US Home-Rule State Tax Compliance (again)

US Home-Rule State Tax Compliance (again)


Ow... I think my eyes just rolled into the back of my head.

If we were to read the above text word-for-word when the above text states, "Zoho Commerce is compliant with all state taxes in the USA.", and ran it through the truth-o-meter... well... then yes, I must concede... that is *technically* accurate, I guess.

But...

C'mon.  Anyone reading that, including myself, would just say, "Great... compliant on all US Sales tax law", and check off that mental check box and move on.  The carefully workded question, however, if more generally worded wouldn't pass.  So, for example, something like, "Will you be able to correctly collect for and maintain proper compliance US sales tax liability using Commerce?  Mmmm... certainly not if you live in a home rule state.  Not by a long shot.

First of all, sales tax in the United States is calculated at the state and city and sometimes county level, and sometimes has additional "special" taxes applied as well.  For example, my state's sales tax is 2.9%.  However... when you add all of the other taxes on top of the state tax, the total taxes end up being 8.81%.

If you're fortunate to be located in a non-homerule state, then you're probably just going to stack your local taxes on top of the percentage for the state tax for sales made within the state in which you're located, which still doesn't provide any sort of a breakdown for reporting purposes... But at least it's manageable, because it keeps it simple.  This is because your taxes are determined by the tax rates at your location, and not the location you're shipping to... at least within your state, and therefore a single rate for your state inclusive of state + local taxes is both manageable and adequate, and Commerce can correctly collect this amount for the transactions within your state when it sees that destination for your customers shipping address.

However...

If you live in a "home rule" state, then there is currently no way to make Zoho Commerce compliant without the cost of an additional integration, as you need to use collect tax based on tax percentage that's been assigned to the address of the shipped destination, and that can vary widely across the state.  There is simply nothing in Commerce that supports this functionality.  So, I can certainly configure the 2.9% state tax rate for Colorado. Does that make me compliant?  Not at all.

Furthermore, these same rules may also be applicable for any business that sells over a certain dollar amount to any other state where they have a threshold dollar amount that exceeds a certain level (e.g. $100,000).  If so, you may have tax liability in those states as well, and also need to be configured to collect taxes for those locations in the same way.

I again reiterate that there is a ridiculously simple method that Zoho could implement into Commerce that can addresses this one issue for most ecommerce businesses to maintain reasonable compliance.  And while not perfect, it would be at least be adequate for most small businesses to demonsterate that they've taken practical measures to comply with all the relevent sales tax laws that apply to their home state.  The straight forward solution is to simply perform the tax rate lookup at the zipcode level instead of at the state level.  That's all.  It's so simple that my dog could code it while locked in a sausage factory (if he were provided the API, that is).  The following thread elaborates on this subject in further detail:


So the correct statement with full disclosure is: Zoho Commerce is indeed absolutely, 100%, completely, undoubtedly compliant with all, yes *ALL* US State taxes, but...  has no mechanism to allow you to comply with city, county, juristictional, or special taxes in home-rule states in order to conform with the required state tax liability law, nor does it provide any publically available API to make the propor modifications to do so.

Now, to cover all bases.... Yes... There is another option... I can pony up $50 a month for Alavera + extras, which is the base price.  The cost can actually be much higher depending on a range of other factors.  This integration is said to include live tax lookup by the address.  But... why should I have to do that when the fix I've proposed is so simple to implement.  Why not simply make the extraordinarily simple changes that are being requested to allow a home-rule-state US businesses to maintain proper compliance without Alavera.  Just provide the option to permit tax lookups at the zipcode level.

-Bryan


    • Recent Topics

    • Zoho Sites with GoDaddy DNS

      We have a site hosted with www. in front that works perfectly well. The issue is with getting the TLD/naked DNS pointed to the www. while using GoDaddy dns. I have edited the DNS Forwarding entry in the domain so that the root example.com forwards to

    • Integration with Moodle

      Greetings, I hope find all doing well and safe. I've recently returned to using Zoho Flow after a break and was hoping to connect my WooCommerce store with Moodle, the world's most widely used learning management system. My goal was to automatically enroll

    • Possible for "Specify URL Criteria" in URL/Permalink settings to be assigned to a variable?

