WA state destination based sales tax

[lildog]

I have uploaded a new version taht adds error descriptions, fixed the errors as in posts above and added a link to dor in emails. i appologize for the amount of versions coming out and frequency of updates,I know it is a pain in the rear to always be updating contribs...I am trying to get this contrib working for everyone and stop fussing with it. And again thank you all for your debugging help and patience.

 

lildog

[Magma-tech]

I don't know if this helps, and I am not even sure if this has been covered in this topic...so let me know...

 

WA Sales Tax Rate Lookup URL Interface

 

The URL Interface provides a direct access to the Washington Department of Revenue’s address based rate lookup technology platform. Using the URL interface we provide, you can access sales and use tax rate data using address or ZIP + 4 code information and tie the data into your shopping cart checkout process or accounting system in real time. The following information is the technical specifications to access the URL interface.

 

1. The rate lookup URL is designed to return the current sales tax rates for an address. It is designed for use by XMLHttpRequest, Msxml2.XMLHTTP, libcurl, wget, HttpRequest, or similar HTTP protocol client. Requests can be made for ether XML or plain text responses.

 

To see the full html code.... go here http://dor.wa.gov/Content/FindTaxesAndRate...tInterface.aspx And if you could tell me how to implement this into osCommerce it would be great.

My whole livelihood is based on Washington sales.

 

Only other option would be to file a class action suit to stop this nonsense...

Two laws on Washington books says they can't do this.... one is the anti trafficking in people which is both Federal Law

and Gov. Locke signed and adopted into WA state law in about 2002 which states :federal crime under Title 18 of the United States Code. Section 1584 makes it a crime to force a person to work against his will, whether the compulsion is effected by use of force, threat of force, threat of legal coercion or by "a climate of fear" and further states that the definition of the law means that anything that benefits another without compensation at the going rate for that service is a violation of the law...,. So.... 1. The state is requiring me to collect, bank, and do the accounting for the states sales tax ... which is not a tax on me or my business but is a tax that the buyer by law is required to pay. So I want to be compensated for this service to the state... or the buyer needs to report and pay it themselves to the state.

 

2.US Code Title 18 Section 242. Deprivation of rights under color of law

 

Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation,

or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory,

Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any

rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the

Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different

punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being

an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed

for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or

imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury

results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if

such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a

dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this

title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death

results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if

such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated

sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or

an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned

for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to

death.

 

Seems to me that because I am a business owner I have to collect my neighbors tax everytime

he buys from me, forcing me to do his tax reporting.... IE: this law is not about just being of a

different race or color, its about making one group perform or held to different standards

than the rest. I don't want to do this.... too much work....

So now that I have vented.... what are we going to do?

 

Rick

[Magma-tech]

Ok... Now that I have vented, I just found out today about this new law, after I have set up a new store with osC. I set up all my tax info for my store location.... then went to get help on setting up taxes and found out about the new law.... almost went into cardiac arrest. First of all, after reading the entire post here... I want to humbly say..... thank you, to all of you who are trying to comply with this impossible task.

 

As for me ...if it were not for you guys doing this I would have just said impossible and

closed up. So I see some light here. My main reason for going to support was I was looking to set up my store with two

tax options.

 

I am a distributor for a product here in WA... so that means I have to set up my buyers in two different tax

classes.... 1 . Retail Customers, Retail tax, (now I learn) by shipping address, & 2. Wholesale Customers That Are Not Taxed Because They Will Tax The Customer Based On Where They Resale It From or Deliver It To.

 

So my question.... will your mod be able to distinguish between 1. Retail sales by shipping & 2. Wholesale Without Taxing By Shipping Address, and 3. Be able to separate the two on the report for tax reporting ?

 

IE : 1. Retail Tax Report By Ship Address

2. Wholesale No Tax- by Customer

 

Thanks

Rick

[Magma-tech]

Also there is monetary help for doing this.....

 

Assistance for Small Businesses

Please note, small businesses that incur costs in changing to a destination-based system may qualify for up to $1,000 in tax credits to help offset these costs. Alternatively, they may qualify to receive up to two years of subsidized CSP service. To qualify, a business must have less than $500,000 gross income from Washington sales in 2008, at least 5% of taxable sales income from deliveries, and at least 1% of taxable sales income from deliveries outside the primary taxing jurisdiction.

