Local Pickup + TaxCloud = Wrong Tax Rate

Hi Guys,

Any chance you can get to this soon? It has been 3 months since I first opened the thread.

The two related issues (tax cloud bug and the local shipping bug) are still there.

Client is getting a little testy.

Hi,

Like I send you by email, we right have your last message from the "contact us" but we don't have any credentials for your website attached.
So I still don't have any access to your website to take a look or help you.

Regards,

I've just sent it again via the contact form as it is under https.

Please let me know that you got it.

Thanks.

Any idea when you might get to this?

I'm supprised the local pickup bug alone hasn't gotten attention as it is independent of the taxcloud bug.

Today I've setup a fresh install of Joomla 3.3.6 on the same server.

I've installed the latest install of Hikashop (com_hikashop_business_v2.3.4_2014-11-24_23-16-01.tar.gz).

I've done a fresh configuration and I've still have the exact same problems as 4 months ago under 2.3.1 and 2.3.1:

1. BOTH tax rules and TaxCloud calculations are ignored when manual shipping override is set to anything but No
2. And I get SQL error if I try add a new order with TaxCloud plugin enabled

I'm practically begging for help here. I have three business licenses and I'd really like to get this resolved. I've sent another email via the site's contact form last week to and no response. I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt but I feel ignored at this point which is just odd as I've had nothing but awesome support from you guys.

I hope I didn't trigger some auto blacklist with the topic.

This isn't just a TaxCloud issue on the manual override, the tax rules get ignored too.

Any update would be greatly appropriated.

We also are running into a problem with Local Pickup and taxes (both regular stores with zones and the new AvaTax plugin development).

Regarding regular stores with zones:

Our client does not want to have a Main Zone set because the only people who need to pay taxes are those with Ohio shipping addresses. So by default we don't want to show any taxes in the cart unless the customer logs in with an Ohio address or registers with one during checkout. Everyone else shouldn't see taxes, and the majority of customers don't pay tax.

But there are several customers each week who choose "Local Pickup", which is in Ohio. In this case, the shipping address is overridden by the shop address and because the main zone isn't set to calculate taxes in configuration, pickup orders aren't being taxed correctly.

What we probably need is an Override Tax Zone field added into the shipping plugin for Local Pickup. The Override Tax Zone field from the local pickup shipping plugin should then be used for calculating taxes, not the main tax zone from configuration.

Any chance that could be done soon in core HikaShop? Otherwise we'll have to custom code to address this problem.

Any feedback on this? Need to advise our client if this must be customized.

Hi,

We've added a new option to override the tax zone in shipping plugins. It will be in the next version of HikaShop (in 2 months).
If you need it earlier, please use our contact form to request it.

Note however that this won't change anything for your Avalara plugin or the TaxCloud plugin.
When you use them, it's in their code that the taxes are calculated (technically from the avalara/taxcloud server), so it's up to the plugin to use the information it wants for the tax calculations and just the tax zone override of the shipping method won't be enough since you also need at least the zip code.

Still a bit confused on this thread...
Why aren't ALL transactions (local pickup and remote delivery) going through the same gears for tax calculation?
In all scenarios you have an origin address and a destination address (in local pickup they are the same), and with those two pieces of information any tax engine should give the correct tax amount due.
It seems like there is a lot of unnecessary code being excercised (or being developed, or functioning code being overridden) when, from a tax perspective, nothing has changed.

Hi,

I guess it is mostly because, there are some requests for that
www.hikashop.com/forum/install-update/86...shipping.html#185114

Regards,

Not sure how to reply in context of this thread. But, following your link to the thread on shipping taxes - your respose was correct. If shipping is taxable, TaxCloud will respond with the tax due. Merchants should be advised that in some states shipping is taxable, but may actually be exempt if all the items being purchased are exempt. The good news: this is a perfect example of why merchants should rely upon subject matter experts, such as TaxCloud, to handle sales tax compliance.

Returning to this thread context, ALL transaction (regardless of whether a merchant *believes* an item is exempt), should be sent to TaxCloud because we provide more than just the tax due at the time of sale - we also handle the tax reporting and remittance, which means we need a complete record of ALL transaction (taxable and exempt), or the merchant will have to pay an accountant to construct truthful and inclusive sales tax returns. The most important benefit of complete reporting to TaxCloud: indemnification and audit relief. However, if transactions are hidden or filtered from coming to TaxCloud, then we simply cannot prepare and file returns because they would be fraudulent by omission.

I agree with TaxCloud on this one - push the order data to the tax service and let them calculate base on product & shipping codes submitted.

In the US, this has been a problem since day one with the "streamline" tax initiative
Each state has its own rules for products and shipping and most of my clients are clueless.

I'm wondering how the new VAT changes play into this as well.
I know TaxCloud doesn't do outside of USA (yet?) but I think Avalara would does.

I don't know about the EU, but the days of simple sales calculations seem to be going away in the USA. It puts a lot of burden on the small business/site owner so as a web designer, I'm always looking for ways to simplify it for them.

Hi,

That's great, we all agree here
The order should always be pushed to TaxCloud when the TaxCloud plugin is activated, and that's the conclusion of the other thread Jerome linked to. Regardless of whether you set a shipping TIC id or not in the TaxCloud plugin, the tax calculations will be overridden by TaxCloud.