      I want to embed a Zoho Analytics chart view as a Related List item in the Zoho CRM Accounts module, such that when one is viewing a CRM Accounts module record for an Account, the user will see the chart for that specific company. Is it possible to set

    • How to present an Analytic on a CRM dashboard and filter it on loginuser id

      How to present an Analytic on a CRM dashboard and filter it on loginuser id? I want to display an Analytics pivot table (as a widget) on a CRM dashboard and have the pivot filtered on the loginuser. I want additional user-filters available, such as date,

    • Allow 2 logos for Branding, one for Light Mode and one for Dark Mode?

      Our logo has a lot of black text on it. If we leave the background transparent, per recommendation of Zoho, when a user is viewing a file and turns on dark mode, our logo is not really visible and looks really weird. It would be really great if we could

    • Pre-fill TO and CC fields for Email Templates

      This would be a game changer to be able to set either specific email addresses or merge fields based on deal role titles into email templates. Please pass this along to *hopefully* add to future features of Zoho CRM.

    • Payroll In Canada

      Hi, When can we expect to have payroll in Canada with books 

    • Why can't we associate a contact to mulitple accounts?

      This simple feature has been for 14 years now... it's way past ridiculous. We don't want to add a multiple lookup field, we just want to add a second account to our contact. This way i'll go on Jonh Doe and see in the account field : Company 1 and Company

    • Calendar Bookings in Recruit

      Hi there, We have recently started using Zoho recruit and although it has some great functionality there are a few gaps that are causing real headaches. One of those being how interviews are scheduled. The majority of our hiring managers are field based

    • Multiple Vendor SKUs

      One of the big concerns we have with ZOHO Inventory is lack of Vendor Skus like many other inventory software packages offer. Being able to have multiple vendor skus for the same product would be HUGE! It would populate the appropriate vendor Sku for

    • How to Use Branch-Specific Templates for Invoices Created via Zoho Books invoice API?

      I am using the Zoho Books Invoice API and I am sending the branch_id when creating an invoice. The invoice is being generated, but it is using the default template rather than the template that corresponds to the branch I specified. In Zoho Books, when

    • Automatic Department and Employee Sync Between Zoho One and Zoho People

      Dear Zoho Support, I'm writing to propose a valuable feature request that would streamline data management and improve user experience within the Zoho ecosystem: automatic synchronization between departments and employees in Zoho One and Zoho People.

    • Delete Unactive Users form Directory

      Hi, how to delete all unactive users ?

    • Manual Journal entry problem

      Hi, all my manual Journal entries are not reflected in my general ledger. i have check to see if the entry were done correctly and everything is fine. Please help me

    • Changing Related Modules in a Report

      Once a report is created, is it possible to add Related Modules? David Shalev | Chief Revenue Officer | 800 558 9130 davids@splitit.com | www.Splitit.com

    • Is there a way to limit/turn off unlimited Version History?

      We save CAD files in our Zoho WorkDrive and while the files aren't very big themselves, whenever someone hits the save button in the CAD program it uploads another version of the file to the WorkDrive. This means files that are only a few MBs in size can actually be taking up 10s of GB in our WorkDrive if someone is saving frequently. Is there a way to limit the number of versions WorkDrive stores to save WorkDrive space?

    • ZOHO One Webinar Functionality

      I am currently trialling ZOHO Projects and have also been looking into over a dozen different Webinar solutions from various vendors. I understand that ZOHO Webinars is a stand alone tool. But that ZOHO Meetings also offers webinar functionality. The

    • Avoid None option in List Custom Fields

      Does anybody know a way to avoid -- None --  option to be displayed in a List Custom Field?  - With Mandatory option selected, you can prevent from saving if user select --None-- value. - With Default value selected, a different value than --None-- is

    • How do I modify the the incoming/current call popup? I can modify other call pages but not that one.

      I want to modify the incoming and active call popup on the crm to include customer relevant information, such as purchase history or length of relationship. Under modules and fields, I don't seem to see active call as a choice to modify, only the main

    • JavaScript or iframe embed with transparent background

      If I have a form with transparent Wallpaper, it appear great on my website by using my default background. However, using Zoho Forms SAVE button, the user is directed to Zoho Forms managed page and a blank background. Alternatively, I can include a Wallpaper

    • Emails and Kanban for Portals

      There was talk portals would have emails and email templates, and kanban view. Is there any release date for this? Portals has been so good for offering a simple crm option. It just needs a couple of small things.

    • Custom sorting Axis in a Heatmap report

      I have a heatmap and want to sort the order of the axis in a custom priority order - is this possible ? So I want the priority to be "New, Urgent, High, Medium, Low, Not Set, Unknown" Can I set this manually ?

    • ZOHO BackStage

      How to get list of events, using ZOHO BackStage APIs. Is it possible OR not?

