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Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

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30 Mar 2007, 19:51
#1
ladyhlg avatar

ladyhlg

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Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

THIS DISCUSSION HAS BEEN RESUMED WITH A NEWER VERSION HERE:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111782



I have been working on a new sales tax mod with built in admin interface for Zen 1.3.7

This is the first mod I have ever done so I am posting here to get some feed back for anyone brave enough to try it out. It has only been tested with an unmodified version of Zen 1.3.7, so I can make no assumptions on how it will behave with a modified version of the cart.

This mod does not overwrite any files and creates one new table for the database.

It allows for taxing based on zip code, city, or suburb(for those using the suburb field for counties) and could be expanded to tax based on other fields as well.
It is specifically designed to compound taxes to whatever zone taxes you already have set up. Which means you can apply multiple taxes to any zone based on different criteria.

One example of how to use this mod would be -
Set up a statewide sales tax for CA of 7% using the standard zencart zones method.
With the Local tax mod set up a .75% tax to apply to 94203 zip code
You could even add additional .5% sales tax to be applied to just the city of Sacramento.

So if someone in the state of CA purchases something for say $35.99
They would automatically be charged the 7% state wide tax of $2.52
If they lived in the 94203 zip code they would also be charged an additional $.27
AND if they lived in the City of Sacramento they would be charged an additional $.18

Finally, the mod uses the "Basis of Product Tax" option in the Admin -> My Store to determine whether to use the billing or shipping address to base the local tax on.

I hope others out there may find this useful.

LadyHLG
12 Apr 2007, 21:23
#2
ckuhl avatar

ckuhl

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

Anyone test this mod? I could see that this would replace the hack I made for county taxes which I am sure will not work with version 1.3.7.
12 Apr 2007, 22:12
#3
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ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

I have yet to hear anything from anyone, good or bad so if you do have a chance to test please let me know how it goes.
Thanks!
LadyHLG
13 Apr 2007, 04:23
#4
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webomat

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

LadyHLG:

I have yet to hear anything from anyone, good or bad so if you do have a chance to test please let me know how it goes.
Thanks!
LadyHLG

Wow, this sounds great!

I've downloaded it and will try to run it locally and test it over the weekend.

Thanks LadyHLG!

Cheers,

Becky
13 Apr 2007, 16:28
#5
ladyhlg avatar

ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

Thanks Becky!
Let me know how it goes!!
LadyHLG
16 Apr 2007, 14:28
#6
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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

Ok, I cannot believe that I didn't find this until just now. I hacked one of the New York tax modes, and 1.3.7 broke it. I have not had time to fix it. This mod seems to be the nearly ideal solution.

I installed it (but have not configured it yet) and have but one suggestion. I saw an implementation of zip code tax in a paid solution that I really liked.

The use of a mask on the zip code so that you don't have to enter each and every zip code is an interesting option.

i.e. 895* would be used for all zip codes that start with 895.

I will let you know how the configuration goes later this week.

Thanks for the great work on this. The complete use of the override system witno core overwrites is FANTASTIC!
16 Apr 2007, 15:59
#7
ladyhlg avatar

ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

Interesting, I had never thought of using a zip code mask! If time allows I will see if I can add implement that.
Thanks for the input and let me know how the testing goes.

LadyHLG
17 Apr 2007, 07:49
#8
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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

Well, I was very excited, but, there are some issues.

I realized why I was originally trying to to tax by county. In Nevada, you may have a zip code that crosses county lines, and the counties have different taxes.

89521 Washoe County Tax 7.375%: $xx.xx
89521 Storey County Tax 7.25%: $xx.xx

Which is problematic for this module :( as you can see, this is what I saw in my checkout.

So the only way to get around this as I can see is to capture the users county on account creation.....and, I only need to capture the users county if they are a resident of Nevada.

I have been down this road, and I am not skilled enough to code the needed changes to make this clean on my end. If you think that this module could acomodate these additions, that would be great. I could make a financial contribution? :)


Greg
17 Apr 2007, 14:33
#9
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ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

I'm sorry the mod doesn't do quite what you were looking for, we all seem to be struggling for different solutions to the same problem.

The simple truth is there simply is no way for the cart to know what county a person is in based only on the zip code. Some people choose to tax by zip anyway since its the best they can do under the circumstances, and for some its not a problem.

In Wisconsin I set up each county as a separate zone with separate taxes rather than a single WI zone, and that has worked just fine.

