Local Sales Tax Mod - Support Thread

Hi,

Obviously nothing is going to be absolutely simple, but this mod should do what you want based on your comment.
It should go without saying, Try this on a TEST setup first, NOT the live site.

First you need to decide if you will be taxing buy Zip code (which is what I use), City, or Suburb.

Depending on which you choose you will then need to gather the applicable information that you will add to the database in the setup steps. There is some flexibility in entry format when using zip codes.

Next, you should read the two help / readme files in the mod package, then read the short but good tutorial at:

http://www.toastboy.com/main/zen-cart-local-tax-module-setup/

Next make a checklist of the steps you will need to do based on the read me files and tutorials.

You will have NY State tax listed once in the database, and zip codes (in this example) for each City, town etc.. You can group all the zip codes that have the same local tax rate together (separated by a semicolon ; or for ranges by -to-) when entering them, this should reduce the number of input records you create.

The mod depends on the customer entering their location (i.e., zip code), and it applies taxes based on what the customer entered and what is found in the database for the location.

I've uploaded my NY State Sales tax file for you (tax_rates_local.sql). It is sorted by county and zip code. You might want to check to make sure the rates are the most current, but you should be able to just import it and it should work. You'll want to set your NY State sales tax to 4%, then the local taxes are added to it. There are 2 tax lines shown at check out, the state and county tax.

I've been using the Local Sales Tax mod successfully on ZC 1.3.9h for several years and am in the process up upgrading our site to 1.5.1, so I haven't confirmed it works the same, but it should.

I've been having problems with shipping being taxed when it shouldn't be. My original thread was here. How can I get this module to not tax shipping?

I am under the understanding that Florida does require tax on shipping. But if you do not then go to your admin page and under 'Shipping Modules' select your shipping module for the store, then change the 'Tax Basis' to what you need. This is a sample of the text when you are updating this module page:

**Tax Basis
On what basis is Shipping Tax calculated. Options are
Shipping - Based on customers Shipping Address
Billing Based on customers Billing address
Store - Based on Store address if Billing/Shipping Zone equals Store zone

You might also want to try to setup the

****Shipping Zone
If a zone is selected, only enable this shipping method for that zone.

**

Okay, with the new sales tax laws being passed to grab money from online retailers, Georgia is now requiring us to collect based on the county/tax division we are shipping to. There are 179 counties and the city of Atlanta - 180 possible tax destinations. If anyone already has the information of zip codes to counties, I would really appreciate the list - the sql of course would be best but right now the only thing I've been able to retrieve is a non-alphabetized list out of html.

I've moved this cart from OsCommerce and they had it set up there but though it imports the tax classes - it does not import the zone definitions to match since Zen Cart can't do zip codes or suburbs so the local mod is my only option. (By the way the Avatax mod is best for those who have to worry about different states - I helped develop it but it is a commercial product).

And thanks to potteryhouse for updating this mod to 1.5x!

I am new to ZenCart and have a new install of v150. We collect sales tax in Washington state (179 different "areas / rates") and Idaho. I am looking at adding the Local Sales Tax Module. I have a couple of questions about it.

1. Read me 2.5.5 says to rename the admin folder to match the admin folder on the website. Does that mean it overwrites the existing admin folder?

2. Is there a file format that can be used to setup the zones for the local sales tax and then import it into ZenCart?

3. If someone already has Washington state set up we'd love a copy.

I believe I have read all of the FAQs / Tutorials for the module - if I have overlooked something please point me to it.

Thanks in advance.

I've installed this in my 1.3.9h cart and it works. I do have one issue though, I only use paypal express checkout for payment, I had an issue I solved by deleting my state zone and using only the local taxes. The issue I'm trying to resolve now is that it no longer shows products and amounts itemized when on paypals checkout page. The total is right though. Does anybody have a fix for this?

Here's the 2013 Florida discretionary tax rates by zipcode. Change for 2013:

Walton county changed from 7% to 7.5%. Rate table PDF is available here

These are the affected zipcodes:
32422;
32433;
32434;
32435;
32439;
32454;
32459;
32461;
32538;
32550;

skylab001:

I've installed this in my 1.3.9h cart and it works. I do have one issue though, I only use paypal express checkout for payment, I had an issue I solved by deleting my state zone and using only the local taxes. The issue I'm trying to resolve now is that it no longer shows products and amounts itemized when on paypals checkout page. The total is right though. Does anybody have a fix for this?

I've sorted out my issues with PayPal, it seems to be on the PayPal integration side. Another issue I've discovered now though, and it seems I'm not the first, is that discount coupons don't work unless moved after the tax in the display. Has anybody figured out how to fix this?

I'm very new to Zen Cart. I am testing it out to see if it will work for me, so have it installed at localhost.

I unzipped the file and pasted the folders from the FullVersion/catalog folder into the root of my ZenCart folder. I then opened the sqlfile folder. I did not see a file that was named LocalSalesTaxv2.5.sql. The best i could guess was Zencart_v1.5.0_admin_localSalesTaxes.sql. Should I have used tax_rates_local.sql instead?

Anyway, I was not able to install the sql at TOOLS -> Install SQL Patches, but was able to run the sql at phpMyAdmin. This is what I pasted into the SQL area: ```
SET @localSalesTaxesSort = (SELECT sort_order FROM zen_admin_pages WHERE menu_key = 'taxes' ORDER BY sort_order DESC LIMIT 1);
SET @localSalesTaxesSort = @localSalesTaxesSort+1;

INSERT INTO zen_admin_pages(page_key, language_key, main_page, menu_key, display_on_menu, sort_order)
VALUES ('localSalesTaxes', 'BOX_TAXES_LOCAL_SALES_TAXES', 'FILENAME_LOCAL_SALES_TAXES', 'taxes', 'Y', @localSalesTaxesSort);

For the next step, I'm supposed to go to MODULES -> ORDER TOTAL and find "Local Sales Taxes", but it isn't there.

