Local Sales Tax Mod - Support Thread

[lhungil]

it only picks up CA, and never SF for a user who is based in SF and has one of the zipcodes set in the rules for the local sales tax mod. I added all of the zipcodes, set to zipcode, and use SF as the description. I'm assuming that if the mod picks up the user who is using a zip code for shipping that is one of the ones I have set to find, it will apply SF(8.75%) as the tax instead of CA (8.25%). Right now however, it is only picking up CA for a user who is using shipping in SF...

If everything was installed and configured correctly it will show "CA (8.25%)" AND "SF (0.5%)". Both rates are applied individually (If the calculated tax rounds to less than a penny it will not be shown). The overall TAX rate applied to the order will be tax_round(price*8.25%) + tax_round(price*0.5%) for a total applied tax rate of 8.75%.

Things to check / post screen shot (Just to clarify and double check)

• What are the store settings for tax basis (admin -> configuration -> my store)?
• Is the Local Sales Tax order total module installed and enabled (admin -> modules -> order total)?
• Concrete example of your customer address data (for shipping / billing)?
• The configured rule(s) expected to match the customer address data (provide using "CODE" block and copy / paste from Zen Cart)?
• What is the "Tax Class" of the product? Does it match the "Tax Class" selected in the configured rule?
• Are there any "debug" files in "/logs" or "/cache" (if so please provide here using "CODE" blocks)?

Other considerations

• Did you install Zen Cart using a method other than zc_install (such as softaculous / cpanel)?
• Did you upgrade from an older version of Zen Cart (such as 1.3.x / 1.5.0)?
• Did you upgrade from an older version of Local Sales Tax (if so did you try to uninstall / re-install the order total module)?
• What other modifications have been made to your Zen Cart installation (templates, plugins, etc)?
• Link to your website (sometimes it is useful to see the website)?

Failing all else, you can enable "Debugging is active". This will display some additional debugging information on relevant pages of your website relating to the "Local Sales Tax" module. Keep in mind anyone visiting your website will also see the debugging messages.

[noyloza]

What are the store settings for tax basis (admin -> configuration -> my store)? SHIPPING

Is the Local Sales Tax order total module installed and enabled (admin -> modules -> order total)? YES

Concrete example of your customer address data (for shipping / billing)? Not sure what this means?

The configured rule(s) expected to match the customer address data (provide using "CODE" block and copy / paste from Zen Cart)?attached.

What is the "Tax Class" of the product? Does it match the "Tax Class" selected in the configured rule? how can i check this?

Are there any "debug" files in "/logs" or "/cache" (if so please provide here using "CODE" blocks)? not sure...

attaching screen shots to see if there is something out of order...

should my local sales tax be .5% then instead of the complete 8.75%? Either way its not being added so I don't think its working...

[lhungil]

In a clean installation of Zen Cart, USA "zones" match against "state" only. So by default Zen Cart does not include a "San Francisco" zone... Not sure why this was added, but the zone probably matches NOTHING. I would recommend removing the "San Francisco" zone to avoid future confusion unless there is a valid business reason this zone was added to Zen Cart (and it actually does something).

You should be using the "California" zone as the zone where the "San Francisco" local tax rule should be applied. Once you "fix" this setting on your rule, if all else is correct, the two rates should be applied (CA and SF).

...
What is the "Tax Class" of the product? Does it match the "Tax Class" selected in the configured rule? how can i check this?
...

In the admin open up "Catalog" > "Categories / Products". Find the product you testing with. Select and edit the product. On the edit page what is selected for the "Tax Class:"? Does it match the "Tax Class" selected in the local sales tax rule?

...
Are there any "debug" files in "/logs" or "/cache" (if so please provide here using "CODE" blocks)? not sure...
...

See Step 2a on this page. It should help guide you when looking for these files.

...
should my local sales tax be .5% then instead of the complete 8.75%?
...

Yes.

[noyloza]

I changed my sales tax to .5% and my tax classes match...

[dbpiano]

The people from accounting pointed out that on the Orders detail page and the Invoice on the Admin section are showing the wrong amount for taxes.

Example:

Someone from the Volusia county should be charged 6.5% 6% for state tax and 0.5% for county tax

The calculation is correct but the value displayed on the tax section is 7%.



I checked how the detail table is being created and traced the tax value in this case is field=products_tax(7.0000) being pulled from table on the DB `orders_products`.

Is there any way that you can help me to fix this? since is causing issues with end user giving them the impression that the tax is wrong.

I don't know if this is an issue with "local sales tax mod" or the "edit order mod", but since you are the creator of both I figured you would understand this issue.

Thanks in advance

[lhungil]

The people from accounting pointed out that on the Orders detail page and the Invoice on the Admin section are showing the wrong amount for taxes.

You are correct (and thank you for mentioning this in the support thread)!

Background / Why
The "tax" field is pulled from the Zen Cart "tax" rate for the product. This does not include any "local sales tax" calculations. The "Local Sales Tax" mod does not modify what is shown in this field (admin side). It also does not include changes to any templates (customer side). Showing a combined rate may be considered in the future (the value in the database saved with the product should not be altered). If you (or anyone else) tackles this project, please submit the changes / patches to this support thread!

