Quick question for the experts...

I'm trying to set up my online computer store with the option of collecting appropriate county taxes. I know a lot of places offer a plugin/module/addon that allow a user to select their county from a dropdown list, but I'm not a fan of that concept; I'd much prefer something that can automatically detect that information. I've tried a whole bunch of free trials and carts, but nothing seems to have what I want - except 1and1. So, my question is simply whether to bite the bullet since they're seemingly the only place that offers this service (which I happen to find hard to believe), or is there another alternative I missed? If I absolutely HAVE to I'll just use a dropdown list, but that's really only an option if there's NO other alternative whatsoever.

Oh, and I have a VPS so it doesn't necessarily have to be a hosted service, but that would free up some of my resources nothing else.

Thanks!

if you mean hosted shopping cart then you may try yahoo

You may want to look into Magento Commerce. It does have a comprehensive tax option built-in which you will be able to utilize. :agree:

What about one that supports multiple tax rates by zip code?

I'd much prefer something that can automatically detect that information



I believe you would like this information to be automatically detected from IP address of a customer? I do not think this is correct approach at all, customers can travel and make purchase from a region absolutely different from the one they live, also there are other multiple situations when such retrieved information will be incorrect.

What is the reason why you would not like customers to specify this information themselves?

I believe you would like this information to be automatically detected from IP address of a customer? I do not think this is correct approach at all, customers can travel and make purchase from a region absolutely different from the one they live, also there are other multiple situations when such retrieved information will be incorrect.

What is the reason why you would not like customers to specify this information themselves?
Doesn't have to be fully automated (such as their IP address), just detecting it from their shipping address is fine. I'm mostly concerned about people ordering from out of state or new residents who have no idea which country they're dealing with, particularly when it comes to areas crossing the county border, or even purposely choosing the "wrong" county with the intent to reduce their taxes owed. Just too many possibilities for cheating the system...

Doesn't have to be fully automated (such as their IP address), just detecting it from their shipping address is fine. I'm mostly concerned about people ordering from out of state or new residents who have no idea which country they're dealing with, particularly when it comes to areas crossing the county border, or even purposely choosing the "wrong" county with the intent to reduce their taxes owed. Just too many possibilities for cheating the system...

Actually, you are correct that the normal practice is to choose a county from a predefined list. If you do not trust this approach, then you could make customers define their zip code (i believe it is difficult to make a mistake here - you either know zip code or not), and you define tax rates in the store depending on zip codes, not on states/counties. For that you will need to have detailed information about zip codes all over the country, however that would make the calculation more precise.

So, a customer will provide information about his billing/shipping address, and taxes will be calculated for the order according to zip code provided. What do you think about this approach?

Actually, you are correct that the normal practice is to choose a county from a predefined list. If you do not trust this approach, then you could make customers define their zip code (i believe it is difficult to make a mistake here - you either know zip code or not), and you define tax rates in the store depending on zip codes, not on states/counties. For that you will need to have detailed information about zip codes all over the country, however that would make the calculation more precise.

So, a customer will provide information about his billing/shipping address, and taxes will be calculated for the order according to zip code provided. What do you think about this approach?
This was actually my preferred method (ZIP code). Biggest concern I find then, however, is that it seems I have to subscribe to the entire country when all I actually need is a single state.

This was actually my preferred method (ZIP code). Biggest concern I find then, however, is that it seems I have to subscribe to the entire country when all I actually need is a single state.

I don't understand. Why is that a problem. Its all built into the cart, at least the ones I've dealt with. And there is nothing to subscribe to.

I don't understand. Why is that a problem. Its all built into the cart, at least the ones I've dealt with. And there is nothing to subscribe to.I'd definitely be interested in what you've used, since every cart I've tried - Zencart, OpenCart, Prestashop, and countless others - all require a lot of coding changes and subscription to a service not unlike http://www.taxrates.com/ in order to work off of ZIP codes (or anything other than the basic State level for that matter). Thanks!

This was actually my preferred method (ZIP code). Biggest concern I find then, however, is that it seems I have to subscribe to the entire country when all I actually need is a single state.

I do not see any problems here also. I believe most shopping carts allow you to specify rates exactly for a region within a zip-code, not the whole state. That is regular feature for ecommerce packages.