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
Access your files securely from anywhere
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Bryan Pape - bryan@infraredsaunarepair.com
theirgreatestfan
Vasudevan M
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
Zoho CRM Plus Resources
Zoho Books Resources
Zoho Subscriptions Resources
Zoho Projects Resources
Zoho Sprints Resources
Qntrl Resources
Zoho Creator Resources
Zoho CRM Resources
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
How do we get a follow up to Experts 22: Scale up your customer support with integrations & extensibility
Hi, How do we get a followup and answers to the questions we have asked during 'Experts 22: Scale up your customer support with integrations & extensibility'. I have repsonded to the answers but have no way of following up. Thanks BrettFrustrating Email Duplication and Timeline Issues Between Zoho Mail and CRM
Hi Zoho team, Can someone please help clarify what’s going on here? Here’s what’s happening: I initiate an email to a lead using Zoho Mail. The lead is created in Zoho CRM via the integration, and the email is correctly associated with that lead. Sometimes,Best Strategy to import contacts and when to create leads
Hi, I'm new to Bigin and looking for a "best" strategy. I had and have the following idea for an use case: 1. Search for websites which I want to contact 2. Create a contact in Bigin with all the required information based on this website (via API ifBetter implementation of Item Category on Invoices and Estimates
1) I have added Item Category as a custom field. Honestly, this should be a native part of the item itself, and either required, optional, or not used. 2) When entering an item on an invoice, you have to enter the first character(s) of the item, otherwiseBulk Update (via the 'Accountant' menu)
Why can't we bulk update Expenses to Owner's Drawings? It always ends in failure with the error "Involved account types are not applicable". If such conversion isn't possible, why make the option available? Better to allow it though.Set Reply_to parameter for "Email an Invoice" API Endpoint
Is there a way to set "Reply To" email address when using the Email an invoice API endpoint? It doesn't seem to be in documentation, but sometimes there are undocumented parameters. If it doesn't exist, please consider adding it as parameter since allZoho Books adaptado a la legislación española. ¿Sustitutos?
Buenas a tod@s No tenemos información sobre la adaptación de Zoho Books a la nueva ley de facturación en España. Me preguntan usuarios de zoho que deberían hacer. Propongo una lista de alternativas, si al final se opta por no desarrollar la funcionalidadA Question about Email Handling (Sending and Receiving)
Hello! I was looking into setting up Email Aliases for my domain that I purchased a while ago through Zoho Mail. I set up a singular alias already and have it linked with Gmail, and it seems to be working out well. However, I set up another alias today,Kaizen #201 - Answering Your Questions | Webhooks, Functions, and Schedules
Hello everyone! Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series! We are incredibly grateful for all the feedback we received, and as promised, we will answer all the queries in this Kaizen series. Last week, in our 200th post, we addressed one of theZoho Projects Strict Dates for Tasks
Hi Zoho Projects team, I would love to see a feature to allow Strict Dates for Tasks. Sometimes in projects you have dates which must not move, even if predecessor Task dates change. For example, perhaps you need to book access to a facility to performNo Mark as filed buton in GSTR -3b
We are filing our GST in GST portal -and want to mark GST in Zoho books as filed. It is possible to mark GSTR 1 as filed through Mark as filed button. But there is no such button in GSTR-3B. How to mark corrosponding GSTR-3B as filed?ranking by drag the choices instead of rank by number
is the option of draging the choice is available instead of selecting the ranking number for each choice?TASKS - Dashboard to show ALL Tasks from ALL apps.
The Unified Tasks View is useless without the other main zoho apps (Desk, Books & even FSM now) We need to see all our tasks under on pane of glass. The Zoho developers are out of touch with real business workflows. So how it was designed they want usFunction #13: Transaction level profitability
In Zoho Books, the Profit & Loss report provides valuable insights into the overall profitability of your business, indicating whether you have made a profit or incurred a loss. However, there may be occasions when you wish to assess whether a specificZoho CRM with Sap Business One
I need information about integration CRM with Sap BO, thank.Allow bill to nest multiple projects
A bill (purchase) is more often than not used across multiple projects and this functionality is missing and very urgently needed for accurate reporting of purchases across projectsAmazon invoice in Zoho Books
I have just made my first few sales on Amazon India. Amazon Seller account generates invoices for the sales made on Amazon. These invoices are sent to customers also. Now when I was only making offline sales, I used to create Invoices in Zoho Book. NowHow can I change iOS display setting at night?
It seems like at night the two light daytime settings themes (white with blue on top or just white) are not available and I am forced to choose among a few other colours that I really don’t want, I.e., black, blue or orange. Is there a way for me to alwaysCelebrate WWW day with Zoho Desk
Let's recall the times when we learned 'WWW' stands for World Wide Web. Whether you like to call it wuh-wuh-wuh or double-u double-u double-u, or World Wide Web, we all owe a lot to this groundbreaking invention that reshaped how we connect, communicate,The power of camaraderie
In the days before the internet boom, conversations happened face-to-face or over the phone. Phone calls were precious; every minute counted, and every word mattered. We looked forward to those moments of real connection. Even today, nothing quite matchesMessage Content is missing/invalid fault
We cannot create a complete template over zoho. Some features - like button adding - is missing. The templates are created on Zoho and edited on Meta to solve the problem. But still then, some features cannot be used and the message returns this failureKönnen bereits gesendete Kampagnen im Nachhinein einer Mailing-Liste zugeordnet werden, ohne dass die Kampagne erneut versendet wird?
