Washington sales tax

Anyone out there using the local tax mod for washington sales tax? If so, what are you using for rates when a zip code has different tax rates within it?

Washington seems to have many such multi-rate zip codes. Supposedly, rates are consistent within a ZIP+4 code, but the local tax mod doesn't support ZIP+4.

For me, I just charge the highest tax in a state, regardless which zip code.

That's a good way to get in big trouble if you're audited, at least in some states (see the "New York Sales Tax" thread.)

I contacted my tax comptrollers here, and they said it's okie ^^.

Wow, I wish it would fly in NY!

So how do you solve that problem tho? Just in case they may change the policy here later. I can't imagine setting all tax zones for my state. > gjh42:

Wow, I wish it would fly in NY!

The NY tax thread has details of how to do it. You essentially erase your state and make a "state" (state + region) for every tax subdivision. Not fun...

Obviously not, the worst point is that your customers will have to work thru that long list _
Maybe...rewrite the code to map the zip code to a tax zone.

Unfortunately that won't work here because the tax zones do not necessarily correspond with zip codes.

NY has recently introduced an "address-to-tax-rate" function online, but it can only be accessed manually. When I asked, they said they were considering maybe someday making it able to be accessed automatically from an e-commerce site.

"tax zones do not necessarily correspond with zip codes."
--> _
And here I thought we are trying to encourage people to do business in this country.

I use the tax for my city, since the packages are mailed from here. It would be impossible to keep track of every city's tax in this state.

This thread was also helpful, because when I looked at the tax that I was charging, it was too little. Washington keeps increasing this tax every time I turn around, and I had not adjusted it from 2 years ago.

We're in Cheney WA. Here's a link to help you make the legal choice.

http://dor.wa.gov/Docs/forms/ExcsTx/LocSalUseTx/LocalSlsUseFlyer_Quarterly.pdf

Hello all,

Here is what I get from my state comptroller (Texas)

Q:

Hi,

I have just opened a website that retails products online(\product name removed here/), and I wonder how should I charge sale tax for buyers from Texas:
Since each city and county has different tax rate, it's so hard to charge the tax correctly depending on the customers' zip codes. Can I just charge the highest rate (8.25%) or the lowest rate?

Thank you very much,
xxxx

A:

Thank you for writing to tax.help.

In your situation, you are only required to collect local sales tax based on your place of business.

Lucky you!

Glen,

You could always move to Texas. You'll have to go through some Texas walk training courses first.

Wow. Thanks for all the replies. Looks like it's just as much of a nightmare as I thought. Go Congress! (Seriously folks - we should all write to representatives about what a mess this is).

Sounds like the only way to get this reliably right is to use a service like StrikeIron, Avalara, or ServiceObjects/DOTS to verify addresses & compute tax.

Anyone had any luck with these? I can't find any zencart mods that call them.

robmck:

Wow. Thanks for all the replies. Looks like it's just as much of a nightmare as I thought. Go Congress! (Seriously folks - we should all write to representatives about what a mess this is).

Sounds like the only way to get this reliably right is to use a service like StrikeIron, Avalara, or ServiceObjects/DOTS to verify addresses & compute tax.

Anyone had any luck with these? I can't find any zencart mods that call them.

or use a different shopping cart.

at XotboX.com we use Drupal/Ubercart and thanks to the uc_wa_tax module we were able to implement the WA state change in about 5 minutes.