Taxes for State of Florida Ship to Address

rdrunna · #1 (**permalink**) 10-14-2003, 05:33 PM

To anyone and everyone!!!

Is there a software out there that allows me to integrate sales taxable tables into my shopping cart available?

For instance. Florida is a sunny state, but a pain in the you know what when it comes to sales tax...

They have different percentages based on the county/zip code you ship packages to. I know that some don't charge taxes on their website, but I have to say that I dont' want to mess with Uncle Sam...

So if anyone knows of a software package, or a shopping cart that allows me to enter taxes by zip/state, this would make it a whole lot better when one doing my taxes and most important verifying what was charged correctly, etc... I hope I didn't confuse anyone, because this surely can be very confusing.

Thank you.
PS. http://www.innovativecookware.com is using this tax table, but they paid a lot of money to have it specially programmed to work and well it's expensive to modify as well. Have a great Day

cyanide · #2 (**permalink**) 10-16-2003, 10:14 AM

Hi rdrunna,

Normally, your best bet is to see if the cart you are using has a module to integrate into it.
Or contact the cart developers to see if they can customize it for you.

What about just doing a tax-inclusive pricing ?
It's a little risky depending on what kind of orders come in. On some you may take a hit, but on others you could make more, depending on where these shoppers are located.

cyanide · #3 (**permalink**) 10-16-2003, 10:28 AM

Oh,

it looks like you are using agoracart, you should have a look at their website and see if you can track down this info. www.agoracart.com

Reesa Marchetti · #4 (**permalink**) 10-16-2003, 11:28 AM

Hi,

I have several clients on hosts that provide Cart32 (readyHosting.com is good, in my experience). The tax function is built in and it's fairly easy to use. So where's your site?

AmeenaAhmad · #5 (**permalink**) 10-16-2003, 12:24 PM

Hi,

I had the same problem here in California where LA county has 8.25% tax but Orange County has 7.75% tax. After consulting the tax authorities I was told I had to charge 7.75% and make up the difference myself when paying taxes. It seemed like a weird way to do it but since the amounts are negligable I didn't pursue it further. Most of our orders come from out of California anyway. Hope that helps.

Susan
Ameena
EngagingFavors.com

cooper · #6 (**permalink**) 10-16-2003, 03:20 PM

From what I have heard, and I could be wrong so consult a qualified tax person, you only charge sales tax when any physical locations reside within the same state as the person/organization to whom you are selling the product. If I only have one location in California and I sell to someone in Maine, or any state other than California, then sales tax is not applicable. However, if I sell to someone in California then I pay the sales tax applicable to my location (city, county, etc.) not the customer's.

Like I said, consult with a qualified tax person, but that was my understanding about how the whole sales tax thing works.

For your shopping cart you may want to check out PayPal's features as a reference point. I believe you should be able to specify individual sales tax, or if you even want to charge sales tax, for each state/region/territory. I don't even know where to start with selling things to people/orgs. in other countries, like Canada, Mexico and beyond.

msupplier · #7 (**permalink**) 10-29-2003, 09:39 PM

Hi, I am also in Florida and I have my cart set to 7% for the whole state of Florida. I have not had problems with them, as long as they are paid is what they told me.

Good Luck
www.merchantsupplier.com

TheWebDoctor(tm) · #8 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 01:26 AM

Although many States have differing sales tax formats and some allow for counties and cities to charge an additional amount, I have found that States are allowing the POS to be the business location.

With all the brick-and-mortar businesses around and the limited number of Sales Tax Commissioners/Collectors/Enforcers States typically do not have the resources to ensure home-based businesses tax based upon established standards.

I commend you on your desires to meet the State requirements, but you will never be able to keep up with the changes. The Postal Service doesn't inform people of new Zip Codes when they are added and Zip Codes can cross county/city lines.

Until the States can provide an XML feed for Sales Tax, I would base my sales tax rates on my area.

Note: I am not a lawyer nor do I work for the Florida Department of Tax Collections.

I hope this helps.

FrankKnapp · #9 (**permalink**) 10-31-2003, 07:14 PM

Hi,

yeah, the state tax system also caused me some headache when I was implementing it for the US version of our German Shopping cart :)

Basically I can confirm everything I read in this thread.

1. Of course you only have to charge any tax if you have a shop/business-location in the same state as the purchaser's shipping address.
2. Theoretically every ZIP can have a different rate.
3. The tax can also depends on what you're selling.

I implemented 1. and 2. (3. was already included in the German version) so that by default a state tax rate is choosen. However you can also specify certain ZIP's including jokers (e.g. 43***) seperately.

As far as I know there are not many carts out which support it so extensively. The MonsterCommerce and our cart are one of them (however the US version of our cart is not available for another 2-3 weeks).

adamco · #10 (**permalink**) 11-11-2003, 03:55 PM

Dear Lillian:
Yes there is an in expensive cart called "Minicart" $75.00 for a unix or windows server or its bigger brother EZShopper $285.00 from the same programmers at www.ahg.com compatible with a few credit card processors (ask which ones). I have a Florida business selling an excellent health book "Real Health Remedies! at www.realhealthremedies.com that uses this cart. You can of course sell more than one item in the cart. I solved the 5 different tax rates covering 67 Florida counties problem by using the Minicart drop down tax window to have the purchaser choose their own tax rate from the list. For $35.00 www.ahg.com will customize the cart as in my case to stop any Florida address customer from completing a purchase without choosing a tax rate. For about the same rate they will change the cart calculation to total the tax rate selected to multiply against the total of the product price AND the shipping/ handling charge. You must charge against the total, most carts only tax the product charge. Ahg.com will produce an error page sending the Florida shopper back to the enter sales tax rate page if they fail to tax themselves. Check out my website to see how it operates and you might want to order my book.