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Cbox Tax
What it is
Cbox Tax is a self-hosted consumption-tax engine for Laravel. It calculates tax treatment, rates, and authority breakdowns across EU VAT, national VAT and GST, US sales tax, Canadian GST and HST, India dual GST, and Malaysia SST. Its rules account for place of supply, reverse charge, inclusive or exclusive pricing, exemptions, and seller registration routing. For US sales tax, the application checks that a state resolves, the seller has nexus there, and the product is taxable there. Assessments can use resale, nonprofit, or government certificates, though users are responsible for capturing and verifying them. The engine stops rather than calculating when a regime or rate is missing. Built on Geo for Laravel, it supports pluggable rate sources and reads a register synced to local disk without a network call during pricing. The package is free and MIT licensed; the register data has a separate PolyForm Internal Use 1.0.0 license that excludes redistribution and resale of rate lookups. Cbox says the register is beta, may contain errors, and is not tax advice. Requirements include PHP ^8.4 and Laravel ^13.
For and against
For
- Covers several VAT, GST, and sales-tax regimes.
- Stops calculations when a regime or rate is missing.
- Reads locally synced register data during pricing.
- Supports pluggable rate sources.
- Free and MIT licensed package.
Against
- Requires PHP ^8.4 and Laravel ^13.
- Register data cannot be redistributed or resold as lookups.
- Beta data may contain errors and is not tax advice.
- Some jurisdictions are omitted pending verified rate data.
The verdict
Cbox Tax offers broad tax logic for Laravel, with a fail-closed response when rates or regimes are missing. Review the beta warning, technical requirements, and separate register-data license before using it.
Who it suits
Cbox Tax suits teams building Laravel applications that need consumption-tax calculations across its listed regimes. It may also suit PHP production teams that can manage its requirements and separately licensed register data.
On the record
- Beta status
- The package is marked beta, and its documentation says the data and modeled law may contain undiscovered errors.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Buyer exemptions
- Assessments can apply resale, nonprofit, or government certificates, while certificate capture and verification remain the user's responsibility.cbox.dk · read 9 Oct 2026
- Coverage limits
- The maker says some jurisdictions are omitted until rate data is verified, including some Pakistani provinces and Brazil.cbox.dk · read 9 Oct 2026
- Data integrity
- The documentation describes offline SHA-256 verification of register files, while stating that this does not authenticate the publisher or establish legal correctness.cbox.dk · read 4 Oct 2026
- Extensible data sources
- A pluggable TaxRateSource contract supplies rates, and the package can use static, remote, caching, or chained rate sources.cbox.dk · read 9 Oct 2026
- Fail-closed behavior
- The engine refuses to calculate when a regime or rate is missing instead of assuming a zero rate.cbox.dk · read 9 Oct 2026
- Geocoding integration
- The shipped Geocodio geocoder resolves US and Canadian addresses to a state or province; its own tax calculation is not used.cbox.dk · read 9 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- The package is built on Geo for Laravel and supports pluggable rate sources, including EU TEDB, the us-tax-data dataset, and commercial adapters.cbox.dk · read 4 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- Cbox describes its work as building tools for teams that run PHP in production.cbox.dk · read 4 Oct 2026
- License and data terms
- The package is MIT licensed, while the register's data is separately licensed under PolyForm Internal Use 1.0.0, which excludes redistributing the data or reselling lookups.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- License and limits
- The package is MIT licensed, while register data uses PolyForm Internal Use 1.0.0 and cannot be redistributed or resold as rate lookups under that license.cbox.dk · read 4 Oct 2026
- Local operation
- The register is synced to local disk, and the engine reads it without a network call while pricing.cbox.dk · read 4 Oct 2026
- Maker and intended audience
- Cbox describes itself as a one-person operation focused on tools for teams running PHP in production.cbox.dk · read 9 Oct 2026
- Missing data behavior
- The engine refuses to calculate when a regime or rate is missing rather than assuming a zero rate.cbox.dk · read 4 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Cbox Tax is a self-hostable consumption-tax engine for Laravel that calculates tax treatment, rates, and authority breakdowns.cbox.dk · read 4 Oct 2026
- Requirements
- The repository lists PHP ^8.4, Laravel ^13, ext-dom, ext-zlib, and cboxdk/laravel-geo as requirements.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Reverse charge
- Its EU VAT rules include intra-EU B2B reverse charge and VIES-validated customer tax IDs.cbox.dk · read 9 Oct 2026
- Support
- The repository directs users to report errors by opening an issue with the register release version.github.com · read 4 Oct 2026