I think the best we can hope for is that the developers at some point will add "county" as one of the permanent address options. Until then we are left with mods and work arounds.

LadyHLG
10 May 2007, 16:18
#10
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seattleannie

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

LadyHLG! This module works perfectly!! Thank you for doing such an excellent job. Easy install, easy configuration.

My only complaint is how hard it was for me to find it to download! Hope that powers that be here at Zen Cart will add it to their download area.

~anne
10 May 2007, 16:54
#11
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ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

Thanks for the feedback Anne. I didn't want to add it to the downloads until it had been tested by others and I had gotten enough feedback.

LadyHLG
14 May 2007, 21:59
#12
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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

LadyHLG,
First off MANY THANKS !! :clap:
I have just install your module on my test server and it is working just great. Of course in Texas we have the world crazyist tax system. But I can see light at the end of the tunnel with your module. I still have much work to relate tax rates of the various tax zones.

Hope to be up fully running with this by the end of the week.

Thanks
Larry
14 May 2007, 22:07
#13
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ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

Good Luck Larry!
Let me know if you run into any snags!

With 83 downloads and only a few comments I'm hoping that means the mod is working without problems and I can add it to the downloads soon.

LadyHLG
25 May 2007, 21:54
#14
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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

This is exactly the add-on I needed! How do I make sure that tax is charged on shipping? I have to cope with two states, one taxes shipping and one doesn't.

Thanks
Rick
25 May 2007, 23:01
#15
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ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

At the moment its an all or nothing kind of thing. I will look at making it an option for each specific tax on a later release. In the mean time, I think its something I can work into the code keeping in mind it will only effect the tax that is applied by this mod not any taxes applied by zencart (ie built in zone taxes), that will be a bit more complicated.
I will take a crack at it after the holiday.

LadyHLG
08 Jun 2007, 16:50
#16
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ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

Rick and anyone else interest:
Attached is a new version of the mod with the option to apply tax to shipping.
Each local tax has the option to apply to shipping or not everything is maintained through the admin.

There are two versions in the zip, one is a full version and the other is an upgrade version for those that have already installed v1.0.

As always be sure to back up before installing.

A REMINDER- Local tax on shipping works independent of the default ZenCart settings!

LadyHLG


p.s. - If I don't hear of problems with the mod I will be posting this and the origional version to the downloads at the end of next week. So if you run into any issues please let me know ASAP. - Thanks!
08 Jun 2007, 19:37
#17
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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

I had been working on something similar, but I haven't had time to do much with it lately. I like your module much better anyway. :cool: I have a test page that I was using to develop the latest methods before rolling them into a real module; I can PM the URL and source code if you want to see how it works.

For what it's worth, mine used ZIP+4, with the +4 stored in ranges (which is how Oklahoma provides the data). It might be possible to implement something like that using your module and wildcard characters. I'll have to do some testing on that. I suspect it'd be a lot of work to develop and maintain that list, so maybe it'd be better to go without the +4...

Minor feature suggestion: It would be good to update the tax table by uploading a comma delimited file or something similar. We can do that using mysql command line or phpmyadmin, but it's not as convenient. In my case there are 3,251 rows just with 5 digit zip codes.

Another useful thing would be tracking some kind of jurisdiction code. I don't know about other states, but Oklahoma requires filing tax reports with place code numbers so they know where the tax money goes. It would be nice to be able to store records of that for monthly reporting. (I had been experimenting with that too.)

Thanks for making this module!
08 Jun 2007, 20:03
#18
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bouncey

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

For more info about the sales tax situation in OK and TX see my posts in this thread:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42549

Okay, I was feeling a little grouchy. But taxes always do that to me. :laugh:
20 Jun 2007, 17:52
#19
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ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

The Mod is now available in the downloads, I will be posting any updates there as well.
20 Jun 2007, 18:20
#20
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ladyhlg

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Re: Local Sales Tax Mod (with admin!) for testing

bouncey,
Thanks for all the suggestions for the mod, I know that with all the complicated tax situations out there this mod is pretty bare bones, but I hope at least its a starting point.

I'm afraid that to take it much further is going to require the assistance of someone with stronger php skills than mine.

In truth, the mod started out as a learning experience to see if I could actually do it. It's completion is in no small part due to the excellent efforts of all the previous local county sales tax mods and the core code of the cart itself. Even as a relative newbie to php I was able to easily follow existing cart code to construct the admin interface. Zen Cart is a truly amazing cart system, inside and out!

LadyHLG