Variants & options
Shopify Taxable Flags and Legacy Tax Codes
Published by Profitonium Apps · Last updated
Variant Taxable and Variant Tax Code are different settings. Use Taxable to change a variant’s taxable flag. Do not treat the old Tax Code column as a Shopify product-category column.
Shopify deprecated the variant taxCode field with the old Avalara AvaTax integration. The earlier version of this tutorial incorrectly suggested that Shopify category IDs or codes from other providers belonged in that field. This guide corrects that workflow.
Choose the right workflow
| Your task | Use this field or workflow |
|---|---|
| Change a variant’s taxable flag | Variant Taxable in EditEngine |
| Assign Shopify standard product categories | Product Category |
| Configure the current Avalara integration | Avalara Tax Compliance documentation |
| Identify a legacy Tax Code value | Legacy Tax Code reference |
Do not classify all food, clothing, gift cards or B2B products with one blanket TRUE/FALSE rule. Apply the settings required for the particular product and the tax configuration your store uses.
Review an existing spreadsheet
Older exports and saved templates can contain Variant Taxable and Variant Tax Code side by side. Their proximity does not make them interchangeable.
For a change to the taxable flag, keep an untouched backup and work on a copy containing the relevant product and variant identifiers plus Variant Taxable. Remove unrelated columns from that working file. Use the Products import reference to confirm matching and import behavior before uploading it.
Use TRUE or FALSE for the taxable flag. Do not insert a Shopify product-category ID into Variant Tax Code, and do not assume that a blank legacy code selects a category-based tax default.
Verify the change
Start with a small selection of products. After the edit or import finishes, review its results and check the actual taxable setting in Shopify. Confirm that your current tax app sees the intended product configuration before extending the change to the rest of the catalog.
A completed import shows that the job ran; it does not establish that a tax integration uses a particular legacy field. If your goal is current provider mapping, use that provider’s documented workflow.