Configuring Taxes for Canadian Sites/Zones

Changing the "handling" fee inside my Canada Post client profile has helped to cover the shortfall. Of course, the fact that my profile still had my BC postal code as my "warehouse" location didn't help matters much. Okay, the minor shipping cost problem has been solved. Moving on.

a.h.

Yes, adjusting the price is the appropriate way to go. Collecting a tax on any part of your sale without having registered would be a big mistake.

Hi Dr Byte,

I just searcherd and found this thread, I wanted to say thank you for this step by step tutorial before I start off with my modifications to continue the oppression to all the poor Canadians.

But I guess its better to collect the taxes from the buyers instead of the government charging me if they ever audit me hehe

You always come through!! Thanks again :hug:

s_mack:

You're going to get yourself into trouble if you start playing the "collect on some but not on others" games. If you're collecting tax then collect tax. If you're not, then don't. I can't see any way at all that you can collect just on shipping and not on your products.

IF you are operating as a business, then you collect tax for your goods and shipping and you pay tax on your inputs and shipping. How it washes out at tax time depends on if you spent more or sold more.

IF you are NOT operating as a business of any consequence (and that's OK - I think there's a $30,000 threshold where you don't have to register/collect) then you do NOT have to collect NOR remit taxes, but you still pay on everything. That's your choice as a very small business.

But its all or nothing and you can't pick and choose. If you are choosing to absorb the taxes then you must absorb all the taxes, including on your shipping costs and you can NOT collect taxes to recover that unless you register with the gov't for a tax ID. Once registered, you MUST charge and collect taxes on all applicable goods and services (your stuff plus shipping) and you MUST remit that at the end of the year/quarter/etc.

If a Status Indian presents an ID, you must rebate the provincial portion of the HST.
Over the Internet, I'm assuming they would have to pay the full amount and apply for a rebate directly to the government.

This info is regarding Ontario, but I know there is a countrywide exemption for Status Indians: http://news.ontario.ca/rev/en/2010/06/ontario-point-of-sale-exemption-for-ontario-status-indians.html

Has anyone had to setup their cart post-HST with point-of-sale rebate items? http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/en/taxtips/hst/pdf/09.pdf

I've tried it but my cart is charging 0% on those items. :(

Thanks for you time on this - much appreciated!

Dr. Byte, An informative post !

I don't see anything in here about taxes for the 13.5% tax in Quebec, 10% in Sask or 12% Manitoba. Am I missing something?

Those provinces still charge both GST and PST. I believe you are responsible only for collecting the GST portion, unless your store is located in one of them. Hope that helps.

Colleen

Dr. Byte...something peculiar...

I've configured the taxes as per the instructions and consulted the "modified instructions" in this thread...and it seems to be working well...however I just had a sale to Alberta (I'm in Ontario) and it charged 0 tax!? I'm confused as to what went wrong. Help?:frusty:

small correction...my bad....on the invoice under the tax column it says none! for all items,
however I noticed that lower down on the invoice it does say GST for products and for shipping and the amount is correct. What have I done wrong. This appears on al invoices by the way regardless of province.:wacko:

highlander:

Dr. Byte...something peculiar...

I've configured the taxes as per the instructions and consulted the "modified instructions" in this thread...and it seems to be working well...however I just had a sale to Alberta (I'm in Ontario) and it charged 0 tax!? I'm confused as to what went wrong. Help?:frusty:

Dohhh...I guess i posted this in the wrong thread. Sorry everyone.

Hi there,
I'm in Ontario and trying to set up an additional Tax Class for Children's Clothing which applies GST only (PST exempt item - a Point-of Sale Rebate) for GST zone and HST zone.

If I create a Tax Class called "GST only Class" (with Description: GST only items) for example, then do I need to create a new Zone covering all Canadian Provinces since I need to create a Tax Rate indicating 5% for all provinces as Zone? How is everybody setting this type of products?

Also, if I am in Ontario, do I need to set HST zone just for Ontario separate from HST Zone -NB, NL (or it is OK to combine those three as one HST Zone)? I see both way in this thread and just want to know which way is better for people in Ontario.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks :smile:

Hi there,
I solved the above problem next day and everything is working great. :D
Now, I am not sure this is right place but it is Canada Tax setting/zone question so please help. I would really appreciate if someone could help me to keep all the Canadian Tax settings intact while restrict countries to only Canada. My store is almost complete and soon it will be a "LIVE" store. My Canadian Tax setting is done and working great but now I need to figure out how to restrict countries to only Canada so I can ship to Canadian customers only. When I searched, I figured there are 2 ways to do it and first option is to create a "new zone" called "Canada"

Details: Create a new zone "Canada" and insert the new Zone Definitions with sub-zones (10 provinces and 3 territories) under it, enter the new zone to your shipping module (in Shipping Zone). When I tried this, extra "GST" appears (for Example, for ontario customers, tax will appear as GST, HST for item and HST for shipping) because the Tax setting is now messed up...

(Second option - using phpAdmin and delete countries - is not my choice because I read Dr. Byte's advise - not to delete countries - in several threads and besides, if I run into problem after deleting them, I will be completely lost... sorry for mumbling about the off topic)

Anyhow, it will be great if anybody could let me know if there is anyway to "shift" or adjust tax setting so I can create new zone for "Canada only shipping" and still I can set the Canadian Tax setting right (or point me to right direction, thread).

