Based in California. Tax? How?

[jsi]

We are in California and we ship all over the world but most of our business is in US.

 

Anybody out there from California? How does the shipping work? Do I charge the 9.25% to everyone equally or do I have to charge each state's tax rate?

I have the GoogleCheckout contribution and just got an order from another state. and they didnt get charged tax cause I only setup my tax in googlecheckout for california. So when I setup the other states, I need to know what rate to put in. What does California law have to say about this?

 

Does California have counties or areas with different tax zones like Florida and others?

 

How did you setup your store's tax tables/zones? A little help pleeeeeeez.

 

Sorry but we are just starting with this business thing and would really appreciate kind advice from all you pros/experience Oscommerce users out there.

 

Thank you so very much for your free time in answering my plea.

[MrPhil]

In general, you charge sales tax for a state only if you "have a nexus" (physical presence) in that state, or are legally set up there, or your state has some sort of agreement to cross-tax (like NY and NJ). If none of those conditions apply, you normally don't have to charge any sales tax on orders from that state. In NY (and maybe other states), your customers are supposed to report such out of state purchases and pay tax on them, but I'd guess that most people ignore that.

 

I believe that CA has different tax rates in different cities. I don't know if rates are based on the purchaser's address (as NY, WA, FL,... do) or if it's strictly on your (seller's) address. In order to collect CA sales tax, you must have registered with some state tax agency, so I would suggest starting with them. Maybe they have a web site that lists what you need to do. Some states make it easy by listing tax rates by ZIP Code, while others (like NY) are a PITA and insist that you not use ZIP Codes, but the actual street address.

[jsouth33]

I've been running my business in california for some time.

 

The way it works is, you pay your local sales tax (wherever your business is located). You only pay sales tax for whatever state your business is located in.

And only charge people that sales tax if they are shipping the tangible goods to your business' state or if they live there.

 

So if somebody lives out of state, and ships the product to california, and you're doing business there, then you would charge your sales tax rate that your city (or whatever district you're in) uses.

 

You can find out your Sales Tax here: http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-bin/rates.cgi .Just click on the Letter of the beginning of your business' City name.

 

As for setting up your Tax Zones; All of that is under the Admin->Locations / Taxes (I have version 2.2 RC2 so this is what I do.)

 

You go to Tax Zones first, set up your state. (default is Florida, so just go to Edit [right-hand side] and replace Florida with California. And Click Update)

Then go to Tax Rates, and once again, go to Edit. Then change the Tax Rate to whatever it needs to be, and also the Description.

 

e.g.

My tax rate is 8.7500

And my Description is CA TAX 8.75% instead of default: FL TAX 7.0%

 

Then click Update.

 

 

Hope this helped. Any more questions ask away..

 

 

 

We are in California and we ship all over the world but most of our business is in US.

 

Anybody out there from California? How does the shipping work? Do I charge the 9.25% to everyone equally or do I have to charge each state's tax rate?

I have the GoogleCheckout contribution and just got an order from another state. and they didnt get charged tax cause I only setup my tax in googlecheckout for california. So when I setup the other states, I need to know what rate to put in. What does California law have to say about this?

 

Does California have counties or areas with different tax zones like Florida and others?

 

How did you setup your store's tax tables/zones? A little help pleeeeeeez.

 

Sorry but we are just starting with this business thing and would really appreciate kind advice from all you pros/experience Oscommerce users out there.

 

Thank you so very much for your free time in answering my plea.

[jsi]

I've been running my business in california for some time.

 

The way it works is, you pay your local sales tax (wherever your business is located). You only pay sales tax for whatever state your business is located in.

And only charge people that sales tax if they are shipping the tangible goods to your business' state or if they live there.

 

So if somebody lives out of state, and ships the product to california, and you're doing business there, then you would charge your sales tax rate that your city (or whatever district you're in) uses.

 

You can find out your Sales Tax here: http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-bin/rates.cgi .Just click on the Letter of the beginning of your business' City name.

 

As for setting up your Tax Zones; All of that is under the Admin->Locations / Taxes (I have version 2.2 RC2 so this is what I do.)

 

You go to Tax Zones first, set up your state. (default is Florida, so just go to Edit [right-hand side] and replace Florida with California. And Click Update)

Then go to Tax Rates, and once again, go to Edit. Then change the Tax Rate to whatever it needs to be, and also the Description.

 

e.g.

My tax rate is 8.7500

And my Description is CA TAX 8.75% instead of default: FL TAX 7.0%

 

Then click Update.

 

 

Hope this helped. Any more questions ask away..

 

Thank you much justin.

So do you charge tax for out of state orders? How about international orders?

 

Here is my situation...

I sell health and beauty products and vitamins only online internationally.

I purchase from manufacturer at wholesale here in california and don't get charged tax.

 

My question is how much tax do I charge? California orders I know. Out of state do I charge my california rate or their states tax rate? What about international orders?

 

Thanx!

[MrPhil]

I purchase from manufacturer at wholesale here in california and don't get charged tax.

 

Wholesale transactions are normally exempt from state sales tax in the US. In countries with VAT, I think you have to pay something at each point in the chain.

 

My question is how much tax do I charge? California orders I know. Out of state do I charge my california rate or their states tax rate? What about international orders?

 

If you and all your physical operations are in California, you would charge sales tax on retail shipments to California addresses. I think California bases the rate on your (seller's) address, not the buyer's. You would not charge any sales tax on out of state sales, unless CA has some sort of cross-tax agreement with the other state(s). You can check with the state sales tax agency for information on that. Note that there is a growing movement to repeal the Internet sales tax exemption and require you to collect state sales tax for each buyer, but currently out of state sales are exempt. I haven't heard of having to collect sales taxes to out-of-country sales, but you may have to pay duties at the border, so you need to check with each country you ship to.

[tinkerbell46325]

Wholesale transactions are normally exempt from state sales tax in the US. In countries with VAT, I think you have to pay something at each point in the chain.

 

 

 

If you and all your physical operations are in California, you would charge sales tax on retail shipments to California addresses. I think California bases the rate on your (seller's) address, not the buyer's. You would not charge any sales tax on out of state sales, unless CA has some sort of cross-tax agreement with the other state(s). You can check with the state sales tax agency for information on that. Note that there is a growing movement to repeal the Internet sales tax exemption and require you to collect state sales tax for each buyer, but currently out of state sales are exempt. I haven't heard of having to collect sales taxes to out-of-country sales, but you may have to pay duties at the border, so you need to check with each country you ship to.

I have made all the changes listed in this post from beginning) but the tax still not showing at checkout, I have 'Display Prices with Tax' to False in admin, Using a Ca address to test but is not working' can someone help or pm me for a log in password'