Wir haben unsere älteren Kampagnen in Campaigns über Kontaktkategorien versendet. Dann haben wir umgestellt auf Mailing-Listen, damit alte Kampagnen auch in einem Archiv aufgerufen werden können. Jetzt ist die Frage, ob die Kampagnen, die über die KategorieauswahlNewsletter Templates Are Not Mobile Responsive
Hi, I've already submitted this request to ZOHO once this morning, but for some reason your system logged me out, wouldn't accept my username/password login, and isn't showing any evidence that I've submitted this issue. So here we go again... I am under the impression that your newsletter templates are supposed to be mobile optimised: https://www.zoho.com/campaigns/blog/responsive-email-marketing.html This is clearly not the case, as the last 2 newsletters I've created in Campaigns look perfectDigest Juillet - Un résumé de ce qui s'est passé le mois dernier sur Community
Bonjour à toutes et à tous, Zoom sur les nouveautés de juillet dernier au sein de Zoho Community France. Zoho Commerce vous propose une expérience améliorée grâce à sa nouvelle interface ergonomique et à ses fonctionnalités avancées, conçues pour faciliter100 Rows in a Subform is too limited
We have a custom Module in CRM called Price Sheets, when we get a PO from a client we add the items from the PO to it and then check with our vendors for pricing and add our margin etc And after it is complete we have setup custom scripts to create aUninstall unattended agent
Hello, I'm testing many use case before we purchase assist for our remote support. While we are testing what is the proper way to uninstall agent? I did uninstall from systray, from windows control panel but still ZohoURservice is running. How can I uninstall client side?Zoho Commerce Down?
Is anyone else's storefront down at the moment? Ours has been down for at lease an hour.Zoho Projects iOS app update: Dashboard widget on the home screen
Hello everyone! We are excited to introduce the 'Dashboard' widget in the latest version(v3.10.8) of the Zoho Projects iOS app. Dashboard widgets allow you to view the project progress visually without having to open the app. The widget enables you toIdea: Workflow Rule Trigger Only When Subform Row Is Updated (Thanks to New Inline Row Feature)
Hi Zoho team and community, With the recent update to Zoho CRM, we can now add or delete rows inside subforms without entering edit mode, using the inline Add row button. This is a fantastic improvement for user experience — seamless, fast, and efficient.Auto add new section based on document choices
Hi team, I'm wondering if the below is a possilibity within Zoho sign. We have an application process to become a customer of ours, we currently use Zoho Sign to manage this application and this works quite well. However, if the customer indicates 'YES'Change rate after xxxx kilometers
Is there a way to change the miileage rate after a certain mileage. After 5000 kilometers, we want the rate to automaticly change. Thank !Subform Entry Limit from a Subform Field (A different Subform on the same Form)
Hi, I would like to be able to use a Subform 1 Field as the Dynamic Entry Limit for Subform 2. Even better would be able to use some code with the values, so for example using the Subform 1 Qty Field as the Max Entry limit for Subform 2, BUT only theSlow Zobot response time
Hi, We launched the Zobot on our site to sit along with the regular Live Chat but had to take the Zobot down as the response time was very slow. The bot was slow to begin then once the chat had been initiated the response was very slow. The bot typinghow to show data of 3 table in pivot
Based on engineer name i want to get the data from 3 different tables like Service , amc, installation , but Every table contain Engineer name As Common , based that from the service table i want to take service amount , and count of service based onCustom Status for Purchase Orders
Currently Zoho books has functionality to create custom statuses for Sales Orders. Can this be extended to include custom status for purchase orders as well? It was a great decision to add this functionality to sales orders. Our use case is for trackingAsk the Experts 22: Scale up your customer support with integrations & extensibility
Hello everyone! The foundation is set. Build the beams. Raise the pillars. Set the walls. The Zoho Desk architecture stands tall. Let's discuss integration within Zoho Desk, extensions from the Marketplace, creating connections between Zoho Desk and otherIs there no way to duplicate an entire workflow or even custom function across multiple departments?
Is there no way to duplicate an entire workflow or even a custom function from one department to other departments, like it is done for field duplication from one department layout to other department layouts?Automated reply on any new ticket raised by customer
Hi ZohoDesk team, Can we set up an automation so that whenever a new ticket is created against our support email; ZohoDesk immediately sends our standard acknowledgement, including the expected TAT for resolution? If that’s possible, could you share theZoho equipment rental - just like Booqable
Hi Zoho Team, is it possible to create a module or a system like booqable? our business starts renting our IT equipment assets that have been recently used for Events and Projects, we are having ZOHO books so its easy to integrate if you create one. BooqableProfit Margin Scheme
I'm a tourism company operating in the aviation and outbound tourism sectors. Typically, taxes are 0% as our operations are outside the country. However, the state has now imposed a tax on the profit margin. This means if the selling price of an airlineNext Page