clock Advance time is set to a time when the invoice is already finalized, tax will not be applied. This is because the test clock moves too quickly for tax to be applied while it is running a simulation. This is not an issue in a normal non-test-clock environment.

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