SALES TAX - I'm confused - Please help :)

Hi all - I can't understand how to properly configure my Opencart 2.2 settings to make the Sales Tax work as I need it to. First, THANK YOU in advance for any assistance you all can give!! Here's the scoop:

I am in California, USA. If a customer checks out (as a Registered Customer or as a Guest) I need to apply Sales Tax JUST for any Order being shipped to a California USA Address. Any other US State, or any other country, I do not need to apply any Sales Tax. Right now, with the way I have OC setup, Sales Tax is always getting charged ... most likely because I don't quite understand how it should be setup.

I have done this so far:
- Labeled my Products as "Taxable Goods" (Product/Data-Tab)
- I have a GEOZONE called "USA California" specifying Country="Unites States" and Zone="California".
- I have a TAX RATE called "Calif State Sales Tax" (Localization/Taxes/Tax-Rates) which specifies Percentage (I used 7.5) and the "Customer Group has Default checked off" and says GeoZone "USA California".
- I have a TAX CLASS called "Taxable Goods" with Tax-Rate="Calif State Sales Tax" and Based-On="Shipping Address".
AND
- I see 2 settings under System/Settings/Edit/Options-Tab that look like one is for Guest Checkout and the other for Registered Customer Checkout (I think) called Use Store Tax Address and Use Customer Tax Address, that each ask me if I want to use Shipping Address, Payment Address, or None.

So far, I've tried different settings and ran test orders checking out #1 Within Calif (needs Sales Tax) and #2 Not within Calif (No Sales Tax), and I can't figure out how to make it work. Depending on how I set things, I either get Sales Tax "Always Applied" or "Never Applied". I've read the Online Docs and Googled for answers. Setup is standard Opencart 2.2 without any add-ons.

Can anyone help by any of these:
- Explain how Sales Tax is supposed to work in a way that even I can understand it
- Just tell me what to click to make it work
- Recommend an extension that will make this easier not harder !!!

Thanks again.

Since California is more complex with many different tax rates, I would suggest using this extension:

http://www.opencartx.com/taxcloud-integ ... search=tax

Thanks for the info. To keep things simple, I am charging one flat % Sales Tax for all of California, and absorbing (paying) the extra 1/4-1/2% myself for those Counties/Towns having extra Sales Tax surcharges. I'll be happy if anyone can help me with this, just with my simplified 2-Tax-Choice model ... Is California or Isn't California.

bleggee wrote:Thanks for the info. To keep things simple, I am charging one flat % Sales Tax for all of California, and absorbing (paying) the extra 1/4-1/2% myself for those Counties/Towns having extra Sales Tax surcharges. I'll be happy if anyone can help me with this, just with my simplified 2-Tax-Choice model ... Is California or Isn't California.

Why would you absorb these fees instead of using a service like TaxCloud? I'm sure you'd be a lot better off having the customer pay for all of this.

While I agree that most California users seem to use something like my TaxCloud Integration extension for calculating precise tax rates, I can understand wanting to simply things and just use a single tax rate.

Based on what you've said, it sounds like your taxes are set up right. Have you tested actually going through the checkout, or using the shipping estimator, and putting in a non-California address? If you're basing it on the shipping address, you should see it disappear when you choose a location outside California. Perhaps you're just not getting far enough into the checkout process to see the change reflected?

Also, did you choose "Use Customer Tax Address" for the setting in System > Settings? If not, that's probably what you want, since you don't want it based off the store address.

OpenCart is definitely capable of this, so I'm sure it's just one or two settings that need to be adjusted. However, if you're unable to get it working and want a quick solution, you could use an extension like Total-Based Fee/Discount to set up a fee for taxes, and apply it to the shipping address like this:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: California Sales Tax
Charge: 7.5%
Rule: Geo Zone is USA California
Rule: Location Comparison = Shipping Address
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to take a look at the screenshots and demo site, and if you're interested let me know at www.getclearthinking.com/contact if you have any further questions.