Adding Sales Tax for Each County

[wkd]

I have installed the Ohio contribution for adding sales tax plus the Georgia County Rates. How does the customer let the program know which county they reside in to calculate the taxes

 

Many Thanks to anyone that can help me.

[♥mdtaylorlrim]

I have installed the Ohio contribution for adding sales tax plus the Georgia County Rates. How does the customer let the program know which county they reside in to calculate the taxes

 

Many Thanks to anyone that can help me.

It normally doesn't have to. The usual is for applicable sales tax being calculated on the point of sale, that's your store location, not on the customers location.

 

I have never found a confirmed case where a store must calculate the tax based on the county where the customer lives. It has always been the store location.

[Guest]

Mark,

 

FYI, Canada now requires sales tax to be collected from each of the 13 provinces/territories regardless of which province/territory the customer resides.

 

I think this will be the future of all internet websites as governments have been pondering for years how to collect sales tax for purchases from outside the store's state/province.

 

 

Chris

[♥mdtaylorlrim]

Mark,

 

FYI, Canada now requires sales tax to be collected from each of the 13 provinces/territories regardless of which province/territory the customer resides.

 

I think this will be the future of all internet websites as governments have been pondering for years how to collect sales tax for purchases from outside the store's state/province.

 

 

Chris

Well that could be in Canada. I'm no use with Canadian law...I concede that.

 

Actually, here in Texas, if a purchaser buys from out of state he is required to report the purchase to the state and pay the tax (I know of no one that actually does.) However, since the state cannot enforce a state law on the residents of another state it will never happen here. At least not at the state level. If we ever get a national sales tax then that will be a completely different story.

 

I can never see a time when an online store will be required to pay tax to a government authority in another state. But, I can see that internet sales could become taxable to sales outside the state, and paid to the state where the store is located.

 

Of course, that is just here in the states. And my humble opinion.

[MrPhil]

It normally doesn't have to. The usual is for applicable sales tax being calculated on the point of sale, that's your store location, not on the customers location.

 

I have never found a confirmed case where a store must calculate the tax based on the county where the customer lives. It has always been the store location.

Welcome to the real world. "Destination based" tax rates are quite common. Washington, New York, and Florida to name just three. That is, you have to charge (in-state sales) the sales tax at the point of delivery (the customer's address), not the point of sale (the store).

 

Some states set their taxes on ZIP Code boundaries, so you can simply grab the shipping address ZIP and look up the tax rate. Other states still set their rates on political boundaries, which isn't a hassle for brick-and-mortar stores, but is a royal PITA for figuring out the tax jurisdiction from a delivery address. I have yet to hear of a good, general solution to mapping address to tax jurisdiction.

 

Some states offer an online lookup service, where you give the address and the tax jurisdiction is returned to you, but I've heard lots of complaints about slowness, crashes, or other unsuitability. See the "E-Commerce Laws" section of this site. The alternative is to ask the customer not only what county, but specifically what jurisdiction (cities can have their own tax surcharges, plus regional entities such as transportation districts can add on). Then you have to check by hand that they gave the correct information, and adjust the charges if necessary. I think most store owners just say "to hell with it" and charge a flat rate for their location (as if it were a brick-and-mortar store).

Edited October 21, 2010 by MrPhil

[wkd]

Georiga Sale Tax Rep. said we had to charge sales tax to county which we ship. I am ready to take the same attitude as other customer owners and charge a flat rate. Thank you.

 

Welcome to the real world. "Destination based" tax rates are quite common. Washington, New York, and Florida to name just three. That is, you have to charge (in-state sales) the sales tax at the point of delivery (the customer's address), not the point of sale (the store).

 

Some states set their taxes on ZIP Code boundaries, so you can simply grab the shipping address ZIP and look up the tax rate. Other states still set their rates on political boundaries, which isn't a hassle for brick-and-mortar stores, but is a royal PITA for figuring out the tax jurisdiction from a delivery address. I have yet to hear of a good, general solution to mapping address to tax jurisdiction.

 

Some states offer an online lookup service, where you give the address and the tax jurisdiction is returned to you, but I've heard lots of complaints about slowness, crashes, or other unsuitability. See the "E-Commerce Laws" section of this site. The alternative is to ask the customer not only what county, but specifically what jurisdiction (cities can have their own tax surcharges, plus regional entities such as transportation districts can add on). Then you have to check by hand that they gave the correct information, and adjust the charges if necessary. I think most store owners just say "to hell with it" and charge a flat rate for their location (as if it were a brick-and-mortar store).

[♥mdtaylorlrim]

Welcome to the real world.

Ouch! I hope the 'real world' as you call it never comes to Texas. Here, if we actually deliver a product into another taxable jurisdiction we must charge the tax of that jurisdiction. That is physically enter the political boundaries. That does not mean ship to via a service. It is only if our delivery trucks enter that jurisdiction. Otherwise, we do not have a nexus within that jurisdiction.

Edited October 21, 2010 by mdtaylorlrim

[MrPhil]

I guess Texas is in a state of fantasy? :-"

 

All these different rules is what makes eCommerce in the US such a pain (let's not get into any discussions about whether the Lone Star Republic considers itself to be part of the US!). It sounds like Texas's rules are that a physical delivery by you means the recipient's tax rate (destination) applies, but if you hand it off to a third party shipper, you charge your tax rate? That sounds more complicated than necessary, and really doesn't make sense. Oh well. I've never heard of a store making a delivery to be a "nexus", but stranger things have happened.

 

I can't imagine the frustration when you sell the same goods in two different states, each of which you have a nexus in (and thus have to charge sales tax), but the rules about what's taxable and at what rate (class) differ between the two. E.g., selling candy in one jurisdiction is subject to sales tax, but not in the other.