 

See at bottom of page http://dor.wa.gov/Content/FindTaxesAndRate...ineSellers.aspx

[lildog]

Magma...

I feel your frustration for this law! It is ridiculous to me and doesn't seem to accomplish anything but more GD paperwork and accounting, which by the way is a pain in the ass all to itself! It doesn't seem to help whoever buy more from whoever or wherever.

 

BUT.....it was easier for me to write this contrib than fight the system. If I fought the system I would have no time at all.....I am frustrated by way too many things.

 

That being said.....this contrib will not distinguish between wholesale and retail customers, as is. That is only because it is not part of the core osc installation. There are contribs that allow wholesale and retail customers. I believe that if one of those was installed it would be compatible with this contrib. Because this contrib only comes into play when osc tries to calculate tax, a contrib that didn't calculate for wholesale customers would just bypass this contrib. I think.......I am not sure. Let me know if you add a wholesale /retail contrib and how it works with this. I will help all I can within reason.

 

lildog

[Magma-tech]

Magma...

I feel your frustration for this law! It is ridiculous to me and doesn't seem to accomplish anything but more GD paperwork and accounting, which by the way is a pain in the ass all to itself! It doesn't seem to help whoever buy more from whoever or wherever.

 

BUT.....it was easier for me to write this contrib than fight the system. If I fought the system I would have no time at all.....I am frustrated by way too many things.

 

That being said.....this contrib will not distinguish between wholesale and retail customers, as is. That is only because it is not part of the core osc installation. There are contribs that allow wholesale and retail customers. I believe that if one of those was installed it would be compatible with this contrib. Because this contrib only comes into play when osc tries to calculate tax, a contrib that didn't calculate for wholesale customers would just bypass this contrib. I think.......I am not sure. Let me know if you add a wholesale /retail contrib and how it works with this. I will help all I can within reason.

 

lildog

 

Thank You....

Since my last post I have a few other questions... I have downloaded the latest mod, looking through the set up, it was not

clear to me if I could just add the latest mod 2e... or do I need a previous one first?

Also I have osCommerce 2.2-MS2 will your version work or do I need to upgrade osCom also?

Last question... at least for the next ten minutes or so... LOL....

I am using Linkpoints API, which I just loaded the latest mod.... http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/4255

will I need to do anything in that mod... or are they cross compatible ?

Thanks

Rick P.S. Scared to death I'm going to wipe out all my work... lol

[lildog]

1. Each mod is a complete package so you only need the latest one.

 

2. Where did you get a copy of ms2? I thought the only version available is RC2a. If you have a virgin copy I would really like a copy so I can help debug my contribs. All I have is rc2a.

 

3. The changes are minor so it should work with ms2, I would be able to tell you if I had a copy. ;) And I would make the necessary adjustments to make it work.

 

4. It is a payment module so I don't think there will be any changes. But i don't have it installed so I don't know. If you do they would certainly be minimal.

 

5. Wipe out your work? You do have backups though right? VERY RECOMMENDED! It is recommended that you also have a test server, although I don't. Just backup your files to hard disk, make changes if you f it up put the old ones back.

 

lildog

 

 

 

 

 

Thank You....

Since my last post I have a few other questions... I have downloaded the latest mod, looking through the set up, it was not

clear to me if I could just add the latest mod 2e... or do I need a previous one first?

Also I have osCommerce 2.2-MS2 will your version work or do I need to upgrade osCom also?

Last question... at least for the next ten minutes or so... LOL....

I am using Linkpoints API, which I just loaded the latest mod.... http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/4255

will I need to do anything in that mod... or are they cross compatible ?

Thanks

Rick P.S. Scared to death I'm going to wipe out all my work... lol

[Magma-tech]

I don't have a virgin copy, it comes with my web hosting service at ixwebhosting. I just turn on the oscommerce for the domain I want it on.... it sets it all up.... I then have to go in and customize it.... but that's it.

