POS system for North Carolina businesses

North Carolina sales tax at a glance

North Carolina's state sales tax rate is 4.75% as of 2026, administered by the North Carolina Department of Revenue. Every county adds a local rate of 2% to 2.75%, and some, such as Mecklenburg and Durham, add a transit tax, so combined rates are usually 6.75% to 7.5%.

Qualifying food for home use is exempt from the state rate but carries a 2% local food rate. Restaurant meals and prepared food are taxable at the full rate, and a few counties and cities also levy a separate prepared food and beverage tax, which is filed locally. Confirm current rates with the Department of Revenue and your county before you open.

Building your tax group in SeroPOS

In the back office go to Settings, then Tax Rates, and add the state rate of 4.75%. Then add each local rate that applies at your address, such as your county's local rate and any transit tax, ticking "for tax group only" so they can't be picked alone. In the SeroPOS app the same screens are under Admin, then Taxes.

Open Tax Groups and combine the rates into one group named after the place and the total, for example "Mecklenburg 7.25%". Make it the default tax so new products pick it up, and add a 0% rate for exempt items. If your county has a prepared food and beverage tax, add it as its own rate and build a separate restaurant group, so you can report it to the county.

Restaurants and the prepared food tax

In counties with a prepared food and beverage tax, a Charlotte or Raleigh restaurant charges state and county sales tax plus the local meals tax on food and drinks. Because the meals tax is filed with the county rather than the state, keep it as its own rate inside the group, so the Tax Report shows how much you collected.

If you also sell retail items, such as merchandise or packaged sauces, they may not carry the meals tax. In SeroPOS each product has its own tax, so retail items can use the standard group while food and drinks use the restaurant group. Check with your county which items the local tax covers.

Cards on Global Payments or Gravity Payments

SeroPOS sends the amount straight to the card terminal, so nobody keys the total twice. With Global Payments you can use Global Pay Cloud, which needs no cable or IP address, or run SeroPOS on the Global Payments T650P handheld itself through Terminal Plus. With Gravity Payments you enter your account details and device name in Gravity Pay Settings.

A tip entered on the terminal comes back and prints as Tip / Gratuity. Partial approvals ask for the balance on another card or in cash. If a card is approved but the sale doesn't save, SeroPOS keeps the approval in an outbox and records it again, and a duplicate-charge guard warns before the same card is charged twice.

Already have a merchant account? Keep it if your processor is supported. If you want to compare costs, send us a recent statement and we'll quote a rate. Card processing is arranged separately from your SeroPOS plan. Tell us your monthly card volume and the terminals you use today, and we can say which setup fits your counter before you commit.

Tax reports and QuickBooks Desktop

The Tax Report in the back office shows tax collected on sales, tax paid on purchases and tax on expenses, with an overall figure and the invoices behind each number, filtered by location and date range. Run it for your filing period, and use the Product Taxes section of the daily sales summary to see which products the tax came from.

On the Pro plan SeroPOS sends sales, payments, customers and items to QuickBooks Desktop, US edition 2021 or later (Pro, Premier or Enterprise on Windows), through the Web Connector. It can build your sales tax items, groups and tax agency in QuickBooks for you, matched by rate rather than by name. The QuickBooks Online connection is set up for Canadian companies today.