Legal and tax basics that shape the build
Legal and tax requirements sound like someone else's problem until you realise they appear as fields, calculations and screens in the store you are building. A return policy is a page; a fourteen-day return window is an order state.
This is not advice for your jurisdiction — get that from your own adviser. It is a list of the places where those rules become engineering work, so nothing is discovered a week before launch.
Where the rules become code#
| Requirement | How it appears in the build |
|---|---|
| Price display rules | Whether stored prices are net or gross, and where tax is calculated |
| Distance selling rights | Order states for cancellation and return windows |
| Order confirmation content | A template with required fields, not a friendly email |
| Consent and tracking | Scripts that must not load before a choice is made |
| Data access and deletion | A way to export and erase a customer without breaking orders |
The tax decision that shapes everything#
Decide early whether your catalogue stores prices including tax or excluding it. Consumer stores in many markets display gross; B2B usually works net. Changing this mid-project touches the catalogue, the cart, the invoices and every report.
Write the decision down with the reason. It is the single most re-litigated question in ecommerce projects.
Selling across borders#
- Tax rules differ by destination, and the store must know the destination before it can show a total.
- Some categories carry different rates; a flat rate per country is a simplification that will eventually be wrong.
- Customs and duty change the delivered price, and hiding that until the parcel arrives creates refunds.
- Invoices may need country-specific fields and sequential numbering.
- Return addresses per market are an operational cost, not a form field.
What to hand your adviser#
A one-page description of what you sell, where you sell it, who your buyer is, and how you take payment. That page gets a useful answer; a general question gets a general one.
Frequently asked questions
Can I launch before the legal pages are final?
The pages, sometimes. The tax calculation and return states, no — they are part of a correct order.
Net or gross prices in the catalogue?
Consumer stores usually gross, B2B usually net. Decide once, early, and write down why.
Does a hosted platform handle tax for me?
It handles the mechanics of applying rates. Which rates apply to your goods in your markets remains yours.
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