Edit Orders v4.0 Support Thread

[southshorepizza]

If I give something to a customer for free I cannot zero out the tax on an order.

[lhungil]

If I give something to a customer for free I cannot zero out the tax on an order.

Why not? Changing either the product "tax rate" or "price" both affect the calculation of tax by the Order Total Module (ot_tax). Either can be set to "0" which indicates the product cost was "free" to the customer. This works 100% of the time in a "stock" Zen Cart installation.

NOTE 1: Changing a product to "free" after purchase should not be something one needs to do on a regular basis... If one is offering an item for "free" w/ purchase of XYZ, then an order total module should be used to automatically apply the necessary changes to the products / order.

NOTE 2: If you look closely at coupons (in the US) for "free" or "bogo" offers, you will usually see "excluding sales tax". Why? Because any applicable sales tax must still be paid if the item was "sold" (invoiced at a price greater than 0). If one is required to collect taxes for a location, one usually still needs to collect on the invoiced price.

NOTE 3: In the US you will see some companies list an item as a "gift". In this case they have changed the product itself to be free (and paid any applicable sales tax when they bought the product from the supplier). "Gifts" are not "sales" (and if under a certain amount per year and per recipient) may be exempt from taxation as they are not "sales". Keep in mind the company giving the "gift" in this case paid the applicable "sales" tax for the item when they purchased the item.

NOTE 4: One should consult a tax lawyer about the implications of offering "free" or "discounted" offers. Depending on where the discount is applied (item vs order) different tax rules may apply. Different tax rules may also apply depending upon geographical locations, sales date, and other factors.