Tax Cloud Alternative?

After much hassle I got TaxCloud working on my 1.39h install. For those who don't know, TaxCloud is supposed to be a service provided by the Federal Tax Authority to calculate tax by zipcode. A module written by a member here integrates it with ZenCart to facilitate behind-the-scenes tax calculation and totaling before checkout.

After installing it, it turns out that the tax rates are just plain wrong. The system works, the queries work, the calculations work, but on their end, they were using the wrong percentages. After some back and forth with TaxCloud, they have updated their rates to be correct.

Tax on shipping is still wrong (calculates at full rate even if products are tax-exempt or reduced tax, i.e. essential clothing). They have given an estimate of mid-November for an update to make it work the way it should. There are over 2000 zip codes in NY state and literally dozens of different tax rates. Each one can also run tax holidays and product exceptions, maintaining a manual database is impractical.

Are there any other services that can do tax calculation properly? Or do we just have to deal with it being wrong and the reconciliation/remittance headaches that come with incorrect data?

We're sorry to hear you had some trouble with TaxCloud. Although we know you've been in touch with our tech guys and we’ve straightened out the issue, we thought we’d offer a quick explanation in case it would help anyone else who's experiencing a similar problem.

First, you caught us right in the middle of an update of New York state and local tax rates, which is why the rates you saw first were originally incorrect. These rates have now been updated and are correct.

The problem with the tax on shipping is a bit more complicated, but it affects a very, very small number of purchases made under certain conditions -- most people will never encounter it -- and we're working on fixing it now. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us: [email protected] or 206-452-1686.

The current issue effects anyone selling anything in NY that has a non-standard tax rate. The "fixed" issue has persisted since March before finally getting fixed this week.

Moral of the story, as someone ONLY selling non-standard rate items out of NY, it is a problem that effects me. I would prefer not to wait a month and a half for it to maybe get fixed, after having issues for the past few months on every sale I had to NY. I may not have a ton of volume, but I'd prefer to just have the damn tax rate right.

I have no complaints about your support department, they have taken great care of me and have been very knowledgeable. The software works (if you know how to make it work, which isn't exactly novice work), but working correctly is more important.

I would rather have a product that works than a product with excellent support.