Local Sales Tax Mod - Support Thread

oh that was it.. the local sales tax didnt have the tax classes set.

Thanks for your help!!

You're welcome!
LadyHLG

Hi LadyHLG,

I seem to be getting the same error as Inewman except that I have city names.
I'm on ZC 1.3.8
I have Local Sales Tax Mod v.2.2.2 version and got the .sql file from v.2.2 because it wasn't with v.2.2.2.
I'm listing city names with the semi-colon space between each city and have placed a final semi-colon on the end.
I've also defined the local tax class & zone and am still getting this error.
My US state is CA.
Any ideas?

BTW it is calculating the tax perfectly. Thank You very much! :smile:

Correction. I was seeing the proper tax rate before I linked the Local Sales Tax Cities to their proper Tax Class. Now just get that long string. I think I'm missing something basic here but I need a hint.
Thx.

j_boo,
I'm not sure I follow, what "long string" are you referring to? Are you talking about the debugging?
LadyHLG

Thank you for responding.
Yes, debug. Here is a very small clip as it goes on for 28 pages.

checking taxes
Tax based on customer shipping zone 12
We have 13 matching tax zones
Check for match for rec id 1
Matching to city
matching tax to customer shipping
Match-Woodside
We have a single-Adelaida
We have a single-Adin
We have a single-Al Tahoe
We have a single-Albion
We have a single-Alderpoint
We have a single-Alleghany

Thx!

So if you turn off the debugging what happens? Is the tax not applying correctly?

I don't see any tax being applied.

Did you download the updated file from the post above to account for the spacing in semi colon lists?

No, since the 2.2.2 came after the patch and it was posted as "for new installs" I assumed the patch was included. If not, I'll go get it now.

To confirm. You are talking about the ot_local_sales_taxes.zip patch?

How should the list read? With CityName;spaceCityName or CityName;CityName ?

It's easy for me to change the list to what the mod expects to see.

It should read:
City;City;City

No spaces before or after the semi-colon.

Sorry for the confusion regarding the versions.

Post #46 of this thread actually has the most recent available version.

I have uploaded an upgrade version (2.3) to the downloads section today, but it can take a while before the actual download is available.

LadyHLG

OK I'll try entering my cities without the spaces and if that doesn't work I'll wait for the v.2.3 It's the weekend so no problem waiting.

Thank you so much for your time and this wonderful mod!

Hello All,
Version 2.3 upgrade of the Mod is now available in the downloads area. It can be found here.

2.3 Includes:

• Corrected tax bug that caused sales tax to not be applied on downloaded products.
• Check for spacing in semi-colon delimited list
• Updated admin form fields to allow for larger data entries
• Extended local tax data match field instructions to help clarify proper entries
• Added 2 different levels of debugging information to help narrow down future issues.

This is an update s, if you have not done so already, please be sure to download and install version 2.2 prior to installing version 2.3.

LadyHLG

I just read your readme and ... :frusty:

This is more work than anyone should have to do as far as getting taxes going. I can't see everyone that sells in CA going thru all this work! There's got to be a better way.

And since the tax rate changes in January, we all have to go thru this again?? Just the thought of messing with this again makes me want to cry.

Also, the Local Sales Tax page is too wide. It was much better before. I have a 22" monitor and it's 2.5 widths wide.

Sorry for being so vague.

This is my understanding of how the taxes should be entered.

1. enter zones like Calif - Los Angeles for EACH COUNTY
2. Define zones for EACH COUNTY
3. enter EVERY tax rate for EACH COUNTY
4. hook the Definition to the Zone for EACH COUNTY
5. Enter the Cities for EACH COUNTY and EACH TAX RATE. So for Los Angeles County where you have 3 tax rates you have to do 3 City List entries.

Is this correct? Is there an easier way? Does everyone do this?

j_boo:

Is this correct? Is there an easier way? Does everyone do this?

Yes that is correct, if you want to charge tax specifically by county.
No, not everyone does this, its just one option to try and make sure you are charging the correct tax, some people charge tax by zip code only, its not as accurate but its better than simply applying one tax for the whole state. The mod is specifically designed so that you choose what method works best for your state and situation. You can charge by zip, by city, by suburb (aka - address 2), you can set up the counties or not. Its up to you.

If you had it set up by zip code or city and are happy with it then you dont have to change it to the county zones, its only a suggestion (I included it in the readme because its one of the questions I get asked the most and its far to lengthy a process to keep explaining.)

j_boo:

This is more work than anyone should have to do as far as getting taxes going. I can't see everyone that sells in CA going thru all this work! There's got to be a better way.

Better ways? There are other ways, there are tax services that charge monthly fees to calculate the sales tax for you (similar to the shipping mods to calculate shipping costs). But they are not free, far from it. There are also other eCommerce systems available some of the hosted ones have built in sales tax options to calculate tax for you, but these are never free (at least none that I am aware of). Frankly, for a free open source system, zen cart has one of the most detailed sales tax options available among all the carts I have looked at, including ones that are not free.

I can see you are frustrated, its one of the reasons I wrote the mod in the first place. CA has one of the most complicated sales taxes out there, so do TX and NY among others, which is why you will find entire threads here and on eCommerce boards all over the web dedicated to sales tax issues. Frankly the best resource you have is your fellow CA business owners, they are all struggling with the same issues you are.

There are several other threads in this forum discussing CA sales taxes, one of them may offer a different approach for you, but I can't stress enough the need for caution, especially when taking what seems to be an easy solution, check with your taxing authority directly to be sure you are doing things correctly, after all YOU are the one that will have to deal with the government if you get audited. I'm pretty sure "someone on the internet told me I could do it this way", isn't going to get you out of trouble if you do get audited. :no:

Unfortunately, the states simply don't care whether or not you are a small business with limited resources. The tax laws are what they are and states want what they want. Supposedly several of the states are trying to "streamline" the way this is done, but frankly they have accomplished little to nothing.

j_boo:

Also, the Local Sales Tax page is too wide. It was much better before. I have a 22" monitor and it's 2.5 widths wide.

I'm afraid I'm not seeing this, I have only 17" monitor but things appear correctly for me. Its most likely a bi-product of large data field, the mod was never really designed for the long entries.
I need a screen shot of the page to offer a correction or fix.

LadyHLG

LadyHLG:

Yes that is correct, if you want to charge tax specifically by county.
...
You can charge by zip, by city, by suburb (aka - address 2), you can set up the counties or not. Its up to you.
LadyHLG

Thank you for your kind and patient response. You are correct, entering the data by zip isn't accurate enough for the BOE and entering the flat state tax leaves the responsibility on the consumer. While this is fine for some shop owners I don't believe most consumers will actually claim & pay the difference to the state, resulting in lost revenue to the state. The state is already broke, why make things worse.

I thought I had it set up by city but the information wasn't showing correctly so I deleted everything and started on the epic journey of setting it up by county. Oy Vey!
Since I'm not near done with this procedure and since maintenance on the county way is more difficult, I'd rather go back to doing it by city if you could be kind enough to modify my steps above to show me the proper way to do it by city.

Thank you so much for all your time and help on this.

Taxing by city name does not require any modifications to the zones. Its done entirely through the local tax mod same as you had it before.

You can either enter each city as a separate record or, for cities with the same tax rates, you can put them into semicolon deliminated records.

Also, it looks to me from the screen shots you posted that there are files missing on your install. Make sure you have all the files from version 2.2 installed and then copy over the updated files from version 2.3 (2.3 is only an upgrade not a full version install it will only over write some of the files, the others need to be left alone).

LadyHLG