A request.

First, thanks to the various developers for all the hard work you've done so far. Very impressive and much appreciated!


PRESENT
I installed the tax-exempt mod and it works OK, thanks.

PROBLEM
Whilst waiting for human intervention to approve them as tax exempt the prospect may give up and go elsewhere.

With instant approval they could be purchasing products legitimately at my store instead of waiting.

For smooth use in the UK we need the cart automatically to accept prospective customers as tax exempt when they open an account and declare their “disability”.

I believe it only needs the default 0 to be changed to 2 in the customers_tax_exempt database field, but I don't know enough about coding to arrange it.

One attempted idea was to have a separate sign-up web form which would get a declaration and approve the prospect automatically. That failed because the
password needed to be properly encrypted. It put the details in the MySQL database OK but the login wouldn't accept the password, because it was still in plain text.

Another attempted idea was to have a modified front page with an option box to claim or not to claim tax exemption. That failed because the user can be taken to the original sign-up screen from any place they are browsing and would thus bypass the new front page.

PROPOSAL
An additional section on the login page, similar in context to the Newsletter and Email Details section.

The new section would have a checkbox with a label, for example:
"Claim tax exemption [ ]"

and a blank field with a label such as: " I declare that I am chronically sick or have a disabling condition by reason of: “

To succeed it would be dependant on both the box being checked and text being present in the text box (suggest minimum of two characters but no more, eg a person may enter MS or MD).

If checked and completed the script will approve the user as tax exempt. (change 0 to 2 in the customers_tax_exempt database field). If the option is unchecked, tax will be charged as usual. (Default 0 in the customers_tax_exempt database field).


Guessing that something like this line:
$db->Execute("update " . TABLE_CUSTOMERS ." set customers_tax_exempt = '2'");
From the tax_exempt .php file would be included in a modified login page script, but I don’t know much about it.


Note: A further business control can be to include all necessary statements about exemption claims in the Conditions of Use and set “Confirm Terms and Conditions During Checkout Procedure” to True.


The questions arising are:

a) how to do it
b) can some kind soul provide a mod

Thanks for any assistance!