 

 

Thanks

 

rick

[Magma-tech]

I uploaded everything .... and did a test using my own account I made... and the tax calculated just fine. I did not confirm

the order, was going back to change my address in my accounts, (to try another address). I first updated the order to clear

the shopping cart, I then clicked on "My Account".... I got this error msg. ....

 

1054 - Unknown column 's.public_flag' in 'where clause'

 

select count(*) as total from orders o, orders_status s where o.customers_id = '3' and o.orders_status = s.orders_status_id and s.language_id = '1' and s.public_flag = '1'

 

[TEP STOP]

 

 

I don't know if I entered something wrong or just missed something....

 

There were a couple of instructions that did not read they way my files are ordered in my osCommerce, but I just figured it

was a typo in the instructions...

 

In step #8..... It says... "there are 6 of these in the stock page" tep_redirect(tep_href_link(FILENAME_ADDRESS_BOOK,",'SSL'));

 

***ADD Before...etc...

 

I counted 7 instead of 6...so I added it before all 7 of them...

 

The other item I figured was just a typo in the instructions was steps.... #18,#19, #20, #21, or any other of the steps

the directory order is different than mine... the instructions have.... " catalog/admin/includes/etc.....

where my directory is admin/catalog/includes/etc....

 

So in yours the catalog is first where in mine the admin is first.... was not sure if that might cause a problem or not

being that I just went ahead and modified the files in each file as directed by the instruction sheet, irrespective of the

actual directory order.

 

Help

 

Thanks

Rick

[lildog]

I have been gone today I appologize for taking so long....

The below error is caused by s.public_flag is not in your database. It is not a part of this contrib though so I really can't help you any more. Somewhere you may forgetton to run an sql query on your database. But since it is public I assume it a part of a wholesale retail contrib...I would start there.

 

lildog

 

I uploaded everything .... and did a test using my own account I made... and the tax calculated just fine. I did not confirm

the order, was going back to change my address in my accounts, (to try another address). I first updated the order to clear

the shopping cart, I then clicked on "My Account".... I got this error msg. ....

 

1054 - Unknown column 's.public_flag' in 'where clause'

 

select count(*) as total from orders o, orders_status s where o.customers_id = '3' and o.orders_status = s.orders_status_id and s.language_id = '1' and s.public_flag = '1'

 

[TEP STOP]

 

 

I don't know if I entered something wrong or just missed something....

[lildog]

Yikes! I don't my admin is in my catalog folder. Just as it is distributed from oscommerce site. I don't think it makes a difference though as long as it is setup right in your config files. So long as you make the changes to the admin files...wherever they reside. I will check out the 6 count in step 8. Maybe a difference in osc versions or something...or a typo.

 

lildog

 

 

The other item I figured was just a typo in the instructions was steps.... #18,#19, #20, #21, or any other of the steps

the directory order is different than mine... the instructions have.... " catalog/admin/includes/etc.....

where my directory is admin/catalog/includes/etc....

 

So in yours the catalog is first where in mine the admin is first.... was not sure if that might cause a problem or not

being that I just went ahead and modified the files in each file as directed by the instruction sheet, irrespective of the

actual directory order.

 

Help

 

Thanks

Rick

[Magma-tech]

Yikes! I don't my admin is in my catalog folder. Just as it is distributed from oscommerce site. I don't think it makes a difference though as long as it is setup right in your config files. So long as you make the changes to the admin files...wherever they reside. I will check out the 6 count in step 8. Maybe a difference in osc versions or something...or a typo.

 

lildog

 

Thanks,

 

I really appreciate all the work you have done to get this contrib/modification up and going. I don't have a clue about php

script writing... I can do some HTML ...so I know how to cut and paste the code in .... other than that I will have to find

some way to get the error fixed... I will post a help up as a new subject. Hopefully some one will be able to help me. Again

thanks for the Mod.... Also you said that you would like a copy of the MS2 version? If I can save all the files to a zip file

maybe I could send it to you. The only thing I don't know is when I set it up on my hosting site for a domain name ...is the

set up changing the files for my site so it would be more trouble to you than you want?

 

Let me know.

 

Rick

[Magma-tech]

"""Somewhere you may forgotten to run an sql query on your database.""

 

I did not do step..... 24. Run the wa_dest_tax.sql on your database with phpmyadmin or simular....

