You can now both refund and charge taxes and duties that were calculated through Shopify. This ensures that customers receive the correct adjustment when returning or exchanging products:
For returns, the refunded amount includes the item price plus any applicable taxes or duties.
For exchanges, new items will have their taxes and duties applied in the same way Shopify would handle them at checkout.
How it works
When enabled, Swap will:
Detect whether an order has Shopify-calculated taxes or duties, including both domestic and international.
Pull tax and duty information for exchange items directly from Shopify before the summary page.
Present the same information provided by Shopify, without changes.
Add the refunded taxes/duties to the customer’s total refund.
Show this information clearly in the Return Portal, Return Summary, and emails.
How Zero-Value Orders Appear
Shipping lines
All exchange orders will have shipping lines copied from the original order, even if this setting is normally disabled. This ensures duties are calculated correctly, as they depend on the delivery address.
Same Price Exchange
Customers receive a refund for duties and taxes, then are charged the same amount, resulting in a net total of $0 for duties and taxes.
For example, if the exchange item price equals the returned item price ($96), the duties and taxes added to the exchange order are $0.
Lower Price exchange (a downsale)
We don't refund all taxes. When creating the draft order, we get the full duties and taxes amount for the exchange item, which is then charged in the portal.
Then we refund the duties and taxes for the returned item, so the customer is ultimately charged only the difference.
The draft order will show $0 in duties and taxes, but the original order will be adjusted since only the relative amount is refunded.
For example:
Higher Price exchange (an upsale)
The discount in the exchange order includes only the returned item's price. Duties and taxes are applied to the difference between the price of the exchange item and the price of the returned item. Customers are charged duties and taxes only on the additional payment amount.
For example: returned item price: $98.29 | exchange item price: $160.62 (higher)
The difference is: $160.62 − $98.29 = $62.33
Duties and taxes are applied as a percentage of $62.33
In this case, duties are also applied, so taxes are calculated on the duties as well:
13% × ($62.33 + $11.22) = $9.56
Enabling Shopify tax and duty refunds
Go to your Swap Dashboard.
Open Settings > Taxes & Markets.
Enable Refund Shopify Taxes and Duties.
Customer experience
Choosing items to return
When a customer selects items in the Return Portal, they will see a note that any taxes or duties may be included in their final refund.
Return summary
On the summary page, refunded taxes and duties are shown as a separate line, below the item return value.
A tooltip clarifies that “Taxes and duties are set by local customs authorities and may vary. In some cases, they may not be fully refundable.”
RMA view in the Dashboard
In the RMA, refunded taxes and duties are shown alongside the returned items.
For US orders, the breakdown will list each tax component separately (for example: NY State Tax, NY City Tax, NY Special Tax).
Things to note
Taxes and duties may not always be fully refundable, depending on local customs rules.
If an item is not approved during QC, its associated taxes/duties will not be refunded.