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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
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    Default State sales tax for out of state still charging.

    Hello,

    I've seen many posts about this issue but the fix doesn't seem to work with my setup. I'm simply trying to have California taxes charged to customers who reside in state and no taxes to customers who reside out of state. I went through all the tutorials and forum posts I could find on how to do this but it is still charging taxes to people outside of California. I have "Display taxes with price" set to true so I can see the total price without having to the view the checkout shopping cart. I have a friend who resides in Illinois and she can see that the California tax is being applied to her price.
    Here is what I have set up:
    Configuration -> my store -> country -> United States
    Configuration -> my store -> zone -> California
    Locations/Taxes -> Zone Definitions -> Zone Name = California, Zone description = California Sales Tax
    Locations/Taxes -> Tax Classes -> Tax Classes = Taxable goods
    Locations/Taxes -> Tax Rates -> Tax Class = Taxable Goods, Zone = California, Tax Rate = 7.5%, Description = CA TAX 7.5%

    What do I need to change to make it so out of state customers are not charged California state tax?

    thank you,
    trebo70

    Current version v1.5.5e

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    16,718
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    Default Re: State sales tax for out of state still charging.

    Seeing prices with tax and charging tax are two different things.

    Think about this. When you go to the store and see an item on the shelf (within the US), what price do you see on the shelf? The price of the item. Not the price with tax. You are seeing the price without tax included. When you go to checkout, that is when tax is added. In the cart, the tax, assuming set to be taxed based on shipping location, would well, depend on where it is being shipped.

    If on the otherhand, prices were like they are in many European locations for example, then the price you would see on the sticker would be the price of the item with the price including tax. (ie. You see what you are expected to pay unless you have some special allowance to pay less.) that would be displaying the price with tax.

    So, if you want your Illinois resident to see the non-taxed price, either the prices need to be displayed without tax included, or if they are included, then enough information is needed to be able to show them the price applicable to "them" (again whether it's a shipment, purchase from, or lives in address that is of concern.)


    What is the goal of your in-store price display? Are you wanting visitors to your site to see the price that includes the tax or the price before adding tax? If it is any more complicated than that, then some sort of modification needs to be applied to the store.
    ZC Installation/Maintenance Support <- Site
    Contribution for contributions welcome...

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Default Re: State sales tax for out of state still charging.

    Thanks for your response mc12345678.

    Displaying the products with taxes applied was just for testing purposes. If I have everything set up correctly anyone outside of my state shouldn't have any taxes applied whether or not the taxes are shown included in the price or at checkout. Am I wrong?

    I have the tax rate applied to a zone definition that I apply to every product on my site. Maybe thats where I'm wrong. It looks to me that linking a product into a tax class in the product set up locks that product to a flat tax rate for that product no matter where the customer is located.
    You brought up an interesting point though, I do have "Basis of Shipping Tax" set to Shipping. You would think that in itself would somehow make it work.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    Default Re: State sales tax for out of state still charging.

    Quote Originally Posted by trebo1970 View Post
    Thanks for your response mc12345678.

    Displaying the products with taxes applied was just for testing purposes. If I have everything set up correctly anyone outside of my state shouldn't have any taxes applied whether or not the taxes are shown included in the price or at checkout. Am I wrong?
    You are correct that if everything is setup *correctly* then regardless of what the display price with/without tax on the store front is setup as, the tax will only be applied (at least come the checkout_payment section) as defined for the store, product, and, as applicable, destination.

    Quote Originally Posted by trebo1970 View Post
    I have the tax rate applied to a zone definition that I apply to every product on my site. Maybe thats where I'm wrong. It looks to me that linking a product into a tax class in the product set up locks that product to a flat tax rate for that product no matter where the customer is located.
    You brought up an interesting point though, I do have "Basis of Shipping Tax" set to Shipping. You would think that in itself would somehow make it work.
    Did a search of the FAQ (FAQ search button is located on at least the Zen Cart 2016 template of this forum in the upper right corner just below the search entry field) and found some of the following applicable areas "describing" at least what is necessary to be entered for tax calculations. In the few that I also reviewed there isn't exactly great detail about each available selection, but it is identified that the options have an effect on the price.

    So: First steps to setting up the shop (Many things identified, but tax related discussion is included): https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php...ur-online-shop
    How do I configure taxes: https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php...x-single-rate)
    And: My Taxes aren't calculating properly. What should I check?: https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php...should-i-check

    For your situation of applying taxes to products. It sounds like the product themselves are properly "assigned" if they only encompass a single tax group and that tax group only applies to California. What it sounds like based on the above question/discussion about "Basis of Shipping Tax" indicates to me that perhaps the settings described in the above FAQs are not yet understood.

    There are two "items" purchased whenever a shippable product is processed. There's the shipping and there's the product itself. There really isn't anything else that could be taxable. For some, shipping isn't even taxable by "local" law. Whether tax should be applied to shipping or not is something to address outside of ZC, how to apply it is a different matter.

    So, in the Configuration->My Store section, you may want to review the setting for Basis of Product Tax. It sounds like you would want it to be based on the shipping (where it is headed, though there is also a little bit of a wrinkle when addressing virtual product, but let's leave that for discussion if it applies rather than just directly going into it). It may be set for Billing or Store, or the Illinois individual may have a default address that is in California and in testing hadn't updated the ship to address...

    The setting for "Basis for Shipping Tax" relates to the tax rate that is to be applied to the shipping module(s), which the shipping module(s) may or may not have a tax rate associated with them (that is set in the individual shipping module, thus if a shipping module type is to have multiple different tax bases, then it may be necessary to clone the shipping module and modified to be enabled/disabled as applicable for the given zone(s)).

    The display price with tax, would provide the "highest" (Haven't tried applying multiple different tax rates to different areas to see whether it would actually be the highest price or the price of the product if the product were locally purchased) out-of-pocket price for the item, but yes during checkout at least in a default ZC store, the price would be "adjusted" to the tax basis/rate settings. A demo store has a tax rate setup in Florida... A person that is shipping to Illinois would not be charged the Florida tax rate, and therefore with display price with tax set to true, the in store price would be higher, but at checkout it would come back down to the untaxed product price...

    If there is something different than this occurring, then it would be necessary to identify what other software is installed/how the site has been modified.

    It would also help those reading this to know what all of the tax related settings are for both the store and for a single product. Some of that has been provided, but consolidating it into a single post helps tremendously.
    ZC Installation/Maintenance Support <- Site
    Contribution for contributions welcome...

 

 

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