Posted this on Monster Forum, but seems like most merchants are here now.

Hoping other merchants also need this fix -- so it can be implemented ASAP!

We need the Sales Tax to be figured on orders with a California BILLING ADDRESS not the ship to address. NS/MC is aware of the problem, but cannot give a timeline when the fix will be implementd.

Any merchants out there with a solution? We authorize and capture orders when they are placed, so can't manually add the tax. (Besides who would want to manually do this when we are suppose to have a cart to take care of this automatically!)

The only solution I can have come up with is to disable the sales tax and we pay the 8.25% that will be due on California orders. Our profit margin is slim, so this is not an attractive option.

Hopefully other merchants also need this fix and will chime in here so this can be moved up on the "This needs fixing schedule".

We are experiencing the same thing. Our business is in Mississippi. We are having to manually contact each customer via phone and explain what is happening.

You are right, the issue is that the cart is charging sales tax based on the shipping address, rather than the billing address.

This is a serious bug that will kill our business during the holidays if not fixed. It is already costing us time and money. I have called NS tech support about 15 times about this issue. I have emailed the NS Vice President and I have issued a comment in the feedback section several weeks ago. I was given an SR number, but have not heard back from anyone and no one can seem to tell me when it will be fixed. I agree with you. This is a very serious issue that I am certain is affecting the entire user base of NS.

Hopefully additional merchants will post soon.

I posted a ticket a few days ago, but received no timeline for a fix. Will add comments to feedback section, plus any other area I can find to get this to right person(s).

Evidently this is not a big deal to them. It's not their money going down the tubes. So much for quick fixes with the V7 platform.

Missouri is the same, tax is based on the selling location, not the ship to. I've phoned this in many times and posted on the forums several times, without any NS replies.

We are looking into a tax override in a future release. An exact date has not been set.

Based on all the research I've seen, taxes should always be applied to the shipping address, not the billing address of the customer making the purchase. According to Mississippi's law (reference http://www.mstc.state.ms.us/info/rules/Par...ve_20080815.pdf), the following says it's based on the shipping address:


According to all three of those exemptions, it talks about delivering the goods, which is the shipping address.

California is the same way, according to http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/pub101.pdf


No where in these two documents does it state that you should charge tax based on the buying address of the consumer (i.e., the billing address). They all talk about where the product is shipped (the shipping address). If you have seen documentation that states otherwise, please let us know, but all our research says it should be based on the shipping address.

Will call our Board of Equalization again to get this straightened out. Will let you know the results

Hey Eddie,
The shopping cart is basing tax on the shipping address, rather than the billing address. Here is the example.

You own a business in Missouri. Customers that buy a gift to be shipped to Missouri are charged sales tax, because your business is inside the state. If a customer lives in Missouri and ships it to California they still pay sales tax because they live in Missouri (the billing address).

If someone from California buys something from your business in Missouri then they do not pay sales tax because they live outside of your state.

YOUR CART IS NOT DOING THIS AS DESCRIBED ABOVE. IT IS DOING THE REVERSE. CART 4.X WAS ACTING THE WAY DESCRIBED ABOVE. CART 7.X IS ACTING THE REVERSE AND IS BROKEN.

It is programmed backward. Even the location of the Bill To and the Ship to is flip flopped from where it was in 4 x. Please fix as every business using your cart is affected. It is not a state tax issue, it is a programming mistake.

Please help.

ttyler

I wouldn't call it a programming mistake, there should just be a few more options for applying sales tax. The way it works now is fine for us.

A customer from Washington (where we are located) only has to pay sales tax on his order if it is being delivered to an address inside the state of Washington. If he is having the order sent to an address outside of the state then the buyer does not have to pay sales tax. At least in the state of Washington, sales tax is figured by where the product is delivered, not where it is purchased. If no product exchanges hands inside the state, then there is no sales tax applied. That's how the cart is working right now.

