Tax breakdown is displayed in order confirmation
Why it matters
Displaying tax as a line item only on the checkout page — and omitting it from the cart summary, order confirmation page, and confirmation email — violates both FTC Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise rules and EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU Article 6, which require clear pre-payment disclosure of total costs. When the tax amount is absent from the confirmation email, customers have no documentation of what they were charged for taxes, which becomes a dispute point during returns or accounting reconciliation. A static Tax: $0.00 placeholder is worse than omission — it actively misleads the customer about their actual tax liability.
Severity rationale
High because omitting tax from order summaries and confirmation emails violates FTC and EU consumer disclosure rules and leaves customers without the documentation required for expense reporting or dispute resolution.
Remediation
Add a dynamically computed tax line to the order confirmation component in components/OrderConfirmation.tsx:
// components/OrderConfirmation.tsx
export function OrderConfirmation({ order }: { order: Order }) {
return (
<div className="order-summary">
<div className="flex justify-between">
<span>Subtotal</span>
<span>${(order.subtotal / 100).toFixed(2)}</span>
</div>
<div className="flex justify-between">
<span>Shipping</span>
<span>${(order.shipping / 100).toFixed(2)}</span>
</div>
<div className="flex justify-between">
<span>Tax{order.tax_jurisdiction ? ` (${order.tax_jurisdiction})` : ''}</span>
<span>${(order.tax / 100).toFixed(2)}</span>
</div>
<div className="border-t pt-2 flex justify-between font-bold">
<span>Total</span>
<span>${(order.total / 100).toFixed(2)}</span>
</div>
</div>
)
}
Mirror the same four line items (subtotal, shipping, tax, total) in the order confirmation email template. Never render a static $0.00 for tax — pull the value from the stored order record.
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the Shipping & Tax Audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
External references
- external · ftc-mail-internet-telephone-order-rule — FTC Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule — requires disclosure of total charge including fees before payment
- external · eu-consumer-rights-directive-2011-83-eu-art6 — EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU Art. 6 — pre-contractual information requirements including total price and taxes
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from ecommerce-shipping-tax·automated