Avalara

Supported features

• Get accurate and up-to-date tax codes from more than 12,000 jurisdictions
• Fine-tune your tax rules 
• Create accurate tax reports
• Shopify merchants can also use tax overrides for each product sold in Shopify

Enable Avalara

How you enable Avalara depends on your platform and order path. 

Shopify Checkout Integration

For stores fully on Shopify Checkout Integration, enable Avalara Tax Compliance in Shopify only. Do not activate the Recharge Avalara connector for Shopify Checkout Integration orders.

To set up Avalara for Shopify Checkout Integration:

1. Create or confirm your Avalara account with Avalara.
2. In Shopify, add or enable Avalara Tax Compliance as a Shopify tax app.
3. Configure Avalara Tax Compliance in Shopify and Avalara, including company settings, tax registrations, tax codes, exemptions, and product or item sync, as applicable. 
4. Use Shopify and Avalara to manage tax calculation, reporting, and Shopify-to-Avalara transaction sync.

Recharge does not call Avalara or submit Shopify Checkout Integration orders or invoices to Avalara. Recharge continues to manage subscription data and subscription workflows, and can provide subscription, charge, billing-attempt, and order details if needed during a Shopify or Avalara investigation.

Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration

If your store has not yet completed existing subscriber migration, confirm whether the affected orders are process through Shopify Checkout Integration or through a legacy Recharge-managed billing path before changing Avalara settings. New Shopify Checkout orders use Shopify and Avalara Tax Compliance. Legacy Recharge-managed orders may still require the Recharge Avalara connector until migration is complete.

Recharge-managed Avalara flows

Use the following steps only for Recharge-managed Avalara flows, such as supported BigCommerce, Recharge Checkout, migrated legacy, custom, or headless implementations where Recharge manages tax calculation or Avalara tax-code assingment. 

To enable Avalara for a Recharge-managed Avalara flow: 

1. Create or connect your existing Avalara account in your ecommerce platform tax settings.
2. Set up your Avalara tax codes for each product or variant in your ecommerce platform.
   • If you are on the Recharge Checkout on Shopify, sync your subscription rules. This syncs the product or variant tax codes that you've configured in Shopify with a duplicate products in Shopify. These new duplicate products are then updated with the correct tax details.
3. Reach out to Avalara support and request to activate the Recharge Connector. 
4. Contact the Recharge support team to enable the Avalara integration on your store. Provide the team with your:
   • Avalara Account ID and License Key, or Avalara username and password.
   • Company Code.
   • Full address for the account:
     • Country
     • Address
     • City
     • Province/State
     • Postal Code
5. When Avalara is enabled on Recharge, Recharge automatically refreshes the queued charges on your store. This allows the system to fetch the new Avalara-informed tax rates on all orders.

How Avalara works

Avalara is embedded in Shopify Plus and can be enabled by any Shopify Plus merchant and BigCommerce merchants. Enabling this integration involves creating tax codes in Avalara and associating them with product variants in your ecommerce platform. 

When used with Recharge's Avatax integration, both one-time purchases and subscription purchases will reference these tax codes in your ecommerce platform via the variant API.

For Shopify Checkout Integration stores, Shopify manages the Avalara Tax Compliance app and the Shopify-to-Avalara transaction flow. Recharge does not call Avalara or submit Shopify orders or invoices to Avalara for Shopify Checkout Integration orders. Recharge continues to manage subscription data and recurring subscription workflows, while Shopify manages tax calculation and order processing.

For Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration stores, Avalara behavior depends on the affected order path:

• New Shopify Checkout orders use Shopify’s Avalara Tax Compliance flow.
• Existing subscribers that have not completed migration may continue to use a Recharge-managed Avalara flow until the existing subscriber migration is complete.

For custom or headless implementations, Avalara behavior depends on your implementation. If Recharge calculates tax or assigns Avalara tax codes, use the Recharge Avalara connector guidance in this article. If tax is calculated outside Recharge, review the system responsible for tax calculation and transaction submission.

First charge at checkout/UI/API

For Recharge-managed Avalara flows, Recharge references the Avalara tax code from your ecommerce platform, which is informed by Avalara Avatax for a specific purchase. Recharge then applies the correlated rate based on this specific Avalara tax code.

For Shopify Checkout Integration stores, Shopify calculates taxes at checkout. Recharge does not use the Recharge Avalara connector for Shopify Checkout Integration checkout orders because tax calculation flows through Shopify.

Recurring charges

For Recharge-managed Avalara flows, Recharge references the Avalara tax code from the queued charge JSON for a given subscription. These tax codes are updated if the charge is regenerated, and a new charge is generated again each time.

You must regenerate existing queued charges if you want them to reference tax codes that were updated after the charges were generated.

Reporting

Merchants who use the Recharge/Avalara integration can leverage Avalara tax reporting features with confidence that subscription purchase information is accurate. This is because Recharge creates orders in your ecommerce platform with tax information, and your ecommerce platform creates invoices in Avalara based on those orders.