Modifying the value of this field using "Edit Orders" will only modify the Zen Cart tax rate, not any "local sales tax" calculations. "Edit Orders" does not support manually changing the "local sales tax" rate for products. Any "local sales tax" will be applied in addition to the rate listed in this field. Adding the ability to modify the "local sales tax" order line will not be considered for "Edit Orders" in the future (unless an overwhelming need with no workaround is found - as this would require substantial modification to both modules).

Temporary Workaround / Hide the field
If you are concerned with the rate being shown to people using the Zen Cart admin interface, remove the column from showing in "/admin/orders.php" and "/admin/invoice.php" (I typically just alter the invoice and teach clients to always use this button to display / print their invoices).

For the customer side, this field is only shown on the account history page if products with different tax rates are in the same order. If you might encounter this situation you can edit "/includes/templates/YOUR_THEME_NAME/templates/tpl_account_history_info_default.php" to remove the tax column from being shown.

[dbpiano]

You are correct (and thank you for mentioning this in the support thread)!

Background / Why
The "tax" field is pulled from the Zen Cart "tax" rate for the product. This does not include any "local sales tax" calculations. The "Local Sales Tax" mod does not modify what is shown in this field (admin side). It also does not include changes to any templates (customer side). Showing a combined rate may be considered in the future (the value in the database saved with the product should not be altered). If you (or anyone else) tackles this project, please submit the changes / patches to this support thread!

Modifying the value of this field using "Edit Orders" will only modify the Zen Cart tax rate, not any "local sales tax" calculations. "Edit Orders" does not support manually changing the "local sales tax" rate for products. Any "local sales tax" will be applied in addition to the rate listed in this field. Adding the ability to modify the "local sales tax" order line will not be considered for "Edit Orders" in the future (unless an overwhelming need with no workaround is found - as this would require substantial modification to both modules).

Temporary Workaround / Hide the field
If you are concerned with the rate being shown to people using the Zen Cart admin interface, remove the column from showing in "/admin/orders.php" and "/admin/invoice.php" (I typically just alter the invoice and teach clients to always use this button to display / print their invoices).

For the customer side, this field is only shown on the account history page if products with different tax rates are in the same order. If you might encounter this situation you can edit "/includes/templates/YOUR_THEME_NAME/templates/tpl_account_history_info_default.php" to remove the tax column from being shown.

Thanks for your help.

[gwynwyffar]

Has any progress been made with regard to Order Total and the affect of coupons and GVs on that total? The Local Sales Tax mod works perfectly except when someone uses a Coupon code or GV. In that case it calculates tax as if the discount never happened.

[FloridaGoFishing]

Hi, I am considering using this mod for calculating Florida local taxes. I am currently using Tax Cloud and it does not play well with coupons causing me headaches with importing orders into my accounting system. What I need to know before installing this mod is how will the tax charged the customer (state 6% plus local %) get posted into the SQL database - into 1 field (normal tax field), 2 fields (state & local), or 3 fields (state, local, & total)? This is important because I use Cart Span that works fantastic and Cart Span only imports the one field, the normal Tax field that is build into Zen Cart. So if this mod posts the total tax charged into the normal Zen tax field, then I would be all set!

[lhungil]

... What I need to know before installing this mod is how will the tax charged the customer (state 6% plus local %) get posted into the SQL database - into 1 field (normal tax field), 2 fields (state & local), or 3 fields (state, local, & total)? ...

Typically the state is configured using the stock Zen Cart tax system. Local taxes are then configured using this module and will be added to the order total separately.

Taxes are stored as one entry per tax rate charged
This module adds the taxes to the standard Zen Cart locations during order total processing (array containing tax descriptions + amount). When the taxes are saved to the Zen Cart database, each "local" tax amount is treated as a separate order total line (and saved as such in the database). This is done on purpose to allow full reporting of what taxes were paid (and what municipality, program, or location for which the tax was collected).

Integration with 3rd Party software
After an order has been completed / shipped a, if integration is done using a 3rd Party vendor (to "export" the order data from Zen Cart's database and "import" the order data into account softwaresuch as QuickBooks)... It would probably be best to contact the 3rd Party vendor of the integration software (especially if the 3rd Party software is commercial).

Some questions to ask the 3rd Party Vendor:

• Does your Zen Cart module support the "Local Sales Tax" Zen Cart module?
• How does your Zen Cart module support multiple order total lines (such as store credit, shipping, discounts, taxes, subtotal, etc)?
• Does your Zen Cart module support adding together specific order total lines prior to import into accounting software such as QuickBooks?
• When exporting from Zen Cart and importing data to accounting software such as QuickBooks, does your Zen Cart module support mapping specific Zen Cart order total lines to specific lines in QuickBooks?

Note: I am not a tax lawyer and cannot give advice as to how taxes should be collected, reported, or remitted. As such, it is your responsibility to seek the advice of a tax professional operating the the area(s) you do business to provide accurate answers to any and all questions related to taxes.