Designated State Taxes not working~?

[reclipse3]

Is it just me or is this a major problem that's not being fixed?? When I setup a California sales tax of 7.75%, members from another state are still charged the tax rate. Of course, only California residents should be charged the tax.

I would think this to be one of the most important/basic features of any e-commerce software.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Robert

[spagman]

Same here,
I configured everything.... even followed instructions on Wiki cause I thought I was doing something wrong.
Nothing... I've been testing other States...and unless it goes by IP address , which in that case I understand why it doesnt work, It can only be a bug
Should I submit to bug tracker??
Please guys we need some help!

[reclipse3]

I actually figured it out. I had US checked at the same time as CA (California), so it was charging tax for ALL states in the US.

From the Admin Panel; Payment > Taxes > Edit the Tax you created and make sure you ONLY check a particular state and not the whole country.

Cheers!

Robert

[spagman]

Hey Robert!
Thanks for answering!
I still cant get it going...im using version 1.0
Is there anyway you can give me a brief breakdown of how you set up the "product part" (No tax?) and what exactly you did?
I have
Zones Configured - US
Countries Configured - USA , Canada
States Configured For USA

Michigan sales tax configured 6%
Michigan activated sales tax (all others states are on product)
Checked only Michigan Not Zone US for Tax.

Went to products and "turned off taxes"

I created a Michigan Customer, and tried a purchase.... no taxes added.
I tried switching a few things still nothing.

I know Im doing something wrong somewhere...but I cant quite figure it out?

Thank You!

[reclipse3]

I'm also using version 1.0

If you just want your Michigan customers automatically taxed 6%;

Payment > Taxes > Tax options > "Yes"

In the same area, just above, delete all Taxes you don't want to use and then edit the one you created for Michigan. Just give it a name (MI 6%), add the 6% rate and then make sure the only box that's checked is Michigan, then save. I'm pretty sure that's all you have to do so that only Michigan residents will be charged 6% tax.

This is all I've done to get taxes working on my end. However, I haven't been able to get the pre-tax price to show on products and only show tax added to CA residents upon checkout. My main reason is that I'd like the products to show the lower price, instead of a higher price with "incl. tax" posted after it. I've tried adjusting the appropriate setting (Display pre-tax price on product page - Yes) from Preferences > Products, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

This is a great shopping cart, I sure hope they come out with an updated version that fixes issues and adds some new features.

Good luck!

Robert

Hey Robert!
Thanks for answering!
I still cant get it going...im using version 1.0
Is there anyway you can give me a brief breakdown of how you set up the "product part" (No tax?) and what exactly you did?
I have
Zones Configured - US
Countries Configured - USA , Canada
States Configured For USA

Michigan sales tax configured 6%
Michigan activated sales tax (all others states are on product)
Checked only Michigan Not Zone US for Tax.

Went to products and "turned off taxes"

I created a Michigan Customer, and tried a purchase.... no taxes added.
I tried switching a few things still nothing.

I know Im doing something wrong somewhere...but I cant quite figure it out?

Thank You!

[deborahjb]

Actually, I tried the above steps and non-tax-state customers were still getting charged. But, I found out where the real problem is!!

There is a weird thing in PS where tax behavior is actually found under the Shipping tab >> States. Go into each state by clicking on the state name in your list. Under the Zone drop-down, you will find the Tax Behavior choices. Choose State tax if you want it to be treated by state. Apparently, the Product tax choice is the default, which causes the tax to apply to all products in that state. So, you must go into each and every state to change it to the State tax, instead. I've tried it and it works!! Have fun changing all those states!!

I, too wish that only the pre-tax would display in the product lists and pages. It doesn't make sense to have a tax price show up even before a customer logs in. So, taxes are showing even for those who wouldn't be charged!!

[deborahjb]

I found out how to get the pre-tax price to show up in product pages!! This only works if customers are not logged in (if their state has taxes)...or for customers in states with no taxes. For example, if a returning customer logs in from a state with taxes, they will see the taxed prices everywhere. As long as they do not log in, though, they will see the pretax prices!

