Excise Tax Isn't Built Into BigCommerce

If you sell tires online, you're required to collect excise tax in addition to regular sales tax, based on where each order is being shipped. Every state has different rules, and in some cases fees vary by county or zip code.

BigCommerce doesn't handle excise tax natively, so without the right solution in place, you're left doing the math yourself, inflating prices to cover fees, or risking penalties for non-compliance.

The Excise Tax Manager for BigCommerce solves this by automatically calculating and collecting the right fees at checkout, based on your customer's shipping destination.

Understanding Tire Excise Taxes: What You're Actually Dealing With

Before we get into the solution, it helps to know what types of fees you might be required to collect when selling tires. There are a few different categories, and they don't all work the same way.

Environmental Fees

Many states charge an environmental fee when new tires are sold. These fees fund research and programs that find new uses for old tires, like recycled rubber products and alternative energy. The goal is to reduce the number of tires that end up illegally dumped or in landfills.

Tire Disposal Fees

Tire disposal fees are separate from environmental fees. They go toward licensed services and companies that are trained and certified to physically handle and recycle old tires. These fees are set at the state level and vary by location.

Federal Excise Tax (FET)

FET is different from state-level fees. It only applies to very large truck tires, and it's calculated based on the weight of the tire itself, not the sale price. If you're selling commercial truck tires, this one applies to you.

The bottom line: the fees your customers owe depend on what they're buying, where it's being shipped, and what laws apply in that destination. That's a lot of variables to manage manually.

Why Collecting Tire Excise Tax Manually Doesn't Work

If you're selling tires across the country without an automated solution, you're likely dealing with at least a few of these:

Doing manual calculations after orders come in
Spending hours separating excise taxes from sales tax in your accounting records
Worrying about compliance penalties if you get it wrong
Inflating product prices to bake taxes in, which makes it harder to stay competitive
Showing no clear fee breakdown at checkout, leaving customers confused about what they're paying

"Businesses in heavily regulated and taxed industries, such as vape products, tires, alcohol, and firearms, must collect accurate, line-itemed taxes for specific products and groups of products."

How to Automate Tire Excise Tax on BigCommerce

The Excise Tax Manager is a module within the Ebizio Checkout App for BigCommerce. Once configured, it handles all excise tax calculations automatically at checkout. Here's how setup works:

Step 1: Create Product Groups Group your products based on how they're taxed. For tires, that might mean grouping passenger tires separately from commercial truck tires, since FET only applies to the latter.

Step 2: Define Geographic Zones Set up zones based on zip codes, counties, or states, wherever the tax rules change. You can create as many zones as you need to cover every destination you ship to.

Step 3: Apply Tax Rules Pair each product group with the right zone and set the rate, either a flat fee or a percentage. Once configured, the app handles the math automatically at checkout for every order.

How Tire Excise Tax Appears at Checkout

Your customers see the excise tax clearly labeled as a separate line item. It's not buried in the product price or combined with sales tax, just a clean, transparent charge they can understand.

How Tire Excise Tax Appears in the Back Office

Product Shipped to South Carolina – $8.00 State Tire Fee

Product Shipped to Alabama – $4.00 State Tire Fee

Product Shipped to Michigan – No State Tire Fee

Order Export View – View all orders that contain tire fees under “Product Details”

Every order export includes the excise tax as its own line item, which saves your accounting team significant time at the end of the month.

Key Features of the BigCommerce Excise Tax Manager

Fee Transparency

Excise tax shows up as a separate, clearly labeled line item at cart and checkout, and on the order confirmation email your customer receives.

Flexible Tax Application

You can apply taxes at the SKU, product, or order level depending on how a specific fee is calculated. This matters for tires because FET is calculated per tire while many state fees apply per order. The app handles both without any workarounds.

Mixed Cart Support

If a customer's cart has a mix of taxable and non-taxable products, the app handles it cleanly. Only the right products get the tax applied.

Discounts and Coupons Still Work

You can still run sitewide sales, category discounts, and coupons without disrupting how excise tax is calculated.

Compatible with Avalara and TaxJar

If you're already using a third-party app for sales tax, the Excise Tax Manager is compatible with both Avalara and TaxJar.

PCI Compliant

The app meets PCI compliance standards and works within the BigCommerce checkout. Your customers never leave the native checkout experience.

What Changes When You Automate Tire Excise Tax

Once the Excise Tax Manager is live on your store, the difference is immediate:

No more manual tax calculations after orders come in
Excise tax separated automatically from sales tax in every order record
Customers see transparent, accurate fee breakdowns at checkout
Compliance risk drops significantly
Your accounting team gets clean, exportable records without extra work

You save time, reduce compliance risk, and give customers a checkout experience that's clear and professional.

Ready to Automate Tire Excise Tax on Your BigCommerce Store?

If you're still calculating tire taxes manually or inflating prices to cover fees, there's a better way.

BigCommerce Tire Excise Tax: How to Collect It Accurately at Checkout