Local Sales Tax Mod - Support Thread

Sorry for all the posts LadyG. The issue was, that i needed to uninstall and reinstall the order total module after the upgrade.

The list i was refering to disappeared after this. And then i also went into the zips i entered in version 2 and removed the spaces after the semi-colon.

Now I am officially working and upgraded.

Your plug-in has saved me tons of time. As soon as i start making some sales here, i will be sure to donate for your great work.

Also, do you have a mailing list to inform of updates?

Thanks again

Craig

Craig,
The space within the zip codes should not matter, the mod should be able to handle it either way.
The extra data you are seeing is the debugging option.
Go to Modules -> Order Total and look under the settings for the Local Sales Tax Mod, you can turn it off there.

LadyHLG

Hi Craig,
Opps! I missed your last post, glad you figured out what was happening.

As for a mailing list, I'm afraid this post is the closest thing I have to one. If you stay subscribed to it any important upgrades or issues will be posted here.

Have a good day!
LadyHLG

Versions
ZenCart 1.3.8
Local Sales Tax 2.3

I am charging sales Tax for GA.
Set up New Zone Definition called Georgia
Added Zone of Gerogia with 4% rate

That works and taxes 4% correctly

Added Local Sales Tax and defined every zip code with their tax rates of 1% - 3%
But cannot get the local Sales Tax to show up?

Example of entry in the local tax table:
ID Tax Zone Apply To Look For Tax Rate Tax Description Tax Shipping Tax Class Action

2 postcode 31563 3.0000 Appling true Taxable Goods

Every time I go to edit the Tax Zone drop down has no choices but "Select Zone" So it is blank in the table. Do I need a tax zone set?

I tried shipping and billing address zip of 31563 and set to tax on shipping, then tried billing, then tried store.

Changed the order of the local sales tax module to 299 with tax at 300. Tried swapping them too.

Every time the tax comes up 4% only, just showing the GA state tax zone I set up. It needs to then show 3% for Appling County and be a total of 7%.

I know I am missing something, but I have read and tried all your posts with no luck. Can you point me in the right direction.

My thought is to go into the db and add my Tax Zone of Georgia to all the entries in the table?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks kramergutt

I'm not sure what is happening for you. The only time I get the the zone drop down box on the local sales tax mod to show empty is when I do not select a country from the box above.

So before we can proceed we need to make sure your countries and zones are tied together correctly. Also, because the zone box is filled in via Javascript when a country is select, I wonder if it could possibly be a browser issue?

LadyHLG

Well that was it. I did not realize that. Guess some of us don't catch on that quick. So in your debug mode I see it is adding the local sales tax, but it still does not show up on the right for the total calculation. I'd like the customer to be able to see that local sales tax. How can I do that.

Thanks, your module is great by the way!

Generally, if the tax is being added but not showing on checkout you need to adjust the mod sort order. Modules -> Order Total

LadyHLG

Thanks, all good!

Is there a way to have the local sales tax mod look at just the zip code to determine sales tax? My state has different sales tax rates for each county BUT I don't want my customers to have to pick a particular county when they create an account or type in a shipping address. (e.g. How can I expect an out of state customer to know the names of counties within my state?) Can someone give me an idea on how to set this up? I am so confused with zone names, zone definitions, zone codes, zone descriptions, etc.
State: Nevada
Counties: Clark, Nye, Mineral
Tax rates: Clark=8.1%, Nye=7.1%, Mineral=6.85%
Zip codes:
Clark=88901-88905;
Nye=89003-89409;
Mineral=89415;

CustomBooks,
I'm not sure I understand, why would your customers be looking up your county? If sales tax for your state is determined by your county then all you need to do is set up one sales tax for your county and apply it to everything thing.

Usually if counties are involved in figuring out sales tax then its the county to which you are shipping the item (certainly a customer will know their own county). In most cases of an out of state customer wouldn't pay any sales tax. But of course, this really depends on the sales tax laws in your state. I suggest verifying the laws before going too far with the setups.

But to answer your origional question, yes, the local sales tax mod will apply tax based just on zip code. You only have to have a zone set up for the state that the zip codes are in (which should already be done with the default cart set ups). So when you go to set up the local tax all you have to do is select Nevada from the zones.

Does this make sense?

LadyHLG

LadyHLG-
Thanks for your speedy reply; I'm afraid I need more direction. Yes, an out-of-state customer pays sales tax if the item ships to a Nevada address because MY business resides in Nevada. Sales tax in Nevada in based on the shipping address, and the tax rate varies by county. The problem is I can't expect out-of-state customers to know which Nevada county they are shipping to. I tried to follow the redme files for version 2.3 - helpful tips - how to set up counties as zones, and when I removed the state of Nevada as a zone, all I had were the counties in Nevada when someone needed to fill in an addresss. I would like the local sales tax mod to key off of zip code instead of county. Does that make sense? How do I do that?

