Configuring Taxes for Canadian Sites/Zones

[Bosch]

I think its a bit complicated since my business is registered in Ontario and I have GST number and estore will be based on that.

in addition my receiving bank will be Scotiabank and Im assuming Revenue Canada will want GST to be paid and my personal physical location wont matter. also Ill be coming back to canada in a year or so.

of course it'd be easier for me not to meddle with taxes altogether and select "none" to tax rate brackets when adding a product, but I wanted to setup taxes correctly initially.

so Im not sure what to select when adding a product GSt on shipping, GST/HST/PST or there's one default came with zencart Taxable Goods.

[s_mack]

Ok, sorry. You're right - if your business is registered in Ontario and you have a GST number then it doesn't matter where you personally are located. Since you already have a GST number you MUST collect and remit GST (where applicable) regardless of the $30,000 rule. Even if you make 10 bucks, you have to charge, collect, and remit the GST on it because you already registered. The $30k rule is only for those that haven't yet CHOSEN to register for GST. Now you're stuck with it.

Still, nothing changes. You have to treat all the goods you sell as though they came from Ontario regardless of where they physically came from. The POSSIBLE exception to that is this:

If your drop shipper is in another Canadian province, say BC for example, then you MAY have to also collect PST from BC residents. This is because you have to collect provincial taxes from customers of ANY AND ALL provinces you have a physical presence in. I'm not sure, but they may consider a drop shipper as being an extension of your business.

But, I am sure that if your drop shipper is outside of Canada you still have to charge GST (and PST in Ontario, HST in Atlantic) to your customers because they did business with YOU and not the foreign company. HOWEVER, what gets very complicated about this is unless your drop shipper does the paperwork right (and sometimes even if they do it right) your customers are going to get double-taxed because once it comes into the country, customs assumes no tax was paid on it. It gets hairy.

If it is really small time, I'd probably suggest NOT collecting the taxes for those items because the PROPER way to do it is so bloody complicated. Or don't drop ship from the US.

As for your question about setting up the shipping... it is explained at the top of this thread.

Best of luck friend.

- Steven

[Bosch]

thanks for info.
I just finished talking to GST dept in revenue canada and was told that GST has to pay person receiving inported goods 5%.

and best way to avoiding a client for Double taxing (at your webstore and at the customs) would be to contact ups or fedex or whoever is delivering and identifying and registering yourself as an "importer".

then courier company will pay GST on your behalf and then I'd reimburse the costs to them.

[s_mack]

Yes, exactly. Easier said than done :) But that is right. I would recommend FedEx over UPS (and certainly over DHL - easily the worst company on this planet) but they are more expensive. You'll find doing it this way a hassle unless you're doing pretty good volume - then it is worth it. But yes, that is the correct way to go about it.

- Steven

[Bosch]

I decided not to charge GST (untill I start making more then 30k in sales) and canceling my GST number.

I setup taxes as in guide, now how do I remove GST charge? since clients will pay GST at the door to courier company.

[Absolute]

It's always nice to re-vistit old threads with solutions, so here goes.....

If you want to display -
SubTotal $100.00
Shipping: $10.00
GST: $5.50
PST: $8.00
Total $123.50

You need to do the following.

1 - Setup all your taxes as discribed at teh top of this thread, BUT ensure that the Descriptions match for those you wish to group together. So if you have GST on Shipping, and GST, the DESCRIPTION field MUST be the same - so GST (5%)

2 - BACKUP includes/modules/order_totals/ot_tax.php

3 - REPLACE the function process() { and all code down to function check() { with the following code (Leave the function check() { line intact.)

    function process() {
      global $order, $currencies;

      reset($order->info['tax_groups']);
	  $tax_values = array();
      while (list($key, $value) = each($order->info['tax_groups'])) {
        if ($value > 0 or STORE_TAX_DISPLAY_STATUS == 1) {
		  if (strstr($key, ' + ')) {
		    $tax_rates = array();
			$tax_descriptions = explode(' + ', $key);
			foreach($tax_descriptions as $tax_description) {
			  $tax_rate = zen_get_tax_rate_from_desc($tax_description);
			  $tax_rates[$tax_description] = $tax_rate;
			  $total_tax_rate += $tax_rate;
			}
			foreach($tax_rates as $description => $rate) {
			  $tax_values[$description] += ($value / $total_tax_rate) * $rate;
			}
		  } else {
		    $tax_values[$key] += $value;
		  }
        }
      }
	  foreach($tax_values as $description => $tax_value) {
        $this->output[] = array('title' => $description . ':',
                                'text' => $currencies->format($tax_value, true, $order->info['currency'], $order->info['currency_value']),
                                'value' => $tax_value);
 	  }
    }

That's it. It re-works all your taxes, so that rather than showing tax A + Tax B = $xxx.xx, it now shows Tax A = xx.xx and Tax B = xx.xx. No alterations have been made to how the tax is actually calculated, so this should work with any tax rates, and with any modules you have installed.

Absolute

[MojoDaddy]

That's it. It re-works all your taxes, so that rather than showing tax A + Tax B = $xxx.xx, it now shows Tax A = xx.xx and Tax B = xx.xx. No alterations have been made to how the tax is actually calculated, so this should work with any tax rates, and with any modules you have installed.

Interesting... I replaced the original ot_tax.php with yours and noticed my SHIPPING GST and PST display 50% of their actual values. The grand total does display correct. I restored the backup of ot_tax.php and the shipping values appear fine.

With original ot_tax.php:

Sub-Total: $155.99
Shipping: $10.48
GST#99999 99999 RT0001 5.0% GST + 8.0% PST: $20.28
5.0% GST on Shipping + 8.0% PST on Shipping: $1.36
Total: $188.11

With modified ot_tax.php:

Sub-Total: $155.99
Shipping: $10.48
GST#99999 99999 RT0001 5.0% GST: $7.80
8.0% PST: $12.48
5.0% GST on Shipping: $0.26 (Should be $.52)
8.0% PST on Shipping: $0.42 (Should be $.84)
Total: $188.11 (Remains correct)

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[RayDube]

I looove this tax tutorial and have used it to set up the taxes for my two Leatherman Tools sites, but...

I'm creating a new site for my programming work, and that site need to be setup with the same taxes as the Leatherman sites...

Now I don't really want to go through the entire process of setting them all up by hand.

Is there a way to export/import the settings from my other sites?

Any help would be appreciated!

Ray

[s_mack]

Honestly, in the time it takes to figure out and implement an export/import strategy you'd probably have it done manually twice over :)

I could very well be wrong. Someone can probably whip up an SQL query faster than I can type "SQL query"

[Absolute]

The only way to do this using SQL is through phpMyAdmin, or similar interface. The Zen Cart SQL patch doesn't return recordsets, only sends the SQL to the server, so you can't use that for exports.

All you would need to do is to export all records from tax_class and tax_rates tables, and if you wanted them, the zones_to_geo_zones and geo_zones tables as well.

Export the data, change databases, and then import into the same tables on the new database.

JUST ENSURE YOU BACKUP FIRST

Absolute