 

 

I did not know how to run it. I do have phpmyadmin on my hosting site, I can log in, but I could not figure out how to run, or what it was I was supposed to do when I got to that step...so I just tried it as it was in my catalog. So could that be the problem? That I still need to run wa_dest_tax.sql ?

[Magma-tech]

I have been gone today I appologize for taking so long....

The below error is caused by s.public_flag is not in your database. It is not a part of this contrib though so I really can't help you any more. Somewhere you may forgetton to run an sql query on your database. But since it is public I assume it a part of a wholesale retail contrib...I would start there.

 

lildog

 

I FOUND THE FIX......

__________________________________

 

Run this SQL statement to fix your issue. This will create the table elements that are missing.

 

alter table orders_status add public_flag int DEFAULT '1';

alter table orders_status add downloads_flag int DEFAULT '0';

 

That fixed the error, and I am able to access "My Accounts" tab again.

 

The Tax is working, and everything seems good to go....

 

Thanks lildog....

 

anything I can do to ever help you out.... let me know..I will do my best !

 

Rick

[Magma-tech]

New problem... Help !!! :blink:

 

I have run it several times with different addresses, products etc... and it has calculated the tax ok. But I never

confirmed a order to check out because I was using a Merchant Account with credit card, and did not want the

transaction to go through. So I turned the credit card off, and set it to pay by check only, re-ran a order, everything calculated the same.... but got this error..... after hitting the confirm button....

 

1054 - Unknown column 'wa_dest_tax' in 'field list'

 

insert into orders (customers_id, customers_name, customers_company, customers_street_address, customers_suburb, customers_city, customers_postcode, customers_state, customers_country, customers_telephone, customers_email_address, customers_address_format_id, delivery_name, delivery_company, delivery_street_address, delivery_suburb, delivery_city, delivery_postcode, delivery_state, delivery_country, delivery_address_format_id, billing_name, billing_company, billing_street_address, billing_suburb, billing_city, billing_postcode, billing_state, billing_country, billing_address_format_id, payment_method, cc_type, cc_owner, cc_number, cc_expires, date_purchased, orders_status, currency, wa_dest_tax, currency_value) values ('4', 'Ricky MaGoo', '', '179 Hoquiam Wishkah Rd.', '', 'Aberdeen', '98520', 'Washington', 'United States', '(460) 712-5875', '[email protected]', '2', 'Rick McGoo', '', '179 Hoquiam Wishkah Rd.', '', 'Aberdeen', '98520', 'Washington', 'United States', '2', 'Rick McGoo', '', '179 Hoquiam Wishkah Rd.', '', 'Aberdeen', '98520', 'Washington', 'United States', '2', 'Check/Money Order', '', '', '', '', now(), '1', 'USD', '1400', '1.00000000')

 

[TEP STOP]

 

 

In the Admin control when I click the report for Washington State Destination Tax Report

 

The page and fields all look right, but I get this error.......

 

1054 - Unknown column 'o.wa_dest_tax' in 'field list'

 

SELECT o.orders_id, o.date_purchased, o.delivery_street_address, o.delivery_city, o.delivery_postcode, o.wa_dest_tax as tax_zone, s.orders_status_name, ot.text as tax_total FROM orders o LEFT JOIN orders_total ot ON (o.orders_id = ot.orders_id), orders_status s WHERE o.orders_status = s.orders_status_id AND s.language_id = '1' AND ot.class = 'ot_tax' AND year(o.date_purchased) = 2008 AND month(o.date_purchased) = 08 ORDER BY o.orders_id DESC

 

[TEP STOP]

 

 

Please Help Me..... I'm sinking...LOL

 

Thanks

 

Rick

[Magma-tech]

New problem... Help !!! :blink:

 

I have run it several times with different addresses, products etc... and it has calculated the tax ok. But I never

confirmed a order to check out because I was using a Merchant Account with credit card, and did not want the

transaction to go through. So I turned the credit card off, and set it to pay by check only, re-ran a order, everything calculated the same.... but got this error..... after hitting the confirm button....