The only thing we really need added is a way to make the invoice display the sales tax applied since in Washington, there is about 16 different sales tax rates that we have to report.

The location of the billing and shipping addresses on the invoice is easily fixed, just clone the invoice you are using and edit the cloned invoice. You just have to swap the shipping and billing code.

Ttyler,

According to Missouri's web site (http://dor.mo.gov/tax/business/faq/exempt.htm#q5), they clearly state that taxes should be collected based on the shipping address.



In your example, the goods are not being picked up in Missouri, so sales tax should not apply. I still cannot find anything stating where the billing address should be the one used instead of the shipping address. If you find some documentation proving otherwise, please let me know. We will gladly make this change if it is needed, but our sales taxes are being applied to the right address, from my research.



Actually, this is not true. The Ship To address is first in both version 4 and version 7.

J.D. & Eddie

I aplogize to you both!!! You are right!

Finally got through to the CA Board of Equalization and "sales tax is charged where product is taken into possession."

So...what am I doing now? Eating humble pie. (IMG:http://forums.networksolutions.com/style_emoticons/default/embarassed.gif)

Anne, I am so glad you got that straightened out.

Now ... as for the humble pie, be a real woman and eat chocolate!!! (IMG:http://forums.networksolutions.com/style_emoticons/default/bigsmile.gif)


Carol

I'm glad we're on the same page now. If anyone finds out that they should be charging based on the billing address, please let us know. As I stated before, all my research says it should be based on the shipping address.

Carol -- thanks you made me chuckle. (IMG:http://forums.networksolutions.com/style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.gif)

Eddie,
You are correct. I too am eating humble pie. My apologies.
ttyler

We have found that in California the applicable rate for the sale shall be based on the total rate for the disctrict that the item is being received only if the shipper is engaged in business in that district.
The following is a direct quote from Publication 105:
"The total tax rate in effect in a special tax district (statewide rate + district rate) generally applies to sales delivered or shipped into the district. However, if you are not engaged in business in the district, you are not required to collect the district use tax. Instead, you may calculate the tax due on your sale at the statewide rate of 7.25  percent (see “Courtesy collection of district use tax,” below). You are considered to be engaged in business in a special tax district and must report and pay district use tax if any of the following apply:..."
The full text can be found by clicking on the Publicaton 105 link in the second paragraph of the following site:
http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm
We use only the state wide tax of 7.25 and are refunding our customers the additional tax on a daily basis. A tax override will be neccesary for us, and the sooner the better! We just about lost our accountant when she heard about this one!

If my understanding is correct you should be able to only choose California as taxable and uncheck the rest of the cities/counties. This will only charge the state tax for California to anyone that checks out in that state, and will not charge any of the city/county tax rates.

Eddie

We need to charge 8.6% for all sales inside AZ and not any other rates
just like we did in V4
How can we set V7 to do thats
Dave

Currently there is not a way to do this until we implement the tax override. We have checked our tax provider information and we have not found a single city/county combination within AZ that charges tax that high. Your best bet will be to select AZ from the tax tree and all city/counties within that state.

Eddie,
Parker where we are is 8.6% combined and within a mile from our store is again higher
and Lake Havasu 40 miles from here is 8.75 combined.


Dave

Sorry Dave, I told Eddie wrong. I was reading the wrong tax type line in the AZ tax tables. You are correct in the combined rates for the locations you mention.

Your understanding is correct, I just did a test and the tax was correct after I unchecked the counties. Thanks for your help!

Thanks,
Is there any way to just get a 8.6 for all AZ sales before this option can be like v4 has.
Can we use the AZ and our town ( Parker ) and have the rate for all the rest in state be the Parker rate.

From what AZ Tax tells us we are to collect the tax rate based on our stores location as they consider the tax money is collected here at our building and thus the 8.6 rate when shipping to any city inside the state.

Dave

We are adding this to the next release. It is tops on my list of priorities.