California Tax Rates

[charlieo]

I'm helping with a friend's store. They now tell me California has 2 tax rates.

Southern California is 8.25% while Northern California is 7.75%. The store ships from S. Cal - so no tax to other states. It's getting beat up on orders from S. Cal. because the OLD rate was 7.75 for everyone - so they're losing on those.

Does anyone know how to set that up?

There isn't a drop down for zip codes - so I'm wondering how to break up the Tax Zone when there's no way to distinguish it when customers login.

If there is a way to have two tax zones - the customer should have someway to choose.

Any ideas are appreciated.

charlieo

[MMN Maniac]

I'm helping with a friend's store. They now tell me California has 2 tax rates.

Southern California is 8.25% while Northern California is 7.75%. The store ships from S. Cal - so no tax to other states. It's getting beat up on orders from S. Cal. because the OLD rate was 7.75 for everyone - so they're losing on those.

Does anyone know how to set that up?

There isn't a drop down for zip codes - so I'm wondering how to break up the Tax Zone when there's no way to distinguish it when customers login.

If there is a way to have two tax zones - the customer should have someway to choose.

Any ideas are appreciated.

charlieo

Heh.. I'm working on a New York store, and we have about 20 different tax rates and zones here..

If anyone can comment on this, I'd be grateful. If there was some way to have the customer pick and choose, that'd be great. The tax rates here in NY are NOT based on ZIP-codes either, so I'm out of ideas short of having customers give us their CC info and then we'll process their cards for them (which takes more time on our end).

Thanks everyone!

~MMN Maniac

[clydejones]

Try the ot_local_tax mod you can find it here
http://www.zen-cart.com/archived_con...s/order-total/

It was written with California in mind.

[charlieo]

Clyde:

I'm going to try it.

I just checked the California State Tax Page at:

http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm

It's a snakepit - it's different for almost every county. Anywhere from 7.25 to 8.50 in San Fran - and everything in between.

This could take a while - thanks for the module!!

Charlieo

[PortMan]

Sales tax is collected by the county the sale originated in. So, if your store is in S.Cal and you sell to N. Cal you still have to collect S. Cal tax rate. You should have to only set one Tax Zone "California" and set the rate to 8.25

[charlieo]

Ahhh - Portman - that is refreshing news!

Will implement one tax for her store!

Thanks,

Charlieo

[Kim]

Before implementing any tax advice, please consult your accountant or tax attorney.

[PortMan]

Before implementing any tax advice, please consult your accountant or tax attorney.

Agreed!
I have a call into the State Board of Equalization on this one and will post their response.

[gjh42]

In NY the requirement is to collect tax based on the customer's location (unless selling directly face-to-face). There are something like a hundred zones - one for every county and many small cities within rural counties, never mind NYC and surroundings.

Most small merchants I have seen or dealt with just use their own tax rate on mail orders - annoying when they're in NYC and want to collect 8.625% instead of my local 8%.... And the sales tax reporting form is four pages long so you can enter the amount of your sales in every zone in the state, for the state's fiscal year instead of the calendar year. =P

[cpk]

Will implement one tax for her store!

Charlieo, definitely check with BOE since I am also in CA and was told the same thing that gjh42 says they have to do for NY.

In CA we are supposed to collect tax based on the county/city tax rate of the customer's location. I was told this when I got my reseller's license but I would recommend that you check to be sure.

cpk