Discussions

State Sales Tax

What is the best way to calculate state sales tax assuming that unless the shipping state is common with where the shopping cart is, there should be no sales tax added to the order?

To clarify:
I live in Florida and unless the item is being shipped to Florida there should not be any tax added to the order, any help appreciated!

Thanks!

paradiseprotech
Posted: Apr 1, 2011

Comments

Ryan Ryan Szrama on April 1, 2011

Doesn't Florida have some very fine-grained sales tax, though? I thought it was one of those that had like per-county / Zip code taxes instead of just a state sales tax.

The gist of a state sales tax though is you need to add an "Order address component comparison" using line-item:order as the order data selector and checking that the administrative area equals FL.

paradiseprotech on April 1, 2011

Actually Florida's state sales tax is really straight forward, 6% umbrella covers all transactions other than service based work, in unincorporated county areas (city taxes may apply, if you live within a city).

paradiseprotech on April 1, 2011

Ryan, thanks for your response. I am having trouble with your instruction. I am still a bit green when it comes to this, as I was using UC for so long...I really really want to help make commerce work! Much needed, thank you!

I think what you are saying is I need to modify the: "Calculate Taxes: Sales Tax" by navigating:

Home » Administration » Configuration » Workflow » Rules » "Calculate Taxes: Sales Tax"

The Event = "Completing the checkout process"

The Condition = (Data)"Data Comparison"

The Data Selector = (this is where I get stuck) can't find the data selector "Line-item:order nor can I locate the admin area where I can enter FL.

Thanks for your help!

rfay Randy Fay on April 1, 2011

Here's a recipe that I think will work. There is more than one way to do this.

  1. Go to "Tax Rates" at admin/commerce/config/taxes
  2. Click "Configure component" on the tax you want to work with.
  3. Under "Conditions" click "Add Condition"
  4. The condition to add is "Order address component comparison"
  5. For address component, choose "Administrative Area"
  6. Operator "Equals"
  7. Value: FL

Now, that said, I can't actually submit this due to the fact that the "data selector" field at the top of the page doesn't get populated correctly. I'll try to follow this up with a more formal recipe.

Kevin Nielsen (not verified) on April 1, 2011

Why is the Order Address Component Comparison not showing up from the available selectors? We are also hoping to implement this and soon, but have hit the same brick wall.

Also, I have to ask -- why is the address component using Administrative Area? I would have expected the customer profile address information to be available as either part of the order or as a property of the current user. I was rather flummoxed to see that this is not the case, but I felt sure there was a solid rationale. I would love to be enlightened!

Ryan Ryan Szrama on April 1, 2011

@paradiseprotech: Sorry, your confusion is my fault - I was assuming you knew how to define tax rates and just needed to add the condition to have it only appear for Florida. For a little guide on defining tax rates, you can see my beta release post. Once you've created the tax rate, you can follow the steps rfay mentioned, but just add line-item:order in as the Order data selector. I'm working to make that more intuitive atm.

Again, note that you're not supposed to be editing the sales tax rule. That actually governs all the tax rates of the sales tax type. First you have to create the tax rate and then edit its rule component. That's where your condition for the tax rate should go.

@Kevin: The reason it uses "Administrative area" is just because I haven't put user friendly titles in yet (i.e. Administrative area (State / Province)).

This clear anything up?

Brian (Paradise... (not verified) on April 5, 2011

Sorry for the delayed response, I was sidetracked with another project.

Yes it clears that up, only another retail friend of mine kindly explained to me about Florida sales tax and it's complexities. Yes Ryan you are correct, Florida calculates sales tax by COUNTY. Many headaches involved I am sure for people like us!

Thanks so much for your attention to this. Again (Waynes World Style, bowing and so forth) We're not WORTHY! We're not WORTHY! ;)

lsrosales on May 16, 2011

I just run across this forum thread and I hope someone could help me out. I am new to Drupal commerce and just learning this area. My boss have asked me to make sure that all products that are ordered through our website, that a tax rate of .0875 needs to be added on ALL orders from any where in the US.

I've checked the setting that the previous developer had set up and this is what was done:
I checked the tax configuration on this and it is set to tax all items, but when I check any orders from other states (Except for California), tax rate is not added. Is there an added process that I may be missing?
This is what my page shows:
Name: Tax
Rate: .0875
Taxed Products: Apply tax to any product regardless of its shipability
Taxed Product types: Product / Blank Line product
Taxed Line Items: (nothing is selected)

Please advise.

Thank you for the help.