langl3y Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 i am based in NY state and the tax rates here are based on counties and not on the city. moreover, zip codes do not necessarily correspond with political boundaries so getting tax rates based on zip codes is inaccurate. what i need to do is get the county based on the address. i've searched the forum and most people's solution seems to be to just simply ask the customer for their county information. while this may be the simplest solution, some people simply don't know what county they're in. also, i have never seen a store which asks what county you're from in all my years of online shopping. the closest thing i've found so far is the USPS zip code lookup on their website. the USPS does have APIs but none that provide county information. what i'm referring to is their zipcode lookup form at zip4.usps.com/zip4. it gives out county information in addition to zipcodes when you enter an address. i'm hesitant to use this form because i don't know how reliable/stable the site is and if they make any changes to their layout, it will most likely break my script. i was wondering what you guys think and if other people with a similar problem have found other solutions. thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozcsys Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 I could be wrong but I think the reason you have never seen anyone asking about the customers county is that is does not matter. They are doing business with you so if you need to charge them a local tax then it should probably be the rate for your location. I would check with your account or attorney but I have a hard time beleiving that you would need to know every local tax in the state to sell online. I know that NY is tax crazy but even with that I can not see that being a requirement. Have you had someone tell you that you have to keep track of all the county/local taxes? Richard The Knowledge Base is a wonderful thing. Do you have a problem? Have you checked out Common Problems? There are many very useful osC Contributions Are you having trouble with a installed contribution? Have you checked out the support thread found Here BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP!!! You did backup, right?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bastille Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 I could be wrong but I think the reason you have never seen anyone asking about the customers county is that is does not matter. They are doing business with you so if you need to charge them a local tax then it should probably be the rate for your location. I would check with your account or attorney but I have a hard time beleiving that you would need to know every local tax in the state to sell online. I know that NY is tax crazy but even with that I can not see that being a requirement. Have you had someone tell you that you have to keep track of all the county/local taxes? Richard <{POST_SNAPBACK}> FYI NY DOES require business to collect all those taxes, and yes it's a nightmare. if that wasn't enought NY also requires charging tax for shipping, and, as mentioned, cities like Yonkers collect taxes on top of county and state levies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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