Sales Tax Rates

[platedepot]

I have relocated my business to a state the requires that I collect sales tax based on where the order is shipped, not based on my location.  There are 358 taxing districts in Washington State, any of which could possibly have a different rate.  CubeCart allows me to specify sales tax rates based only on orders shipped to Washington State as a whole. I have been charging the highest rate and refunding based on the customer's actual shipping location.  It's getting old, fast.

Is there a module that will allow me to further break down the rates I charge based on ZIP Code?  It would be a little effort to set up, but I think it will save some headaches in the long run.

Thanks

MARK

www.platedepot.com

[bsmither]

Is this your understanding of Washington's tax rules, or is it your CPA's understanding.

I know of only two states, and neither require complicated tax calculations. Just get the base rate for the state and the state will be happy with that.

I also follow the "Amazon Tax" brouhaha that several states are arguing, and so far, I have only read about Amazon to collect the base state rate - not each and every dog catcher district.

[platedepot]

It's both of our understanding.  It only applies to orders placed within Washington State.  When I file my quarterly sales tax reports, I have to specify which of the taxing districts I've collected sales tax in and pay that rate to the state (who will then forward the local part of the tax to the appropriate district). There is talk in the legislature of changing it to a system that most other states do based on the physical location of the business, but it hasn't gone anywhere yet.

[bsmither]

Well, that sucks. Unless Washington State has an online API where, given the zipcode (and that is not at all a definitive special district boundary identifier), returns a list of who gets what pennies on the dollar.

It seems the All in One Shipping module has the ability to create shipping zones based on postal codes. When creating a new Shipping Zone, you will be able to specify a collection of zip codes that are to be included in this zone.

[bsmither]

Wow! I really missed the mark.

You ask about taxes and I give you shipping.

We will need to develop a "tax by zipcode" capability.

[bsmither]

I have this just about figured out.

Does WA tax shipping? Not all states do, and some states only tax that amount of shipping charged in excess of the actual costs of shipping (which you will need to figure out after the fact). Some states don't have any argument against charging tax on shipping even if its not required - as long as you submit the taxes collected.

[Crysties]

I have to file CA taxes by city, county or state.  The way I made this work is when the person puts in their State they select State, County, City.  If their city is not listed they use the state, county or if county not listed they use State.  The rates vary from 7.5% to 10.25%.

I made a zone for each such as  "CA-Lake Co.-Clearlake".  Then in the Taxes I put the rate that applies to each zone.  It shows in the address profile for the customer as xx xxxxx Court , Truckee, CA-Nevada Co.-Truckee, 96161  with the state showing "CA-Nevada Co.-Truckee" as the State.  For those with their city not listed they would use state/county or if county not listed they would use State only.  I have now moved to Nevada and I do the same but Nevada only has county rates.  Even though I moved, CA still requires that I report the sales in CA as I did when I lived there by City, County, State.

Where I ran into a problem is that when you look at the order in admin/inventory it shows as STD TX, CA_Tax so I have to modify the admin page to show the actual tax rate.  bsmither was kind enough to show me how to lengthen the line but it turns out it is not showing the right field name, i.e., state.  I have not accomplished this task yet.  It showz 50 + lines all saying Std Tx CA_Tx.Admin_Inventory.pdf