Is there anyway to track down a sales tax miscalculation?

Our client called to ask why a product selling for $10.95 with a WI tax rate of 5.5% was charged $.75 instead of $.60 ... I ordered the same product and got charged the same incorrect tax rate but didn't complete the order, and there was only 1 other incomplete order for a similar product that was also charged the wrong rate, and while there are a few options that could result in an additional charge, the option does not apply to this product.

The one VERY curious thing all 3 orders have in common are suspect REF#'s of "w62**" and "w61**" ... could those asterisks ("*") but the culprit?

Thanks!



Tim Gorski

Hi Tim
That would be very strange if it were the case but if it is so repeatable then it should be easy to track down. Do you want to send me the site FTP login to my email (vince AT ecommercetemplates DOT com) and I'll have a look tomorrow.

Vince

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Are you adding sales tax to shipping?

Marshall
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Hi Tim
I had a look and it's only "Will Pickup At Store" orders that get charged the incorrect rate. This is affected by the parameter...
$homestatetaxrate
I would imagine that is set to something other than 5.5 in the vsadmin/includes.php file. The reason this parameter is there is because if someone purchases with an address of say, California but picks up in store it is still a local sale and this allows you to set the local tax rate.

Vince

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Thanks for that feedback, Vince ... could you please provide the complete syntax for the includes file? I can't find ANY reference to "homestatetaxrate" in the includes file or any of the language files.

Thanks!

Tim Gorski

Hi Tim, the same with pricezeromessage, it's not there by default.

Here is the info you need, from the parameters page

quote:

---

Will pick up option

Use:

$willpickuptext="Will Pickup";

If you want to allow your customers the option of picking up their purchase from your physical location. The text here can be changed as necessary.

Use

$willpickupcost=1.32;

To set the cost of picking up from your location. Set to zero if there is no charge.

On Canadian based stores the home state tax rate will need to be set as well with the parameter...

$homestatetaxrate=8;

...where 8 is the percentage of the local province tax rate.

To remove the handling charge (Minimum version 6.1.4) for Will Pick Up orders use

$willpickupnohandling=TRUE;

---

Thanks, dbdave!

And you as well, Marshall ... I made sure shipping charges are not being taxed.

Tim Gorski

So we used the $homestatetaxrate=; setting to fix the problem, but why should we need to use that when the states already have tax rates on the States Shipping screen?

And what are the circumstances that would require complimenting the States Shipping screen with the $homestatetaxrate=; ?

Tim Gorski

Am I correct in assuming we only use the $homestatetaxrate=; setting when the tax rate on the Shipping States screen doesn't work?

Tim Gorski

Hi Tim
I've had a look and I see why this is as it is and I'm sorry if it was confusing. When you pickup in store it is a local sale, wherever you come from so the tax rate is assumed to the local tax rate. Because there is no way of setting the home state / province in the admin it is assumed to be the one with the highest tax rate. This works 99% of the time as only the home state has a tax rate set . . . apart from Canada where all the states have tax rates and you have to set which is the rate for the home state separately using this parameter.

Vince

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