How Exemptions Work on Rillet Invoices

If you use Kintsugi as the tax engine for Rillet, your exemptions live in Kintsugi, not in Rillet. This article explains where to set them up, how Kintsugi decides whether a line on a Rillet invoice is exempt, and what to check when an exemption does not apply the way you expected.

Quick Notes

Kintsugi does not read an exempt flag from Rillet. Rillet does not share customer exemption status through its API, so every exemption has to be created in Kintsugi.

When Kintsugi calculates tax on a Rillet invoice, it looks up the Kintsugi customer record linked to that invoice and applies whatever exemptions are attached to that record. If an exemption applies, the line is taxed at $0 and Kintsugi writes $0 back to your Rillet invoice.

Where to Add Your Exemptions

Add exemptions in Kintsugi, under the Exemptions tab or directly on the customer's profile. Marking a customer as exempt inside Rillet has no effect on Kintsugi's calculation.

You can add exemptions in a few ways:

• One at a time, from the customer profile or the Exemptions tab. See How to Import a Single Exemption Certificate.

• In a batch, if you are onboarding a book of certificates. See How to Bulk Upload Exemption Certificates.

• On a single transaction, when the exemption applies to that invoice only and not to everything the customer buys from you.

How Kintsugi Links a Rillet Invoice to the Right Customer

Every customer that syncs from Rillet during your read-only connection gets a matching customer record in Kintsugi, tied to the Rillet customer ID.

When an invoice comes in for tax calculation, Kintsugi follows that ID to the linked Kintsugi customer, then pulls the exemptions attached to that exact record. It does not match on company name or email address.

This matters more than it sounds. Two records can carry the same company name and still be different customers as far as the calculation is concerned. Only the linked record is checked.

How Kintsugi Decides If a Line Is Exempt

Kintsugi evaluates each line item on the invoice separately, in this order:

1. Zero dollar lines are skipped. There is nothing to tax.

2. Is the product exempt? If the product is marked as tax exempt in Kintsugi and that classification is approved, the line comes back at $0.

3. Is there an exemption on this specific transaction? Transaction level exemptions apply to that invoice only.

4. Is there an exemption on the linked customer? This covers customer level exemptions, including resale and wholesale certificates.

The first match wins for that line, and Kintsugi moves on to the next one. Because the check runs per line, a single invoice can have some lines exempt and others taxed normally.

What Makes an Exemption Actually Apply

For an exemption to zero out a line, all of the following need to be true:

• The exemption status is Active.

• The invoice date falls between the exemption's start date and end date.

• The destination address on the invoice is in a state or country the exemption covers, if the exemption is scoped to specific jurisdictions.

If any one of these fails, Kintsugi treats the line as taxable and calculates tax as usual.

What You See in Rillet

Once tax calculation completes, Kintsugi writes the result back to your Rillet invoice. For an exempt line, that write back is $0.

Tax calculation runs asynchronously, so give it a moment and refresh the invoice if you do not see the amount right away.

When an Exemption Did Not Apply

Work through these in order.

The exemption is on a different customer record.

This is the most common cause. If the certificate was added to one Kintsugi customer and the Rillet invoice is linked to another, the exemption will not apply, even when both records show the same company name. Open the customer from the transaction itself rather than searching by name, and confirm the exemption is on that record.

The exemption has expired or is not active.

Check the status and the start and end dates against the invoice date. An exemption that starts after the invoice date will not apply retroactively to that invoice.

The invoice ships to a state the exemption does not cover.

A certificate scoped to one state does not cover sales into another. You will need a separate certificate for each jurisdiction where your customer claims exemption.

The customer has not finished syncing.

If the customer was just created in Rillet, give the sync a moment to bring the record into Kintsugi before the exemption can be attached to it.

You changed the customer on a draft invoice.

Kintsugi recalculates when the customer on a draft Rillet invoice changes, since a different customer means a different set of exemptions. Refresh the invoice to see the updated amount.

FAQs

Q: Can I mark a customer as exempt in Rillet instead?

A: No. Rillet does not expose customer exemption status to Kintsugi, so the exemption has to exist in Kintsugi to affect the calculation.

Q: Do I need to redo my exemptions when I move from a read-only connection to tax calculation?

A: No. Exemptions already in Kintsugi carry over. Your customer records stay linked to the same Rillet customers.

Q: Why is one line on my invoice exempt and another taxed?

A: Kintsugi checks each line on its own. A product level exemption applies only to that product, so the rest of the invoice is taxed normally unless a transaction or customer level exemption covers it.

Q: My customer is exempt in three states. Do I need three certificates?

A: Yes, if each certificate is scoped to a single state. Kintsugi checks the destination on the invoice against the jurisdictions the exemption covers.

Q: Does adding an exemption fix invoices I already sent?

A: Exemptions apply to calculations that run after the exemption is in place. For invoices already issued, reach out to support so we can look at the specific transactions with you.

Need Help?

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