Also, if I try to go to 

What have I done wrong?

Thanks,
Alisa

Is this plugin compatible with v1.5.1 (latest release)? Is anyone using it with v1.5.1?

I am trying do a New Install of this mod. In readme.html it says to run the LocalSalesTaxv2.5.sql file. Where is this file located? I looked in the sqlfiles folder and only see the following files but not LocalSalesTaxv2.5.sql:

• addressBookZoneValidation.sql
• Florida_tax_rates_local.sql
• tax_rates_local.sql
• uninstall_Florida_zones_and_tax_rates_local.sql
• Zencart_v1.5.0_admin_localSalesTaxes.sql

runawayd:

Is this plugin compatible with v1.5.1 (latest release)? Is anyone using it with v1.5.1?
I'm currently testing this under Zen Cart 1.5 - so far I have not run into any major issues with the core install (not using any of the optional SQL patches).

My copy is slightly different... I've been putting together a new packaging of this module with the "sales tax report" module. The new packaging includes an installer (no more manual SQL patches) and uninstaller.

If the current maintainer is interested, I could send them a copy when complete.

I started out as suggested installing this module at localhost. I had some problems, but finally worked through them. I then decided I was comfortable enough with Zen-Cart and modules uninstall my WordPress page and start from scratch with ZenCart. My site is on HostGator, so was able to just go to the cPanel and install Zen-Cart. Easy enough. Then I tried installing a template. Even though the template creator also uses HostGator and I followed the instructions to the letter, I still had problems with the install. Using Filezilla, when I was supposed to drag the folder to public_html, things would not work right. I don't know where the files went, but they didn't go into the folders they were supposed to. I had to manually drag each file over to the server. Finally got the templates installed, so decided to get the local sales tax module installed. Since this is one that I had installed at localhost, felt pretty confident that, even though I had problems with it then, that I could get it going on my site. I drug it over to the .. at public_html, and again, I don't know where all those files went, but it wasn't where they were supposed to go. I manually drug each file over the the correct folder. Ran the sql statements, and then went to Modules -> Order Totals. The module is not there. I'm not sure what to do at this point to get the module installed, but it is one of those things that I have to have in order to make any online sales to anyone within my state. So to sum it all up, here's what I've done:

Here's what i've done:

1. Downloaded and unzipped localSalesTaxMod2.5.2
2. Moved the files to the server using the files in the FullVersion folder
3. Ran the sql from Zencart_v1.5.0_admin_localSalesTaxes.sql in phpMyAdmin. Compared to what is in the comments of the sql, it inserted the row correctly.
4. Ran the sql from tax_rates_local.sql in phpMyAdmin. Views structure and it created correctly.
5. Ran the sql from Alabama_tax_rates_local.sql which I created using the Florida example when I installed this at localhost.

When I go to Locations / Taxes, everything appears to be correct and when I look at it in phpMyAdmin, all looks correct there too. I really don't understand why the module is not showing up to install.

Please advise what to do next to try to get this going.

Thanks,
Alisa
Dancing Bay Embroidery

dancingbay:

I started out as suggested installing this module at localhost.
Maybe a stupid question, but when you installed you copied the files from "includes" to "public_html/includes" and the files from "admin" to "public_html/the name of your admin folder"? And the web server has permission to open those files?

Any error logs (for the web server or Zen Cart)?

I have some background in web development, but maybe some knowledge is more dangerous than none. So, the questions you're asking are not foreign to me.

I am using FileZilla. I knew I couldn't copy admin into the root, but had to open each up and copy files in from that level. I didn't see any error messages. I am assuming that the permissions are set correctly becuase I installed a template from Picaflor Azul with only minor problems. I did run a backup, I think right before I tried to install this module, so maybe I need to back out and start over, including a fresh download. I've found over the years that sometimes you can think you're doing something correctly several times with poor results and then finally it will work and you don't know what you did different. My mom used to say you just have to hold your mouth right [old southern saying]. Anyway, I will go back in and check permissions to make sure those are ok and see if I can go back and look at the log to see if there were any error messages.

Thanks,
Alisa

I re-downloaded and unzipped the module. Then I went back in to FileZilla and carefully move the files over to the server. Apparently I had not moved all the file in the includes folder, so once I did that, I was able to install. I'm up and running now, but when I start to implement, I may have more questions. Hopefully, they will all be answered somewhere in the 54 pages of the thread. :blink:

Thank you for reporting back! And glad you were able to find the missing file(s).

Hi runawayd, if you have not already solved this, maybe this will help.
The LocalSalesTaxv2.5.sql file name in the readme.html is obviously been replaced, please see the readme_version 2.5.2.txt file (assuming you are using the current package localSalesTaxMod2.5.2.zip). When I made the update I tried to leave the original instructions alone and create the additional readme file.

runawayd:

If the current maintainer is interested, I could send them a copy when complete.

Hi, I put together the last version from the resources on this site and made a few tweaks though I am not the 'official' maintainer, I would like to make another update sometime this year to try and solve a couple of issues that have been reported (problem with using coupons / discounts) the files you mentioned seem like they would be a good addition. That said if you decide to make the updates an post them that would be okay with me. :)