 

1054 - Unknown column 'wa_dest_tax' in 'field list'

 

insert into orders (customers_id, customers_name, customers_company, customers_street_address, customers_suburb, customers_city, customers_postcode, customers_state, customers_country, customers_telephone, customers_email_address, customers_address_format_id, delivery_name, delivery_company, delivery_street_address, delivery_suburb, delivery_city, delivery_postcode, delivery_state, delivery_country, delivery_address_format_id, billing_name, billing_company, billing_street_address, billing_suburb, billing_city, billing_postcode, billing_state, billing_country, billing_address_format_id, payment_method, cc_type, cc_owner, cc_number, cc_expires, date_purchased, orders_status, currency, wa_dest_tax, currency_value) values ('4', 'Ricky MaGoo', '', '179 Hoquiam Wishkah Rd.', '', 'Aberdeen', '98520', 'Washington', 'United States', '(460) 712-5875', '[email protected]', '2', 'Rick McGoo', '', '179 Hoquiam Wishkah Rd.', '', 'Aberdeen', '98520', 'Washington', 'United States', '2', 'Rick McGoo', '', '179 Hoquiam Wishkah Rd.', '', 'Aberdeen', '98520', 'Washington', 'United States', '2', 'Check/Money Order', '', '', '', '', now(), '1', 'USD', '1400', '1.00000000')

 

[TEP STOP]

 

 

In the Admin control when I click the report for Washington State Destination Tax Report

 

The page and fields all look right, but I get this error.......

 

1054 - Unknown column 'o.wa_dest_tax' in 'field list'

 

SELECT o.orders_id, o.date_purchased, o.delivery_street_address, o.delivery_city, o.delivery_postcode, o.wa_dest_tax as tax_zone, s.orders_status_name, ot.text as tax_total FROM orders o LEFT JOIN orders_total ot ON (o.orders_id = ot.orders_id), orders_status s WHERE o.orders_status = s.orders_status_id AND s.language_id = '1' AND ot.class = 'ot_tax' AND year(o.date_purchased) = 2008 AND month(o.date_purchased) = 08 ORDER BY o.orders_id DESC

 

[TEP STOP]

 

 

Please Help Me..... I'm sinking...LOL

 

Thanks

 

Rick

 

 

 

Never Mind...... :blink: :blink: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :blink: :blink:

 

I am new to this and I went through all the instructions 1 by 1 to recheck.... got to step "#24. Run the wa_dest_tax.sql on your database with phpmyadmin".... I could not figure out what that meant ...went to myphpadmin and typed in wa_dest_tax.sql hit go...came back with an error.... went through all the instruction and found the wa_dest_tax sql file

"ALTER TABLE `orders` ADD `wa_dest_tax` SMALLINT( 6 ) NULL DEFAULT NULL" ...so I entered that line into mysql and hit go..... problem solved.

 

Sorry guys..... you need to be real, "step by step explicit", for me, need to write it or format it for, "PHP Mod Install For Dummies"..... LOL....

 

Anyway...report looks good, all is working, I am in debt to all you guys that made this go...... Thanks

 

Rick :lol:

[Magma-tech]

Just a heads up on the Washington Based Destination Sales Tax Server....

I don't know how the others are handling this, but I will give you the details as I have them.

Yesterday I was running a test on my osC store , and it kept totaling the invoice without the

tax amount. I spent all day trying to see what was wrong, and I found, that everything on my

end, is working. I called the Wa Dept. of Revenue at 1-800-647-7706 and asked them if the server

was operational. She said it was down. I asked, is there some way for us as retailers to know when

the server is down? She said no, they don't even know when it's down until somebody complains.

I explained that, this is unacceptable, not even having a indicator on a web page, that the server

is down. She explained that as we get close to the close of the current reporting quarter that the

servers will probably go down due to the rush of requests. And that I am still responsible to

collect the tax, and properly report it. So I have made a test link with a street address that is good,

it is in text format, so you won't spend 5 hrs. on your store setup trying to see whats wrong.

To Test The Dept. Of Rev. Server .......

 

www.dor.wa.gov/AddressRates.aspx?output=text&addr=<701 E Market St>&city=<Aberdeen>&zip=<98520>

 

 

The error page that came up stated: Server error An error occurred with your request. You can:

 

* go back to previous page

* return to our home page

* send us a suggestion

 

If you're trying to file an unclaimed property claim, call 1-800-435-2429 (in Washington) or (360) 705-6706.