Thank you in advance :D

Taxes will only be applied to Canadian destinations, so you don't have to do anything.

Why would you not want international customers?:dontgetit

Well, I have registered my trademark in Canada but not internationally for one reason and I want to focus on Canadian customers at first. :smile:

My understanding is that Canadian Tax setting works because the zones for GST, HST are created and each one is drill down to sub zones with each regions. I've done so and working perfect now. My dilemma is that If I want limit the country to only Canada by creating new "Zone" (let's say, "Canada only shipping") and create sub-zones (all prov.and terrt.), then that original structure is well, broken...

I looked at other threads and searched but I think I will end up deleting all other country through phpMyAdmin...

Thank you so much for this tutorial, you have kept me from tearing out all my hair. I do have one question though regarding shipping taxes. Is there a reason why under tax rates there are 4 product tax rates but only 3 shipping tax rates? Should there be a "GST Shipping Class" for the BC HST Zone as well? Or is there something I'm missing? I hope this makes sense.
Thanks in advance
Eric

Correction to post #250

I followed the instructions from newagekat (instructions as of July 1 2010) then did a dump of the affected dbase records. If you import what follows into your database, this should take care of steps 1-4 inclusive assuming you've done no other tax configuration yet.

NOTE: this also assumes the dbase prefix is "zen_" which is easy enough to change with a search and replace in the code below

The shipping taxes were missing. Here's the corrected version

--
-- Dumping data for table `zen_geo_zones`
--
LOCK TABLES `zen_geo_zones` WRITE;
INSERT INTO `zen_geo_zones` VALUES (2,'Canada GST Zone','GST (Except NB, NL, NS, ON, BC)',NULL,'2010-11-12 11:07:32'),(3,'Canada HST Zone - NB, NL, ON','HST (NB, NL, ON)',NULL,'2010-11-12 11:12:12'),(4,'Canada HST Zone - NS','HST (NS)',NULL,'2010-11-12 11:13:48'),(5,'Canada HST Zone - BC','HST (BC)',NULL,'2010-11-12 11:15:19');
UNLOCK TABLES;

--
-- Dumping data for table `zen_tax_class`
--
LOCK TABLES `zen_tax_class` WRITE;
INSERT INTO `zen_tax_class` VALUES (2,'GST/HST/PST Class','All taxable goods',NULL,'2010-11-12 11:16:43'),(3,'GST/HST Shipping Class','GST/HST on shipping within Canada','2011-07-22 12:00:03','2010-11-12 11:17:33');
UNLOCK TABLES;

--
-- Dumping data for table `zen_tax_rates`
--
LOCK TABLES `zen_tax_rates` WRITE;
INSERT INTO `zen_tax_rates` VALUES (2,2,2,1,'5.0000','5% GST',NULL,'2010-11-12 11:21:21'),(3,3,2,1,'13.0000','13% HST (NB,NL,ON)','2010-11-12 11:22:47','2010-11-12 11:22:33'),(4,4,2,1,'15.0000','15% HST (NS)',NULL,'2010-11-12 11:23:31'),(5,5,2,1,'12.0000','12% HST (BC)',NULL,'2010-11-12 11:24:13'),(6,2,3,1,'5.0000','5% GST Shipping','2011-07-22 11:46:06','2011-07-22 11:38:17'),(7,3,3,1,'13.0000','13% HST (NB, NL, ON)  Shipping','2011-07-22 11:46:31','2011-07-22 11:39:28'),(8,4,3,1,'15.0000','15% HST (NS)  Shipping','2011-07-22 11:46:42','2011-07-22 11:40:21'),(9,5,3,1,'12.0000','12% HST (BC)  Shipping','2011-07-22 11:46:54','2011-07-22 11:41:47');
UNLOCK TABLES;


--
-- Dumping data for table `zen_zones_to_geo_zones`
--
LOCK TABLES `zen_zones_to_geo_zones` WRITE;
INSERT INTO `zen_zones_to_geo_zones` VALUES (2,38,66,2,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:08:05'),(3,38,68,2,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:08:22'),(4,38,72,2,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:08:42'),(5,38,73,2,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:08:56'),(6,38,76,2,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:09:09'),(7,38,77,2,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:09:54'),(8,38,78,2,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:10:07'),(9,38,70,3,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:12:45'),(10,38,69,3,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:12:55'),(11,38,74,3,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:13:05'),(12,38,71,4,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:14:50'),(13,38,67,5,NULL,'2010-11-12 11:15:36');
UNLOCK TABLES;

Hello Everyone, I am new to zen card it's been 3 weeks now since i try to find some help on setting up the tax on my store i am in Quebec i follow the guide from this link https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=75 but i am unable to set up the TVQ well i don't know how if anyone with a knowledge of a Quebec store be so kind and help me out please

PS. i did search all the threads but just can't find any info on this TVQ for Quebec.

HF509:

Hello Everyone, I am new to zen card it's been 3 weeks now since i try to find some help on setting up the tax on my store i am in Quebec i follow the guide from this link https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=75 but i am unable to set up the TVQ well i don't know how if anyone with a knowledge of a Quebec store be so kind and help me out please

PS. i did search all the threads but just can't find any info on this TVQ for Quebec.

I finally understand how to set up the Canadian Tax on a Quebec store. after i was done i slap myself :bangin: 'cause it was very easy :clap:
Thank you Zen Cart for this tutorial https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=75