Tax Liability Summary

Read-only: aggregates tax collected by jurisdiction from order tax lines for filing prep.

shopify-admin-tax-liability-summary


Purpose

Aggregates tax amounts collected across all orders in a period, broken down by tax jurisdiction (state/province, country) and tax rate. Produces a summary suitable for periodic tax filing prep. Read-only — no mutations.


Prerequisites

  • Authenticated Shopify CLI session: shopify store auth --store --scopes read_orders
  • API scopes: read_orders

  • Parameters


    ParameterTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
    storestringyesStore domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com)
    days_backintegerno90Lookback window (use 30/90 to match filing periods)
    group_bystringnojurisdictionBreakdown: jurisdiction or rate
    exclude_refundedboolnotrueExclude tax from fully refunded orders
    formatstringnohumanOutput format: human or json

    Safety


    > ℹ️ Read-only skill — no mutations are executed. Safe to run at any time. This report is for internal preparation purposes only — consult a tax professional for actual filing obligations.


    Workflow Steps


  • OPERATION: orders — query
  • Inputs: query: "financial_status:paid created_at:>=''", first: 250, select taxLines { title, rate, priceSet }, refunds { refundLineItems }, pagination cursor

    Expected output: All paid orders with tax lines; paginate until hasNextPage: false


  • If exclude_refunded: subtract tax amounts from fully refunded orders

  • Group by group_by (jurisdiction title or rate); sum taxLine.priceSet.shopMoney.amount

  • GraphQL Operations


    # orders:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
    query TaxLiabilityOrders($query: String!, $after: String) {
      orders(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
        edges {
          node {
            id
            name
            createdAt
            displayFinancialStatus
            totalTaxSet {
              shopMoney {
                amount
                currencyCode
              }
            }
            taxLines {
              title
              rate
              priceSet {
                shopMoney {
                  amount
                  currencyCode
                }
              }
            }
            shippingAddress {
              countryCode
              provinceCode
            }
            refunds {
              totalRefundedSet {
                shopMoney {
                  amount
                  currencyCode
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
        pageInfo {
          hasNextPage
          endCursor
        }
      }
    }
    

    Session Tracking


    Claude MUST emit the following output at each stage. This is mandatory.


    On start, emit:

    ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
    ║  SKILL: Tax Liability Summary                ║
    ║  Store: <store domain>                       ║
    ║  Started: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC>             ║
    ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝
    

    After each step, emit:

    [N/TOTAL] <QUERY|MUTATION>  <OperationName>
              → Params: <brief summary of key inputs>
              → Result: <count or outcome>
    

    On completion, emit:


    For format: human (default):

    ══════════════════════════════════════════════
    TAX LIABILITY SUMMARY  (<days_back> days)
      Orders analyzed:   <n>
      Total tax collected: $<amount>
    
      By Jurisdiction:
        CA - California     $<amount>  (<n> orders)
        NY - New York       $<amount>  (<n> orders)
      Output: tax_liability_<date>.csv
    ══════════════════════════════════════════════
    

    For format: json, emit:

    {
      "skill": "tax-liability-summary",
      "store": "<domain>",
      "period_days": 90,
      "orders_analyzed": 0,
      "total_tax_collected": 0,
      "currency": "USD",
      "by_jurisdiction": [],
      "output_file": "tax_liability_<date>.csv"
    }
    

    Output Format

    CSV file tax_liability_.csv with columns:

    jurisdiction, country_code, province_code, tax_rate, order_count, total_tax_collected, currency


    Error Handling

    ErrorCauseRecovery
    THROTTLEDAPI rate limit exceededWait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times
    No tax lines on ordersTax not configured or tax-exempt ordersReport $0 for those orders
    Orders with partial refundsTax credit complex to calculateFlag in output; exclude from totals if exclude_refunded: true

    Best Practices

  • This report reflects tax collected from customers — it is not a substitute for Shopify Tax or a professional nexus analysis.
  • Align days_back with your filing period (30 days for monthly filers, 90 for quarterly).
  • For multi-state US merchants, check that Shopify Tax is configured correctly for each nexus state before relying on this output.
  • The jurisdiction field in taxLines.title is set by Shopify Tax and typically includes state/province names — verify the format matches your filing system.