International tax (VAT / GST / sales tax), handled differently?

Both punt to specialised services for serious multi-jurisdiction tax. The differences are in how easy that integration is.

Shopify: built-in tax engine handles US sales tax (with Shopify Tax, $0.99 per US order on top of standard fees), EU VAT (manual config), UK VAT, Canadian GST/PST. For more complex setups (marketplace facilitator rules, tax-exempt B2B customers, multiple US states), the standard path is Avalara or TaxJar, both have first-party Shopify apps.

Magento: built-in tax-rate / tax-rule engine is more flexible (per-region, per-customer-group, per-product) but requires more configuration. For automated rate updates and economic-nexus tracking, integrate Avalara, TaxJar, or Vertex via the official Adobe-Marketplace extensions. Magento also natively supports tax-exempt customer groups (rare in Shopify B2C, native in Shopify B2B).

EU VAT specifically: Magento handles distance-selling thresholds, OSS reporting, and B2B reverse-charge natively. Shopify needs a 3rd-party (Vatify, Quaderno) for OSS / reverse-charge.

Verdict: for US-only retailers, Shopify Tax + Avalara is the fastest path. For EU + cross-border B2B, Magento + Avalara is more flexible.