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The total tax charged on orders placed in the period, as Shopify recorded it on each order.

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Formula

Tax Collected = SUM ( Order Tax )

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Formula Components

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How It Works

Upstack reads the tax total from each Shopify order and adds them up by the date the order was placed. Nothing else is applied to it:
  • Refunds don’t reduce it. Tax returned to a customer in a later refund stays in Tax Collected for the original order.
  • Cancelled orders stay in. A cancelled order’s tax is still counted.
  • Order date only. Tax always sits in the period the order was placed, whichever refund date setting you use.
Tax is part of Total Revenue, which uses the full order total. Gross Revenue is built from line-item prices times quantity, so it leaves tax out, unless your store’s prices already include tax. In a tax-inclusive store, the tax is inside those line-item prices too, so Gross Revenue and Tax Collected overlap.

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Example

A US home-fragrance brand runs a sitewide 20% off sale in November. Its average cart at full price is the same in both months. Tax Collected nearly doubled with order volume, but tax per order fell by 50 cents. No tax rate changed. Sales tax is generally charged on the price after discounts, and Gross Revenue is measured before them, so a heavy discount month lowers tax relative to gross revenue. In January, 140 November orders are refunded. November’s Tax Collected stays at $21,285.

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How to Interpret It

Treat it as a monitoring number, not a filing number. It keeps tax on cancelled orders and doesn’t net out tax refunded later, so it can run above what you owe. Use your tax filings or your tax provider for remittance. Watch it next to order volume. Tax Collected moves mostly with orders. Tax Per Order removes the volume effect, so a shift there points to a change in discounting, cart size, or where your customers are. Don’t read it as revenue. Tax passes through to tax authorities. When you judge growth, use revenue metrics that leave tax out, such as Net Revenue. Split it by customer type to see whether first orders and repeat orders are taxed differently, for example because welcome discounts lower the taxable price. Use New Customer Tax and Returning Customer Tax.

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Why It Can Differ From Shopify Reports

  • Refunded tax isn’t subtracted. Reports that net out refunded tax will show less.
  • Cancelled orders are included.
  • Order date. Tax is dated by when the order was placed.
  • Store currency. Upstack reads Shopify’s shop-currency amounts.
  • Exclusions. Orders removed by your Exclusion Filters (Settings → Reporting) aren’t counted.

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FAQ

It’s included in Total Revenue. Gross Revenue and Net Revenue are built from line-item prices, so they exclude tax unless your store’s prices include it.
No. Tax Collected is the tax recorded on each order. Tax returned in a refund isn’t subtracted.
Not on its own. It includes cancelled orders and doesn’t net out refunded tax. Use it to watch trends and reconcile against your filings.
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