Charging alcohol tax (WET) on your products

Quick answer: If you sell alcohol in a country with an alcohol tax, such as Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) in Australia, you can have Open Pantry charge it. Turn it on under Products & Pricing → Product List → Settings, then mark which products are taxable. It’s off by default.

Who can use it?

The alcohol tax setting only appears if you have the Alcohol category and your country charges an alcohol tax. Everywhere in the app it uses your country’s own name for the tax, the same way GST or VAT does. If it isn’t offered to you, the page says “Alcohol tax isn’t available for your account”.

Only turn it on if you’re responsible for paying the tax on what you sell.

How do I turn it on?

1. Go to Products & Pricing → Product List and click Settings.
2. On Product settings, find the card named after your alcohol tax. It shows On or Off. Click Manage.
3. Turn on the Charge switch (for example, Charge Wet Tax in Australia).

The screen shows your country’s rate and a worked example. For a $100 product in Australia: $29 alcohol tax, then GST on $129 ($12.90), so the customer pays $141.90.

How do I mark products as taxable?

While the switch is on, you’ll see an extra tick-box and column named after the tax:

• On Add / Edit product, tick the box next to GST.
• On your Product List, tick the column for each product.
• In product spreadsheet import and export, use the tax column.

The status line on the settings screen tells you how many products are marked. The tax is added to those lines on carts, orders, invoices, picking slips and receipts. It only appears on orders that contain a taxable product. GST is then charged on the price plus the alcohol tax.

What happens if I turn it off?

If products are marked, you’ll be asked to confirm. Click Turn off to go ahead, or Cancel to keep it on. Once it’s off:

• No alcohol tax is added to new orders, starting straight away. Items already in carts are repriced.
• Orders already placed aren’t changed.
• The tick-box, column and spreadsheet column are hidden.
• Products keep their mark, so if you turn the switch back on, they’re charged again with no re-ticking needed.

Tip: Check the worked example on the settings screen after turning it on, then place a test order with one taxable product to see the tax line before your customers do.