    • Greylisted, try again after some time

      Can you check my ip, i send to duyna@vietlinkjsc.vn but have an error; my ip is 112.213.94.12 Here is log: 2018-01-09 09:40:29 H=mx.zoho.com [204.141.32.121] SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<duyna@vietlinkjsc.vn>: 451 4.7.1 Greylisted, try again after some time 2018-01-09 09:40:32 H=mx2.zoho.com [204.141.33.55] SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<duyna@vietlinkjsc.vn>: 451 4.7.1 Greylisted, try again after some time 2018-01-09 09:40:32 duyna@vietlinkjsc.vn R=lookuphost

    • The 3.1 biggest problems with Kiosk right now

      I can see a lot of promise in Kiosk, but it currently has limited functionality that makes it a bit of an ugly duckling. It's great at some things, but woeful at others, meaning people must rely on multiple tools within CRM for their business processes.

    • Zoho People down

      Zoho People (EU) appears to be inaccessible this morning. Have gotten through log-in and MFA but have been on the "Please wait while we work our charm..." page for several minutes now. A colleague has tried to access it via the One dashboard and experienced

    • Adding Bluesky channel

      Hello, Is Bluesky (AT protocol) soon added on Social ? Bluesky is being developped and is now open to anyone (no more invitation) Thank you

    • No Zoho Support on the weekends or after hours?

      Zoho Support is only available Monday - Friday during normal business hours. My business (as does many businesses) operates 7-days a week. Last Saturday, I had a client come in and in order for me to help her, I needed to log into CRM but to my surprise,

    • How do I overcome the 800 transaction rule limit?

      I just received a message: "You have reached the maximum rule limit of 800." I searched the documentation, and I didn't find anything about the cap or limit. I asked the ZOHO Books team if there is a way to increase the limit. Their answer was: "Please

    • Search functionality in Vault is very poor

      Hi Zoho Team Please... the search functionality is absolutely vital in Vault, particularly when it's being used by a team. It's just a fact of life that everybody has their own way of naming something, so using exact match on the Password name is horribly

    • 👋 Pessoal, como está sendo sua experiência com ferramentas de produtividade?

      Percebo que muitos usuários de soluções como Google Workspace e Microsoft 365 acabam enfrentando desafios quando pensam em migrar de plataforma, especialmente por conta de multas contratuais ou até pela complexidade em adaptar as equipes. Além disso,

    • Quais são os maiores desafios que você enfrenta ao implementar o Zoho CRM?

      Olá, pessoal da comunidade Zoho Brasil! Sou parceiro autorizado da Zoho e, ao longo do tempo, tenho notado que cada implementação de CRM traz desafios únicos, dependendo do segmento de negócio, das metas da empresa e até da familiaridade da equipe com

    • Parent - Child Ticket Twins

      I think i maybe losing my mind. Are these two completely separate parent-child ticketing functions? I think I remember adding a plugin years ago and I think I also remember seeing something about parent-child ticketing in a release notes being added.

    • Can the Comments from approval process be posted onto a module field and not on the timeline?

      I have set up approval process for the quotations module and would like for the approval comments to be posted onto a module field as opposed to me searching for the particular quote and going to the timeline section. This would also help keep tabs on

    • auto reply shopify order details in zoho desk based on order number in subject using deluge script custom function

      auto reply shopify order details in zoho desk based on order number in subject using deluge script custom function

    • Is there an ability to keep the status field unlocked while having an active blueprint?

      Hi. Is there an ability to keep the status field unlocked while having an active blueprint? Here is the case. We have a transition let's say "Ask to the customer" When we do this transition the Status is switch to "waiting for customer" But if for exemple

    • Rename Category and Sub Category fields

      Is it possible to rename the field labels for Category and Sub Category - if so can this be done at layout or department level ?

    • Thoughts on users being able to create Zoho accounts?

      For anyone who's used Zoho for a while, I'm sure you've come up against an issue where you create an account for a user, and they go ahead and sign up for a new one accidentally. Then, only they can delete the account, as it exists outside the organisation.

    • Deluge should permit a connection to be set with a variable

      Hello, Being one who occasionally likes to post code in the forums, I try to make anything that the end user needs to define be present at the very top of the script so that those who want to implement the script won't have to hunt through lines of code,

    • Bcc option in "new ticket --> send as email" disappeared

      Is it just me or did the bcc option disappear in the "send as email" option of new tickets in desk? This is very inconvenient.

    • Next Page