 

I called the numbers listed and they are for unclaimed properties, but when I pushed #0 for the operator

it was the dept. of revenue. I spoke with Debbra and asked if the server was still down and when would it

be up and running again. They seemed at a loss to explain what, or when, ....wanted my UBI number

and they would get back to me. This is unacceptable to be requiring this from us, and not have the servers

with the redundancy to handle the load. I called my State Representative on this, and I suggest that you do the same.

Be polite but demand that if they are going to require us as business owners to comply, they need to have a reliable

way to get the information in real time, with servers that can handle the millions of requests per day.

My representative, that I called is : Jim Hardgrove (360) 533-9477 I told him at a bare minimum that, there needs

to be a way to look online and know if the server is down, so I can manually add the tax, or stop my store from processing

orders without the sales tax, while still not losing the sale. So if your store is not calculating the tax...check the States

server first. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Note: The above link will self destruct after using it, and I don't think it can be bookmarked, it has to be

formatted exactly as it is...so copy and past it as is . Keep it in a place that you can copy and past every time

you want to check the server. If the server is operating you will get a text msg. with the tax info.

 

Rick

[gretchenwf]

Thank you SOOOO much for this contribution. I am redesigning my web store and this was a necessary contribution for me. I had some extra steps in getting it working (for example, my pwa doesn't use anything called pwa_shipping or pwa_label_shipping), but I have it working perfectly now.

 

I am an intermediate level php and javascript programmer, so if I can be of any use in testing or development, just let me know!!

 

Thanks again to all that have spent time making this work,

Gretchen

[lildog]

There are multiple versions of PWA available, the newer version 1.25 to the current and .90 or something. The install instructions for wa tax should make small mention of it.

 

the earlier versions use a slightly different pwa_shipping or pwa_label_shipping variables......

 

lilodg

 

Thank you SOOOO much for this contribution. I am redesigning my web store and this was a necessary contribution for me. I had some extra steps in getting it working (for example, my pwa doesn't use anything called pwa_shipping or pwa_label_shipping), but I have it working perfectly now.

 

I am an intermediate level php and javascript programmer, so if I can be of any use in testing or development, just let me know!!

 

Thanks again to all that have spent time making this work,

Gretchen

[lildog]

Again...F'in law is just ridiculous. And even when we do comply there are more hurdles. I'll bet on what happens......I saw this somewhere else. A yearly charge to access the servers. Just for the record. Then they will be able to buy what they need. Just F'ing stupid. From what I understand...to do the calculations by hand is almost impossible? Too many variables? I am not tax savvy AT ALL, which is why i wrote this contrib.

 

It would probably be possible to KNOW the server is down. But to what end? Tell the customers to come back later? Currently I have no way to manually charge a credit card, So I don't even know HOW I would get the tax if the order went through. I suppose a paypal request for money? Awsome Washington State this law is a HUGE help. But the law isn't to help US now is it? Nope.

 

So the contrib did not default to your wa state tax? Crap!

 

 

 

 

So I need a few ideas on what happens next too.

 

 

 

I am more than willing and able to do what needs to be done, but what is that?

 

 

 

 

 

Just a heads up on the Washington Based Destination Sales Tax Server....

I don't know how the others are handling this, but I will give you the details as I have them.

Yesterday I was running a test on my osC store , and it kept totaling the invoice without the

tax amount. I spent all day trying to see what was wrong, and I found, that everything on my

end, is working. I called the Wa Dept. of Revenue at 1-800-647-7706 and asked them if the server

was operational. She said it was down. I asked, is there some way for us as retailers to know when

the server is down? She said no, they don't even know when it's down until somebody complains.

I explained that, this is unacceptable, not even having a indicator on a web page, that the server

is down. She explained that as we get close to the close of the current reporting quarter that the

servers will probably go down due to the rush of requests. And that I am still responsible to

collect the tax, and properly report it. So I have made a test link with a street address that is good,

it is in text format, so you won't spend 5 hrs. on your store setup trying to see whats wrong.

