RE: Local, City, County Sales Tax and Taxes

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http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=162486#162486
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You know, I am completely stunned that this isn't getting more response from the community.  I notice it got moved again - maybe nobody is seeing this thread?  It was orginally in the "Installation and Configuration" forum, then got moved over to "Contributions," and now is here in the "Features" forum.

Man this is frustrating... I have to find a soution for this problem this week or I'm probably going to have to uninstall and start over with a different cart solution - and that's not a casual thing.  I just can't believe that nobody cares about this.  Risking legal action against one's business is a really big deal.

Ok, one more time in case I simply haven't been clear enough...

[b]The Issue[/b]

In Colorado, the city of Denver requires that we charge those within the Denver tax zone 7.2%, and those outside the Denver tax zone yet in the state of Colorado 2.9%.  Here is the problem...

1) If we charge everyone in the State 7.2%, it's against the law.

2) If we don't visibly post at the time of checkout the amount of city and/or state tax the customer is paying as [i]seperate line items[/i], it's against the law. 

3) We can't use the Drop Down selection option for tax.  This leaves it up to the customer to choose the proper option.  The problems with this are: a) they might not see the city tax option; b) they could simply choose the 2.9% even if they live in Denver; c) if they live in a suburb of Denver not under Denver tax law, then they might not understand and select the 7.2% option accidentally; and d) it's an accounting nightmare.

All three of these possibilites put us in violation of Denver Tax Ordinances.  Yes... it's entirely possible that the local government might look the other way and say nothing.  But if they don't, then it creates a situation that could possibly cost us a lot of money in legal proceedings - or in the worst case scenario, our business altogether.  It's not worth the risk.

[b]The Solution[/b]

Except for adding new fields/columns to the database and changing the code throughout several files, there is no way to do a 3-zone tax fix to OsC that I'm aware of.  

The solution I've suggested above is a "hack" that could be a temporary solution for a lot of people.  I'm working on it myself, trying to learn how I could apply it by researching in books and online.  It's just beyond my current knowledge and ability, which is why I'm asking for help from the community.  Somebody out there knows how to do this by just giving it ten minutes of thought.  It's taken me days, and I still haven't found it.

Here's a better explanation...

What it does is simply change a paragraph in the "functions/general.php" file so that an If/Else command is created which checks the customer's "entry_city" input in the database, and if it equals something specific, automatically pulls up a single custom Tax Zone which has the combined State and City tax in a single line item.  

It does use the solution offered above to create a "State, City 1" Zone for our custom zone - but that's only part of it.  We have to go into the database and change our custom zone's ID to "999".  Then the hacked general.php file would check the user's city and if it equals what the general.php file asks for, then it goes and retrieves zone "999" only for the customer at checkout.

Now it doesn't place State and City tax as seperate line items... but the local government will probably be more likely to let it slide since: a) it is charging city residents the proper total, b) it is informing them that they are paying City tax on the frontend at the time of checkout, c) it doesn't charge people outside of the city the wrong tax, 5) it doesn't leave it up to the customer by giving them more than one option, and 6) it helps keep our accounting correct.

I hope that makes this a little clearer, and that it gets some response.  The solutions being offered on the forums to this problem are not solutions so far.  One can't charge everyone the same tax rate and clean it up in the wash later without risking legal proceedings.  Nor can one use the Drop Down customer selection option without also risking legal action.

There has to be another way.