CustomBooks,
So if I understand this correctly you are working under the assumption that someone from out of state might ship to someone in Nevada? I guess that makes sense.

Ok you can do one of two things,
Option 1
Leave the counties as they are, in which case someone from out of state will have to find out what county they are shipping to on their own, (not really that difficult to do on the internet but you never know if the customer will figure that out). Then tax based on the county. This option doesn't really require the local sales tax mod at all unless you have to apply additional sales tax based on city or something like that.

Option 2 -
Remove the counties completely from the zones and re-add Nevada (one entry for the whole state) back in as a zone by itself. Then set up all the zip codes in Nevada for local taxes.

It really has to be one or the other.

Is this making any more sense?

LadyHLG

LadyHLG-
Yes, I do have out-of-state customers shipping to Nevada and this poses a problem. With one sales tax zone, I either charge the lowest county sales tax rate (and lose money) or charge the highest county sales tax rate (and overcharge).

I don't want to make my out-of-state customers pick a county when they enter an address, so option one is out.

So, option two. How do I "set up all the zip codes in Nevada for local taxes"? I'm not quite sure how to use the local sales tax modification. There are 6 different sales tax rates within the state and 17 counties. If I use Nevada as my zone, are the sales tax rates (6.85%, 7.1% etc) my zone definitions? Or are the counties my zone definitions? Several counties have the same sales tax rate. Here's what I setup, however, it does not seem to be working correctly. Suggestions?

Tax Zone=Nevada
Apply To=postcode
Look For=89701-89703;89706;89711-89714;89721;
Tax Rate=7.4750
Tax Description=Carson
Tax Shipping=true
Tax Class=Taxable Goods

CustomBooks,
If you are taxing purely based on the ship to zip code than you will not have to use zone definitions or zen cart zone taxes at all.

So you would have your countries set up (with USA and any other countries you ship to). Then you would have your states set up as zones, including Nevada (just Nevada not counties).
You do not need to set up anything else as far as zone definitions or zen cart tax rates (you do however need tax classes set up!).

All the sales taxes will be handled by the Local Sales Tax Mod.
So set up each tax rate with all corresponding zip codes exactly as you described.

Tax Zone=Nevada
Apply To=postcode
Look For=89701-89703;89706;89711-89714;89721;
Tax Rate=7.4750
Tax Description=Carson
Tax Shipping=true
Tax Class=Taxable Goods

LadyHLG

LadyHLG-
Eureka! I removed the excess zen cart tax definitions and tax rates and everything is working as expected except for:

Zip codes in range of "89830-89835;" is not being recognized by the local sales tax mod. I thought I could use the hyphen to specify range. However, "89830-to-89835;" works fine.

And, here's another problem: If I don't have a Nevada zip code defined (let's say the Post Office adds a new zip code and I am unaware) - no sales tax is charged (of course).

Is there a way to specify all undefined 89xxx zip codes should default to a minimum 6.85% sales tax within the local sales tax mod? Or, can I add one general Nevada zen cart tax rate and give it a lower priority (somehow) so it kicks in if the local sales tax mod doesn't find a matching zip code in its database?

CustomBooks,

Is there a way to specify all undefined 89xxx zip codes should default to a minimum 6.85% sales tax within the local sales tax mod? Or, can I add one general Nevada zen cart tax rate and give it a lower priority (somehow) so it kicks in if the local sales tax mod doesn't find a matching zip code in its database?

The only way to do this kind of thing would be to set up a zone tax for Nevada of 6.85% then set each zip code tax to whatever the additional tax is for that area.

So, as an example, if zip code 89830 has a total sales tax of 7.0% you would set the zip code tax at .15%. The cart would then apply a statewide tax of 6.85% to all orders in Nevada and then additional .15% to all orders in 89830 totaling your 7.0% sales tax.

LadyHLG

LadyHLG-
Got it! Many, many thanks for all your help.

You are welcome!:smile:

LadyHLG

Hi,
I'm using zc 1.3.8a, and I've managed to install the mod and the upgrade. Yesterday I downloaded a file that had all the New York State counties and respective tax rates, called zencart_local_tax_ny.sql

Although the mod is working, I can't figure out how to incorporate that file (which loaded and can be found in the database). I also can't remember where the heck I found it! I've searched this thread, the previous one, and the "free software add-ons" section. I was hoping to ask the writer for advice.

Any info would be greatly appreciated, and thank you to LadyHLG for all of her unselfish and gracious work. :clap:

therealex,
It could be possible that the file you have is not meant to work with this particular mod. There have been several local tax mods developed over the years, and I am certain that there have been some specifically designed for NY.
If the file you have was created for this mod it should have over written your local sales tax table and you would see that data in the admin interface for the mod.
There have been files posted by other members specifically for this mod for NY, I'm not sure how up-to-date they will be but it might be a place to start.
In addition to this current thread there is an older support thread HERE.
This one is specifically for NY

Hope that helps!

LadyHLG