To Test The Dept. Of Rev. Server .......

 

www.dor.wa.gov/AddressRates.aspx?output=text&addr=<701 E Market St>&city=<Aberdeen>&zip=<98520>

 

 

The error page that came up stated: Server error An error occurred with your request. You can:

 

* go back to previous page

* return to our home page

* send us a suggestion

 

If you're trying to file an unclaimed property claim, call 1-800-435-2429 (in Washington) or (360) 705-6706.

 

I called the numbers listed and they are for unclaimed properties, but when I pushed #0 for the operator

it was the dept. of revenue. I spoke with Debbra and asked if the server was still down and when would it

be up and running again. They seemed at a loss to explain what, or when, ....wanted my UBI number

and they would get back to me. This is unacceptable to be requiring this from us, and not have the servers

with the redundancy to handle the load. I called my State Representative on this, and I suggest that you do the same.

Be polite but demand that if they are going to require us as business owners to comply, they need to have a reliable

way to get the information in real time, with servers that can handle the millions of requests per day.

My representative, that I called is : Jim Hardgrove (360) 533-9477 I told him at a bare minimum that, there needs

to be a way to look online and know if the server is down, so I can manually add the tax, or stop my store from processing

orders without the sales tax, while still not losing the sale. So if your store is not calculating the tax...check the States

server first. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Note: The above link will self destruct after using it, and I don't think it can be bookmarked, it has to be

formatted exactly as it is...so copy and past it as is . Keep it in a place that you can copy and past every time

you want to check the server. If the server is operating you will get a text msg. with the tax info.

 

Rick

[Magma-tech]

Well I am not sure if I set mine up to correctly default to the state tax. I am hoping that the new URL site that

this mod is accessing is going to stay viable, and they are themselves just in a learning curve...IE: """We did know that a live look up server is going to get a gazillion hits, when merchants set up their stores to access it for every transaction""""......

 

Let alone use some stupid server that is designed to allow people to search the tax records/unclaimed property as the

server site for this. How stupid can you be????? Well I think our legislators have already answered that question.....

 

Now to get on with the problem......

 

Lildog.... can you implement the mod to access the mobile hand held URL for the tax info.... maybe it is a better site????...

 

check it here..... http://dor.wa.gov/Mobile/SalesTaxRatesCe.aspx

 

........it seems to be more reliable ...the page I linked to is

by address look up...but you have Lat/Lon look up also, which would not be very useful in making a mod...too difficult.

But I think with just some small modification to your existing mod, it will work. I don't know, your the expert here!

 

Thanks PS.... I typed in my address, rural address it did not find mine but it went to my neighbors, but I then had to click

on that address to get the tax code...so you might want to also look at it as what to do if it can't find that exact address, but finds the next closest thing, maybe find a way to have it then click to get that info? so it always returns a tax code?

Input your address, then one that is like next door to you but non-existent house number...see what it does.....

 

Rick

[lildog]

I don't know that changing the lookup url is going to fix the problem. It probably still looks it up on the same server. I have no idea though really. I just can't imagine they are running different servers, just different ways of accessing it. The mobile just has less text and pics. But when you say more reliable more reliable than what? More reliable than the url in the alert email?

 

The server is back up now, so I don't know how to diagnose the problem. If you happen to notice when it happens again the most helpful info would be what is returned when you go here: http://dor.wa.gov/AddressRates.aspx?output=txt&addr=516 1st Ave W&city=seattle&zip=98119

 

it should just return a line of text. How can I simulate a server being down?

 

SET YOUR TAX UP CORRECTLY! when the server is down the contrib should default to your stores tax, unless it is not set. It will not probably be the correct tax but anything is better than nothing. I suppose you could just uncomment the appropriate line for default tax in the wa_taxes function file.

 

Did anyone else experience this problem?

 

lildog

[Magma-tech]

Lilidog...The handheld site also gives a "confirmation number" which might be good as a backup in the reports, for auditing

purposes...IE...I did the best I could to comply...here is my confirmation numbers for each sale... ?

 

Rick

[Magma-tech]

I believe they are different servers... because the other one is still down, while the handheld is working.

[lildog]

The server this contrib uses is up....go here to check.