As of July 2025, Google has announced a significant update to how tax settings are handled within Google Merchant Center (GMC). This change simplifies the process for U.S. merchants by eliminating the need to manually configure tax settings within your Merchant Center account or product data feed. Instead, Google will now automatically calculate tax based on the shopper’s location.
What’s Changing?
Previously, merchants selling in the United States were required to manually set up tax information in one of the following ways:
- Directly in the Merchant Center account settings
- By including tax data in the product feed
If these tax settings were missing, incorrect, or misconfigured, products could be disapproved or removed from eligible listings, resulting in lost impressions, clicks, and sales.
With the new update:
- Manual entry of tax settings is no longer required
- Google will automatically calculate and apply the appropriate tax based on the user’s location
- Existing manual settings will be phased out and removed starting in July 2025
This means no action is required from merchants, and the risk of tax-related disapprovals will be significantly reduced.
👉 Learn more in Google’s official documentation
Why Is This Important?
This change is especially beneficial for merchants who:
- Use third-party couriers with complex tax implications
- Have struggled with combining automatic shipping calculations with manual tax inputs
- Have experienced product disapprovals due to invalid or missing tax settings
Now, merchants can shift their focus from troubleshooting tax setup issues to optimizing other critical areas of their product data, such as improving titles, descriptions, images, and custom labels.
Will This Impact My Listings?
If your products were previously disapproved due to incorrect tax settings, you can expect:
- Automatic approval once Google removes the requirement and takes over tax calculation
- An increase in traffic as those products become eligible to appear in search results
It’s important to note that this change only affects U.S.-based tax requirements, as tax settings were not mandatory in other countries.
What Should Merchants Do?
Nothing. Google will automatically remove the existing manual tax settings and assume control of the tax calculation process. No changes are needed in your Merchant Center account or feed.
However, it’s still good practice to:
- Monitor your Needs Attention tab in Merchant Center
- Keep an eye on product status changes
- Continue optimizing product data for relevance and compliance
Final Thoughts
This is a welcome update for many eCommerce retailers. By removing a common point of friction, Google is making it easier for merchants to stay compliant and reduce the risk of listing errors. Most importantly, it enables businesses to focus on more impactful tasks that enhance performance and return on ad spend.
If you have questions about how this update may affect your account or product listings, please feel free to leave a comment or contact us directly.