thread Re: Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square in Reports Setup & Management

Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square

BCREST — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 20:23:42 GMT

Surely, I am not the first alcohol sales business to encounter this issue. Square does not allow me to set up a set tax, i.e., liter tax (volume tax). I had to set it up as an item and it reports in my total gross sales, which skews the numbers in the report, requiring a journal entry in my company books showing it as a tax payable. I brought this issue to the attention of Square and was told they have no method available to set a dollar amount tax as well as a sales tax percent. I can't figure out why that has to be so complicated on Square's part.

Re: Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square

TheRealChipA — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 20:38:52 GMT

Hi there @BCREST. So, I'm not Square -- just a fellow seller with over a decade of Square experience and a number of years here in the Community helping fellow sellers. So, I'll leave the question about what Square "needs" to do aside for the moment. Can you describe to me how your "liter/volume tax" works? Is it a flat fee, a percentage, does it have limits/rules/restrictions, etc? It is possible I can help you find an acceptable workaround in the short term, but in order to attempt that I need to have more information.

Re: Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square

BCREST — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 19:31:03 GMT

Yes, the state of Washington has the following for alcohol sales

Spirit liter tax SLT of $3.77 per liter
Spirit Sales tax SST of 20.5%

The taxes are required to be stated on the sales receipt.

The SST is not a problem as square does have sales tax set up. The issue is that there isn't a way in square to set up the liter tax as a tax because it is a set amount. In my case, I sell 750 ml bottles which equates to $2.83 liter tax. I currently have that as an item which shows on my reports through square as included in gross sales. It should not be, it is a tax and held in a pass through account until paid to the state. I should be able to run sales reports and show true gross sales and not have to manipulate the reports to back out a tax.

Re: Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square

TheRealChipA — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 16:19:05 GMT

I figured that was what you were driving at in your original post -- the two-part alcohol tax -- but I wanted to be sure. Anyway, if I may make a suggestion that I believe will do what you want. Just keep in mind that it is a public beta feature, which means you might uncover a glitch or two with is. Still, I think it gives you the functionality you want without being a work-around that could get broken later.

In the Service Charge settings screen, there is a new beta feature -- Apply to Items (see screen shot below). You COULD, I think, use this to create a service charge and apply that to all items that get the liter tax. Unfortunately, you must select all items and can't apply to whole categories at the moment. Still, I think this could get you up and going and that after that you could submit some feature requests for things like "apply to categories."

What do you think? Could that work?

Re: Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square

BCREST — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:57:55 GMT

I will give that a try, Haven't used service charges and wondering if that rolls into gross sales? Will let you know if it works for my needs. Thanks

Re: Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square

BCREST — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:59:49 GMT

I set it up as instructed above; however, it isn't showing on my POS as a service charge when I enter the item at checkout. What am I missing?

Re: Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square

TheRealChipA — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 12:37:32 GMT

@BCREST At first, I thought it might have been a timing issue. Whenever I make any changes that affect POS that I want to immediately test, I ALWAYS force close and reopen the POS app I'm using to test the changes. Otherwise, you have to wait for the servers to resync all POS on whatever cycle they use.

But, upon testing, it seems you might have found a bug. I created a test service charge and added items to the cart using the standard POS. The service charge wasn't there. However, when I used the Retail POS, IT WAS there. Seems like a bug to me. I'm going to tag he moderators to check with the development team.

@Kassi_@RSosebee1 @_Violet @MayaP @Summer2024 @Summer2024 @Ellie_@Katie_SQ @Laurie_@Sammie_CI think we've found a bug with a new beta feature for service charges. Can you review this thread and alert the POS team to the fact that the feature we are discussing works in Retail POS but NOT in the standard POS?

Re: Liter Tax (set tax) needs to be addressed in Square

funessa — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:28:28 GMT

Please disregard - I didn't see the OP posted a reply below. (Sorry, I'm a newbie!)

Hi,

Washington state charges two taxes for liquor, one is a percentage and one is per-liter.

I am also trying to figure out how to apply the "spirits liter tax" in Square.

Spirits sales tax (SST): This tax is based on the selling price of spirits in their original package.
Spirits sales tax rate paid by the general public: 20.5%.
Spirits sales tax rate paid by on-premises retailers such as restaurants, bars, etc., on their purchases from distributors, distillers, etc.: 13.7%.
Spirits liter tax (SLT): This tax is based on the volume of the spirits being sold in the original package.
Spirits liter tax rate paid by the general public: $3.7708 per liter.
Spirits liter tax rate paid by on-premises retailers such as restaurants, bars, etc., on their purchases from distributors, distillers, etc.: $2.4408 per liter.