When will HikaShop have US tax cloud plugin?

Saw post that next version of HikaShop will include taxcloud plugin to calculate US taxes. When will that be available? Please advise

I created an account with TaxCloud but was advised that HikaShop is not yet certified at TaxCloud. Can you please let me know how I am able to use this free service then?

Well, it doesn't work the way it should and here is what it does:

When you pass the order information off to PayPal it only passes the product pricing plus any applicable shipping plus all of the address information to start the checkout/payment process. It does not communicate with TaxCloud at all from the HikaShop side of things so the applicable sales tax is not properly captured.

PayPal will communicate with TaxCloud and add the sales tax from their side of the process but the now the customer is faced with an additional charge amount (the sales tax) that was not on their order sheet prior to going to PayPal to pay the bill. This leaves the door open for them to cancel the order due to it appearing that they are being hit with another charge from a different source but it also results in the vendor being issued an email that says an unauthorized amount has been submitted for payment (the original charges from HikaShop versus the whole charge with tax that ends up being handled in PayPal) and creates a mess for the vendor to track.

The TaxCloud plugin is not communicating with TaxCloud at all for some reason and it really skews the numbers by having to track down your total revenues (because we in the US have to have it all for taxes) through two sources. On a side note, none of your sales that you process through TaxCloud via the HikaShop interface are captured on their end so it also prevents you from being able to properly put your website to a "live" status on their side of things.

Major communications bugs here and it really makes a mess of things to work with it. The idea is perfectly sound but until it actually does what it should do, it is just another piece of "software" that serves no purpose. Hope you can get it figured out soon or I will be dumping HikaShop, again, from my site and just go back to the old way of collecting all the information I need and sending out an invoice to be paid via PayPal.

Don't take it as "hard words" and don't tell me that the PayPal issue can't happen because I have the damn email from them to prove it. Regarding the configuration of the plugin, which is really straight forward, I have everything configured yet it does not communicate properly. I have an order on my HikaShop dashboard for the item price plus proper USPS shipping but no sales tax showing. I have an invoice from PayPal that shows the amount from above PLUS sales tax. I have an email notification from PayPal that says an invalid amount has been submitted (the HikaShop order amount) and that it can not be processed. I have a completed transaction entry in PayPal where the transaction was paid for that includes proper sales tax. The HikaShop order amount does not match the PayPal payment confirmation and no portion of this transaction was captured by TaxCloud, at all, which is required to allow the site to go live. After contacting TaxCloud regarding this issue, it is apparent that the plugin does not actually communicate with TaxCloud as HikaShop is not a recognized platform, as per them.

I was only trying to let you know the specific issue that I have run into so that maybe we could get some direction of where to look but if it is going to cause some crying instead of investigating or suggestions (beyond the normal "it is the user's fault responses) then no problem, business can be taken elsewhere without much of a thought. Sorry you feel that it was being bashed but when there is a problem, and there is one, it needs to be brought out into the open for discussion.

Regarding the configuration of the plugin, it would be helpful maybe for other users to have a little bit of information, from the creator of the plugin, as to how THEY configure it to work. Aside from the fact that it now exists as part of the package there is no other information available to the reader/user/researcher who is interested in using HikaShop.

I will get a screenshot together when I have the time but there is not really a lot of information that is required and none of it is rocket science.

I have solved the problem after receiving my latest support response from TaxCloud. After three days of back and forth between me and the TaxCloud support staff I have uninstalled the HikaShop component and all modules and plugins based on their response, which I have in writing. It was brought to my attention by TaxCloud that there have been several customers attempting to get the full interface to work and that they, TaxCloud, have contacted you, the Hikari team, to complete the development of the interface for proper functionality. It was also brought to my attention in this same written notice that you, the Hikari team, have decided to NOT complete the development to their, TaxCloud, standards and that are going to discontinue allowing ALL HikaShop interaction between the HikaShop platform and their services.

Sorry guys, but that information, directly from the service provider, goes a long way towards decision making for the future. It would do me, nor anyone else, any good to even try to move forward in making this work if it is going to be cutoff anyway. I know there is the old work around method that had been in use prior to the development of the TaxCloud Plugin but it was cumbersome and extremely time consuming to set into action. And I also know that you have provided assistance to a client in getting their system to interface and obtain sales tax data but it isn't fully compliant with the TaxCloud services and it will soon be cutoff from even being able to access the service which leaves them back at square one.

I commend you for trying but I need to be able to put a fully functional system into operation that is in compliance with any partnership/affiliate service providers to ensure that my clients can receive the goods and services that they pay for and that they are being charged properly and that I am collecting appropriate sales tax as required by law.

Thanks again and hopefully there will be a change of mind towards the development of the TaxCloud Plugin to the full standards required by the service provider.

Good luck with all of your future endeavors because this system has a very bright future if it could become a truly viable option for all US based e-commerce operators. By the way, take another look at the plugin configuration page, you will notice that you have the Zip4 and Zip5 field labels on the wrong lines. Anyone who actually looks at the information required will find themselves entering the numbers as the label requires, but we all know that would create a major address mismatch and would not allow the plugin to function because the origin address is formatted incorrectly. Most people don't pay too much attention to the labels and just enter the data as they are used to in the common order but there is always that one that actually reads every single line and piece of text.

I was able to get the plugin to finally capture the sales tax for an order but then the issue of shipping being taxed arose (it is not taxable in my State) and when the information was transmitted to PayPal there was still a mismatch of total order value for payment (PayPal received an order total that was less than what was calculated which triggered an invalid order amount message, the error was in the taxation section and my PayPal is not configured to do anything that isn't provided by an e-commerce platform).

Thanks anyway for your attention to this issue.

