Taxes... How do I setup Florida county taxes?

I have the original 1.3.8 Zen cart.
I have been in the process of adding products and am now setting up tax rates. From research it appears that I need to download a new version of Zen Cart that will allow me to set tax rates for each county in the state of Florida. There are many updates and some require other downloads before you can download the newer ones.

If I have 1.3.8 and I need an update. Which update do I need?

Do I need to download more than one update to get to the latest update? Which ones and what order do I download?

If I do need to update, how do I download and get the download to my site? I am not an expert. Just your average person building a company.

I have FileZilla on my PC. So do I download "X update" to PC then use FileZilla to send to site?

Where do I send the file to? What area of website hosting company? Please help me with complete details. I am learning as I go.

Thank you. raregnier######################

You should always upgrade to the current version, which is 1.3.9c.

There are upgrade instructions here:

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=98

There's also an upgrade instructions file in the /docs folder.

If you haven't got too far with styling and adding products, it might be simpler to start over with a fresh installation of 1.3.9c.

Far as I know, there isn't any difference between 1.3.8 and 1.3.9 when it comes to setting up taxes.

Setting up Florida taxes will be exactly the same regardless of whether you are using Zencart 1.38a or 1.39c. Therefore, the tax issue shouldn't impact whether or not you upgrade. I do hope you take Steve's advice and switch to the new 1.39c version since it has many other improvements.

As you know, Florida has a base sales tax rate of 6% and each county may add an additional surtax of up to 1.5%. There are currently 5 different tax rates in use among the 67 counties: 6%, 6.5%, 6.75%, 7% and 7.5%. I haven't seen any shopping cart capable of handling Florida's county based sales tax scheme right out of the box, and Zen cart is no exception. You'll have to pick one rate for the state. Alternatively, you could set up a seperate tax zone for each county and force all Florida buyers to choose their county from a dropdown list; I tried that and thought it was pretty awkward.

There's also an excellent mod in the addon section called the Local Sales Tax Mod that will allow you to set up tax rates by city or zipcode. You can learn more about it in its support forum. Once you get your shop up and running I'd recommend you install it.

I have many products already in my store; a number around 900 products. It would be very time consuming to start from scratch. I have seen these downloads that can be installed that would allow me to add state and seperate county taxes for Florida.

Questions:

What version do I need?

Can I download the version needed without downloading additional versions to get to the version needed?

Or must I download each one until I get to the version I need?

And the biggest questions are how to download the version? and get it to my site? Do I use fileZilla after it is on my PC?

I have never done an upgrade and am NOT an expert by any means.

I know many of you are very well rounded at programming. Details are much needed and so much appreciated. I am learning as i go.

Thanks

The basic procedure is:

1 - download the compressed zip file from the add-on section to your computer
2 - unzip the file
3 - backup your website's home directory and database to your computer using your hosting account's backup system so you can recover your site after you've screwed it up.
4 - upload the file from your computer to your website using an FTP client

Before you get into tax mods, you should be installing all the required security patches and updates for your shop; that's much more important. During that process, you'll develop the same skills that will allow you to install any mod and to upgrade.

You ought to browse the Tutorials/FAQ section of this site and you'll find much better instructions for everything.

You download the Local Sales Tax Mod from the Add-on section. You'll find instructions inside when you unzip it. You should also be reading the support thread to for the local sales tax mod http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111782, rather than asking about it here. You only need the current version, which is 2.4.