Configuring Taxes for Canadian Sites/Zones

This is nothing to do with taxes.

You changed your Store Status to showcase mode.
Admin->Configuration->My Store->Store Status. Set it back to 0.

Thank you very much!

DrByte:

Not built-in at the present time.

Do you think this would be difficult to do? If I had a bit of a handle on where to start, I would love to play around and see if I could make this work. We have to submit GST and PST returns seperately to totally different places, it is a HUGE pain to go through every order and calculate the GST and PST individually :(

Oops sorry, my last post didn't quote the whole post, just a part of it! What I am wanting to do is show the GST and PST on seperate lines on the invoice. And ideally, have them come up in seperate columns in the Sales Report, but that's probably just wishful thinking :P

DrByte:

Not built-in at the present time.

I am setting up a Zencart in Canada, and I just want to let everyone know that at least in Quebec, it is not legal to bill people like this.

We're willing to make a donation for a quick patch.
Also, we seem to have a weird bug with compounded taxes when group pricing is enabled, but I don't need that fixed now.

Danielle:

Oops sorry, my last post didn't quote the whole post, just a part of it! What I am wanting to do is show the GST and PST on seperate lines on the invoice. And ideally, have them come up in seperate columns in the Sales Report, but that's probably just wishful thinking :P

Would you be willing to pledge for a fix too? I need this to go live !

jackal:

Would you be willing to pledge for a fix too? I need this to go live !

I sure would! Anyone out there who can do this? Have you posted in the help wanted section yet?

I just did. We'll see what happens.

Danielle:

I sure would! Anyone out there who can do this? Have you posted in the help wanted section yet?

Thanks for the easy-to-follow instructions! Worked perfectly for me. Why is it that shipping tax can be broken into two lines (GST and PST) but the regular tax can't?? Seems odd that you can do one but not the other.

I'm embarassed to admit that my store has been running for over a year now and I've not been doing the HST correctly. Thankfully, it only amounted to about $40 and it was in the government's favor so I should be ok.

• Steven

s_mack:

Thanks for the easy-to-follow instructions! Worked perfectly for me. Why is it that shipping tax can be broken into two lines (GST and PST) but the regular tax can't?? Seems odd that you can do one but not the other.

I'm embarassed to admit that my store has been running for over a year now and I've not been doing the HST correctly. Thankfully, it only amounted to about $40 and it was in the government's favor so I should be ok.

• Steven

How did you break the shipping tax into two lines? Also, what do you charge HST on?

I dunno... just came out that way when I was finished following the instructions above. Mind you, I've done a LOT of mods to my site so maybe its not normal. I actualy don't like it... too many bloody lines. I now have it so it combines everything onto one line: "GST + PST: $4.28" and let the customer figure out what part is for shipping if they really care... its not like it is difficult math.

As far as what to charge HST on... EVERYTHING. Anything you collect GST on, you should collect HST on... they are one in the same... no difference at all. The question isn't "what" do you charge it on, its "who". Any customer from NS, NL, and NB - regardless of where YOU do business (as long as you are in Canada). Follow the instructions carefully, it does HST correctly.

Someone above said they are charging taxes to everyone, even those outside of Canada. That's just wrong. As a Canadian business, you NEVER collect Canadian taxes on goods destined to any foreign country. You're just ripping your customer off and causing yourself a headache later. Don't do it... take the 35 seconds required to learn and understand zones (or just follow the instructions above) and do it properly.

All Canadians should use the default setting of charging taxes based on shipping address, not billing or store address. You don't need to set up any zones other than what is described above for tax purposes... just follow those steps and you are good to go as far as taxes are concerned.

• Steven

DrByte:

You might find this helpful ... it needs a bit of touching-up, but the basic core is there:

I've followed these instructions to the letter, and now my product prices are strangely wrong. For instance: I've got a product that, when I view its record in admin, shows retail price Net $18.00, and Products Price (Gross) is $22.86 (apparently 27% tax). In the catalog page for the product, the price states $20.00 (apparently 11% tax?).

Any ideas?

Are you in Canada? If so, the catalog page for the product should show $18.00 because we don't display prices inclusive of taxes here (there is an option for that in the settings somewhere). For Canadian taxes, neither 27 or 11 make sense though. Is this a live site? Can I check it out?

• Steven

s_mack:

Are you in Canada? If so, the catalog page for the product should show $18.00 because we don't display prices inclusive of taxes here (there is an option for that in the settings somewhere). For Canadian taxes, neither 27 or 11 make sense though. Is this a live site? Can I check it out?

• Steven

I'm in Vancouver. In Admin > Configuration > My Store, "Display prices with tax" is set to false. You can check out http://www.room6.com/index.php - thanks!

Ok, one more thing... can you give me a specific product (that you have stock of) and tell me what price you THINK should be displayed (ie... what you entered in as price in the admin.)?

Because I confirmed that with the prices it DOES show... taxes are calculated correctly.

BTW... Very nice site. I really wish I had a modicum of artistic ability so I could make a creative-looking website like yours. I think far too linear and logical... mine always work well, but they are a slight variation on the standard 3-column box.

• Steven

s_mack:

Ok, one more thing... can you give me a specific product (that you have stock of) and tell me what price you THINK should be displayed (ie... what you entered in as price in the admin.)?

Because I confirmed that with the prices it DOES show... taxes are calculated correctly.

Sure - check out this product at http://www.room6.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=47_80&products_id=256. In the admin, the Net price is set to $14.00 and the Gross price is calculated to $17.78. In the catalogue page, as you can see, the price displays as $15.56.

s_mack:

BTW... Very nice site. I really wish I had a modicum of artistic ability so I could make a creative-looking website like yours. I think far too linear and logical... mine always work well, but they are a slight variation on the standard 3-column box.

• Steven

Thanks!

If the taxed price in the product-entry page is calculating out to something odd, check that the Tax Class is selected properly, and that your Store Zone (Admin->Configuration->My Store) is correct. That calculation is based on assuming your customers are from the Store Zone region, even though the customers will really be taxed based on their "own" region after they log in.

DrByte:

If the taxed price in the product-entry page is calculating out to something odd, check that the Tax Class is selected properly, and that your Store Zone (Admin->Configuration->My Store) is correct. That calculation is based on assuming your customers are from the Store Zone region, even though the customers will really be taxed based on their "own" region after they log in.

For the product mentioned above, the tax class is set to GST/HST/PST Class. The store zone is set to British Columbia (store is based in Vancouver).

This is an educated guess... currencies. Just the numbers being used that don't make sense with the taxes you've described... is it possible your store currency is set to USD and your users are using CAD? I don't see a selector on your site where I can choose a currency, so I'm wondering if you have that hardcoded somewhere, or if you are perchance using my userCurrency mod and it is being selected for us based on location?

Just a thought

• Steven

Another suggestion... because I am very curious... backup your site completely (for your own peace of mind) then change the admin password temporarily and pm me the username and password so I can take a look. When I'm finished, change the password back.

The backup is there in case you can't trust me :) I won't take it personal.

• Steven