I understand where you are coming from on the development side of it but their understanding is apparently very different. Regarding my configuration page for the TaxCloud plugin, when it comes to the zip code fields, mine are labeled as the Zip4 field first, followed by the Zip5 field. That is how they are labeled but if you actually enter the data that way you get a configuration error. I tried it just to make sure so that I could note it. On initial configuration of the plugin I filled the address data in as fast as possible based on the fact that we always know what goes where so I had the correct numbers entered. I didn't even really look at it until I was trying to figure out what may be causing my issues. When I noticed the labels were listed in backwards order (based on a typical zip code of course) I flipped the numbers to match the field labels and promptly received an "Invalid City" error that was created by the incorrect zip code numbers. The labeling is a small issue for those of us that complete our address data as we are used to. But, as I have previously said, if there are others who see their configuration page listed the way mine shows up and they actually read the entire list of field labels, they will most likely end up putting the wrong part of their zip code in those fields. I am sure I can find the error within the component files where I can correct this so not a big deal.

Regarding the configuration of the PayPal page, that is so simple and straight forward that it is impossible to screw that up. Here is how my test transaction went: I made a purchase of a test item from my site and this purchase was actually a live transaction so there is no Sandbox mode in play here. I added the item to my cart, completed the customer detail information, selected payment method and shipping method and then went to the next screen. The order page showed the item price, the correct shipping (as obtained through the USPS plugin and my webtools account data), and the correct sales tax as obtained from TaxCloud. The first problem here is that the sales tax was for the item plus shipping but shipping is not taxable in my State so that has to somehow be able to be changed; the second issue came up once I submitted the order for payment and to be transferred to PayPal for the processing. There was a discrepancy on the amount of sales tax when transferred to PayPal because a different amount was noted on the PayPal side of the process and it was less which created the "invalid invoice amount, not accepted" error notification that is sent via email. This email was sent immediately because I got the email pop-up announcement before I could even give the issue a better look.

Here is exactly how my sale breaks down: The test item was for $1.00, the USPS shipping on this item would be $5.60, for the total order amount of $6.60. The sales tax for this item (the test address was an address within my State to ensure proper testing of the plugin) calculated out to be $0.47 or 7.1% of the total order. This amount is correct but it taxed the shipping which is not taxable so the actual sales tax should be $0.07 for the item only. The total order, as calculated, now becomes $7.07 to be submitted to PayPal. Now we send the order to PayPal for payment and all of the sudden the order amount for payment is listed for a total of $7.00 which is now less than what was actually calculated and the difference is in the sales tax (it is $0.07 less now). Being as I received the email that the amount for payment was invalid indicates that PayPal received the correct amount initially but there was something that occurred during the process that recalculated something and ended up only allowing the payment of the lesser amount because that was all I could pay was the lesser amount.

I checked my entire PayPal account setup (the actual account) and there is not now, nor has there ever been, any data entered regarding sales tax, payment, shipping or anything else because I have always used an e-commerce platform and their internal modules and plugins. My PayPal plugin configuration was accurate and I even checked my shipping plugin which was accurate. I have not been able to locate anywhere within the HikaShop component where I can select an option that shipping is not taxed (and I have gone through everything to make sure) and why the sudden reduction of sales tax that creates the difference is beyond me.

Any ideas what may have happened? I have checked everything multiple times and from different angles and have found myself at a loss. Don't know what to look at anymore but would love to be able to see this work because I like the work that you have been doing and I am sure that all of the future work will be just as valuable but frustration gets the best of all of us and it has got me right now.

Thanks again for what you have done so far and hopefully there is a fix here somewhere. I will continue to look and, if I find something, will let you know what I came up with.

Got it! Had to do a little bit of changing to the PayPal plugin as you can't send the cart contents to the PayPal system because it will cause all kinds of messes. Was working on the issue that I had regarding the shipping getting taxed so I ran another test transaction to see if I could debug it and all of the sudden it wasn't taxing it anymore. I will keep an eye on it going forward to see that it doesn't start taxing shipping again but for now I have it doing exactly what it should.

Hello- I would love to use the tax cloud plug in as well, but it seems there is a hold up. Here is what I got from tax cloud:

Carl Stefanelli (TaxCloud Support Center)
May 09 09:04 PM

Hi Jason,

To the best of our knowledge, Hikashop has not fully implemented our TaxCloud APIs, which is why they are not listed on our partner page. They have assured us development would be completed soon.

As soon as they finish implementation, we will conduct our standard verification procedures, then their plugin should be available.

Between us, they have already completed most of the complicated work (address verification and lookup), but we cannot explain the extended delay to implement the remaining Authorized and Captured APIs (or the combined AuthWithCapture) which only take two parameters.

Please keep us informed of any news you get from them.

Thank you.
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This is very important to users, as we are looking to sell nationwide and need a tax implementation software. It seems you are close to completion on this, can we get an ETA? I like Hikashop and have spent a LOT of time customizing it, but this tax thing has to work or I simply cannot use it. I understand you are all busy, but I feel like this needs to be moved to the top of the list. If I am in this position I'm sure many others are as well. Can you please revisit the tax cloud plug in, and finish it? It would be so much appreciated!!

Also, I got the address error as well with the zip codes.

Thanks for all your hard work!!!

Jason

Nicholas- I never questioned the amount of work it takes. I simple relayed the email from tax cloud. I think the reason you are getting this type of reaction from people is because you released the plug in before it was done. I would have just waited. I was just looking for an update. Thank you for including this in HIkashop. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hi guys- It has been 3 weeks. Any updates on this?

Hi,

You can download the latest package of HikaShop from our website and you will find the full API present as you can see in the change log:

The TaxCloud plugin now supports the full API of TaxCloud and should be certified soon