In the Catalog product page, in the tax section, "Tax:" drop-down, choose "No Tax". Actually, this drop-down is tied to the Shipping >> States page. In each state, you must choose either Product or State or Both. If you need only state taxes, choose "State" here. This controls the taxes to be charged throughout the site. You then don't need to choose the tax option in the product pages!! Managing the states taxes properly will do the job site-wide.

If certain products have additional taxes or surcharges (on top of State taxes), create the special taxes under the Payment >> Taxes subtab. Then under the Shipping>>State subtab, choose "Product tax" (if you have no state tax), or, "Both Product and State" (if you have both) . Then, go to the Catalog >> product page and choose the special tax you just created under the Tax drop-down. Choosing the tax drop-down in the product page does trigger the tax to show up in the storefront under product views, however. If you chose both Product and State taxes, you will see the two taxes adding up in the product views and cart, as well. This still needs fixing if pre-tax price is desired for display.

[bradhenz]

Ok, so I have tried everything everyone has said. Even followed the wiki instructions.

1. Created my tax
2. Then applied it to my zone
3. Only zone is USA
4. Only tax available is the Illinois tax


I only need it for Illinois. So I only have Illinois checked in the zone page. I don't have tax applied for the products because it's not a product tax.

I need this to work...any suggestions?

[artjunky]

Shipping tab-> States. Make sure it is activated under IL and the postal code is correct, as I believe that's what it goes off of.

I don't know why it's so tricky, took me a few tries to get it right. For new customers it won't add the tax until they check out. If a current customer logs in, then it will show the tax when they browse products.

[bradhenz]

Thanks for the reply...I do only have Illinois selected. I do not have USA zone selected, just Illinois. I have gone all the way through a test check out and still no tax...

If it were easy...it wouldn't be this fun! Haha...

[bradhenz]

Well I finally got the state taxes to work.

Here is what I did.

1. Delete all zones/states/countries/shippers
2. Make a tax test (you can't delete all taxes)
3. Start from largest (zone) and work my way backwards (down to states) and entered only what I needed (which was all 50 states and USA)
4. All states are on product tax except for Illinois which is state
5. Created my tax for Illinois
6. Chose both the US zone and Illinois
7. Created my shipper which is UPS ground
8. Went and turned taxes on under payments

Note: All of this was set up the same way using the Prestashop default states/US zone, etc. but none of it worked until I did it from scratch.

[jgrasso]

If you just use State Tax and not individual products, how do you designate products which are tax-free? For instance, clothing is tax-free in some states. So if you have a store in those states, you have to use Product Tax individually for each product and then indicate whether tax applies to that product ("No Tax" or "Sales Tax"). The program has to be able to handle this, although it does not appear to work right now. I can only get Sales Tax to show up when I change the "Shipping > State > Tax Behavior" to "State", but this does not allow for Tax-free items.

[artjunky]

That functionality is not there yet. There are still quite a few practicalities that aren't in PS just yet. Though I think adding them in would make taxes too complicated for many. So maybe it would end up in optional modules down the line. I can easily see how a situation like the one you described would completely not be thought of by the developer. Especially if they aren't selling products in that situation.

Some taxation scenarios that could easily get quite complicated.
1. Like you said tax exempt objects, that easily vary by zone, country and states.
2. Sales taxes also vary by county in many states and some states, like NC, have a two-tiered sales tax approach.
3. Some states have sales tax holidays for certain purchasers, like in FL they have one for hurricane preparedness items for a couple weeks a year.

I'm sure I'm missing things, but it gets complicated very quickly. I really haven't looked at the database entries for taxation enough to give you any quick advice on how to implement something like that. There probably isn't an easy way if you are trying to do this for many states, but it might not be so hard if you are only trying to do it for shop's home state.

[jgrasso]

1) PS allows you to setup a Sales Tax (Payment > Taxes) and designate a Zone or a State for that Tax.
2) You can then designate Shipping > States > Tax behavior for that State. One of the choices is Product Tax.
3) Then assign Sales Tax (setup in Step 1) or "No Tax" for each product.

The "Sales Tax" should be applied when shipping to that state. But it does not. This appears to be a bug, not lack of a feature.

[weaselbringer]

I had to delete california as a state and re-create it to get taxes to work for it, which sucks because I have like 200 customers who list CA as their state and I have to manually go fix them all now...