For Shopify Checkout Integration stores using Avalara Tax Compliance, Shopify and Avalara manage the Avalara transaction flow. Recharge does not submit Shopify orders or invoices to Avalara for Shopify Checkout Integration orders. 

Between April and October 1st of 2025, there was an issue with the Avalara Tax Compliance integration and Recharge-managed legacy orders where invoices were not imported into Shopify. If you are reviewing historical Shopify Checkout Integration orders, note that Shopify updated Avalara Tax Compliance as of October 1, 2025. Orders placed or modified through third-party apps, including Recharge, and orders imported into Shopify by third-party apps are now automatically imported to Avalara Tax Compliance and recalculated.

If you use another method to import third-party orders into Avalara Tax Compliance as a result of this issue, disable the duplicate process or contact Avalara support to avoid duplicate order records.

Connecting stores to one Avalara account

It is possible to connect multiple stores to one Avalara account. You need to create separate companies within the Avalara dashboard and have each store connected to the appropriate company. This allows you to use one Avalara account ID with different companies in Avalara.

For Shopify Checkout Integration stores using Avalara Tax Compliance, Shopify and Avalara manage company routing. Recharge does not configure Avalara company routing for Shopify Checkout Integration orders.

Shopify supports using a single Avalara connection across multiple business entities when the organization is on Shopify Plus or Shopify Enterprise Commerce, uses Shopify Payments, has at least two business entities assigned to their respective markets, and is migrated to new Markets. When Shopify sends a tax calculation request to Avalara, Shopify includes the relevant business entity, and Avalara routes the request to the correct tax configuration for that entity. This means merchants do not need separate Avalara accounts for each market.

To use this setup, configure the required business entities in Shopify, connect each entity to Shopify Payments, assign each entity to the correct market, and contact Avalara to configure entity routing in Avalara. Shopify business-entity routing is based on Shopify Markets and business entities, not arbitrary geography, channel, or Recharge settings.

Subscription note: Shopify states that merchants can offer subscription orders when selling from multiple entities with Shopify Payments, but subscription payments are processed through the primary entity. If you use Recharge-powered subscriptions and need entity-specific Avalara routing for recurring subscription orders, confirm the expected behavior with Shopify and Avalara before relying on multi-entity routing for those orders.

Avalara may also support other routing options, such as country-based routing within Avalara. Merchants should work with Avalara to confirm which routing method is appropriate for their store. Do not combine Shopify business-entity routing with Avalara country-based routing unless Avalara confirms that the configuration is supported.

For Shopify Checkout Integration stores, no Recharge Avalara integration is required for this routing setup. Recharge continues to manage subscription data and subscription workflows, while Shopify and Avalara manage tax calculation, company routing, and Shopify-to-Avalara transaction sync.

Product exemptions

Tax exemptions set at the product level by default do not currently work as expected for Recharge-managed Avalara flows. To set up a tax-exempt product you can use the custom tax code ON030000 as mentioned in the article Set up an Account or a Product as Tax Exempt with AvaTax. 

For Shopify Checkout Integration stores, manage product exemptions and Avalara tax-code mapping in Shopify and Avalara Tax Compliance.

Avatax can be used to apply VAT to Recharge. VAT address needs to be set up in the sales tax setting and ensure the Shopify or BigCommerce and Recharge integrations are enabled. When enabled, we calculate according to the VAT rate for that region.

Bulk import tax codes

Apply tax codes to multiple products and variants at the same time using Recharge's bulk import tools in your Recharge admin.

Bulk importing tax codes in Recharge applies to Recharge-managed Avalara flows. For Shopify Checkout Integration stores, manage Avalara tax-code mapping in Shopify and Avalara Tax Compliance.

To bulk import tax codes:

1. Download the upload template and prepare the CSV file. 
2. In the merchant portal, click Tools & apps and select Bulk Updates.
3. Click Import updates.
4. Select Update product tax codes and click Next.

Upload template explained

The upload template includes the following required columns, all of which must be completed to successfully import product tax codes. 

Support for Avalara

If you have any questions or require more information about the feature set, reach out to the Avalara support team.

Contact Recharge support if you need help with:

• Enabling the Recharge Avalara connector for a supported Recharge-managed Avalara flow
• Confirming whether a Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration order used a Shopify-managed or Recharge-managed order path
• Importing Avalara tax codes into Recharge
• Regenerating queued charges after tax-code updates
• Reviewing Recharge subscription, charge, billing-attempt, or order details

For Shopify Checkout Integration stores, configure Avalara Tax Compliance in Shopify. Contact Shopify or Avalara support for questions about Avalara Tax Compliance setup, Shopify tax settings, Shopify-to-Avalara transaction sync, tax reporting, or Avalara invoices.

Recharge does not submit Shopify Checkout Integration orders or invoices to Avalara because that transaction flow is managed by Shopify and Avalara Tax Compliance. Recharge continues to provide the subscription, charge, billing-attempt, and order data associated with Recharge-powered subscriptions.