Allow Customer to set sales taxable status?

I sell almost exclusively to state organizations which are sales tax fee by law. But I also sell to regular customers.

What I am looking for is a way to allow the customer, when they fill in the establish account information, to include a radio button or drop down to toggle state sales tax to off for their account.

To set their own taxable status in other words.

Having to screen their orders and set the taxable status is just not practicable ( as the one mod I can find is set up to do), nor is telling them to wait until I approve their order.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks
Jim

You should be able to use the "Customer Tax Exempt" mod. BUT this would require you to set the customer's tax exempt status at some stage before they placed the order.

Although once the tax exempt status is set for them, it stays set...

Alternatively, perhaps you could adapt the "VAT-mod for European companies" to your needs?

I'll look into the VAT mod you mentioned - thanks for pointing me to it.

I have to let them set the tax free status. They add items to the shopping cart, click a button to print it out (I finally got that figured out) and submit the order form with a request for a Purchase Order to their finance department.

When approved, they fax the approved PO and the order form to me, I fill it, and bill them (95% of my business).

I am really surprised that ZenCart doesn't have the option to display a check mark or radio button to turn on or off taxable calculations. Seems that would be a lot easier than the tax free mod I read about which seems to just subtract the tax or the other one which forces the tax to be zero.

Thinking about it, a radio button that would force the sales tax to be zero would work too.

Thanks again
Jim

One challenge you face with having a system that allows USERS to set their tax status, is the potential for users to set that status incorrectly (or possibly even fraudulently in order to benefit from a lower price).

Better check on the Tax Law(s) applicable to your region regarding this, because it is likely that if a customer declares themselves as being "tax exempt" via a simple user-generated option on your site, and it turns out in an audit that they are NOT eligible for this status, the Revenue Authorities may try to recover the lost tax (plus expenses) from YOU instead.

B2B purchasers are used to a possible short delay while a vendor verifies their tax status, and this should not prevent them from shopping with you - particularly if they are regular customers.

Schoolboy - I understand completely what you are saying.

All orders come to me via Fax, USPS, or email, I do not use online payment processing at all, so any order that is not from an exempt organization is easily caught, and if necessary returned.

I sell mostly to educational institutions. None of them send a check until the order is filled, delivered, and invoiced. What personal sales I get are via a check in the mail.

Thanks though
Jim