When a customer pays by card at a North America store, the NA localization passes the sales tax amount as a separate field in the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) request. This allows the payment gateway to record and report the tax component of the transaction separately from the subtotal.
Why Tax Is Sent to the Payment Gateway
Many US payment processors and card networks require or support a tax amount field in the authorization request. Providing the tax amount separately:
- Supports Level 2 / Level 3 card data for corporate purchasing cards.
- Enables accurate settlement and reconciliation reports that break out tax.
- Satisfies some processor requirements for tax-compliant transactions.
How It Works
- The cashier adds items to the POS transaction. Each item's tax is calculated using its Tax Group Code and the store's Tax Area Code.
- When the cashier selects a card tender, the total sales tax amount is stored in the POS Card Entry record.
- Before the EFT request is sent to the payment processor, the NA localization intercepts it and injects the tax amount into the request payload.
The EFT request JSON structure includes an AmountBreakdown object:
{
"AmountBreakdown": {
"SubTotal": 150.00,
"TaxAmount": 12.75,
"Total": 162.75
}
}The TaxAmount field is populated from the sales tax amount on the POS Card Entry. If the payment processor does not support AmountBreakdown, the field is ignored and the full Total is charged as normal.
Setup Requirements
No additional setup is required beyond the standard sales tax configuration. Ensure the following are in place:
| Configuration | Where to Set |
|---|---|
| Tax Area Code | Store Card, Statement/Closing FastTab |
| Tax Liable = true | Store Card, Statement/Closing FastTab |
| Tax Group Code on items | Item Card, Invoicing FastTab |
| VAT Calculation Type = Sales Tax | VAT Posting Setup |
| EFT merchant profile | POS Hardware Profile |
The tax amount injection happens automatically for all card payments at stores where sales tax is active. No additional EFT configuration is needed.
EBT Payments
EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card payments also use the EFT infrastructure. For EBT transactions:
- EBT SNAP payments apply only to SNAP-eligible food items.
- EBT Cash payments can be used on any item and follow standard tax rules.
- The EBT Balance and EBT Balance Inquiry fields on the POS Card Entry record are populated when a balance inquiry is performed before payment.
See EBT Balance Inquiries and EBT Cash for EBT-specific setup.
Troubleshooting
Tax amount shows 0.00 in the EFT request.
Verify that the store's Tax Liable field is enabled and that the items in the transaction have a Tax Group Code assigned. Also confirm that a Trans. SalesTax Entry is created when the transaction is tendered.
Payment processor rejects the request.
If your payment processor does not support the AmountBreakdown field, the tax injection is harmless; the processor ignores unknown fields. If the request format itself is rejected, check with your EFT integration provider whether the AmountBreakdown structure is supported.
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