Tax Calculation

[dustyc]

I'm evaluating OSS POS solutions, and this one looks great. The only issue I have is the tax calcs. In my business we sell to walk-in customers, and we take internet orders. For walk-in, we collect state sales tax, but when we ship out of state, we are not required to collect. Is there a way to select a taxable/non-taxable sale for an item in this system? At first glance, it doesn't seem so, but I may be missing it. If not, it seems I would have to enter my products twice (no small task, since we are a used bookstore with over 30000 unique item codes). Could someone point me to the solution to this problem? Many thanks!

[tmoore]

I'm evaluating this for a Point of Sale at a convenience store that I'm acquiring. Like the previous post, I will have purchases that are made on EBT or Food Stamps too. With these purchases, I'm not allowed to charge sales tax.

In other situations, I could have local restaurant owners make purchases for supplies that they simply ran out of. They too would have a Sales Tax permit number and their purchases would also be Tax Exempt.

I have not found a method of accomodating these situations. I Looked to the Customer list, but there is nothing in the Customer file that flags that Customer as being Tax Exempt. Even if there WAS a method for making that customer Tax Exempt, that would only apply to the Restaurant situation. Those making purchases on Food Stamps would only be tax exempt on Food and Beverage items that are not prepared fresh on premises for them.

Please reply as soon as possible as This would be a show stopper.

Regards,
Tom Moore

[LeMec]

I am pretty sure that there is no such current feature in the system.

I am installing the system for a clothing store in Canada.

I am lucky that taxes do not vary per customer or payment type. However taxes here in Quebec are cummulative, in the sense that we first calculate the Federal Tax on the sales amount, and then the provincial Tax is calculated on the sales amount PLUS the federal tax.
We pay a Tax on a Tax!

I had to modify the code to make it work for me here.

In your case, you would need a check box per line item in the sale, and if checked the system would have to skip the tax calculation.
For convinience, when choosing a customer that would be taxed exempt for everything, the system, upon selecting the customer, would have to automaticaly
set that checkbox for every item line. Aslo, to make your reports work, when saving the Transaction, you would have to store a 0 tax in the sale_item_taxes
table.

In other words, the code would have to be modified quit a bit.

Good luck...

Alain

[tmoore]

Yes, you are quite right. I've looked through the code and have not found a place where this was even remotely considered. Further, I don't understand why it WOULDN'T be from a POS stand point. Any and ALL retail stores which deal with food and beverage items in the USA are likely to have a customer base which is subsidized by Food assistance programs. In my area that used to be called Food Stamps, but later was referred to as EBT. (What EBT stands for I have no clue).

It's a program though the USDA and is a large part of the income to retail grocery. Any supermarket that wished to use this system would HAVE to have this support programed into this system.

To further complicate the present coding method, the customers that have EBT type transactions have a balance limit on their card. Any portion of the total transaction which is paid for by their EBT type card MUST NOT be charged sales tax. (The government doesn't like the idea of taxing it's self

This means that if the total before tax was 14.99, and the customer had a balance of 10.99 on their card, this system would have to provide a way to make a payment of 10.99 against the total BEFORE tax is calculated. The sales tax would then need to be calculated on the remaining $4.00 of the purchase.

To accomplish this, the tax calculation would *HAVE* to be done at the final sale and NOT on an item per item basis.

I've considered the changes that would need to be done for this, and so far, I would see a need to modify the ITEMS database to include a check box to flag the item as EBT Approved. (Not all items in the store can be paid with EBT). When the items are added to the transaction, the system needs to add the subtotal for NON EBT items, and a separate subtotal for EBT Approved items. After adding or updating any items in the cart, the tax needs to be calculated on the grand SUBTOTAL. There also needs to be another field in the transaction for that sale for the amount of funds paid by EBT. When this is entered, there needs to be a recalculation of the taxable sale so that the EBT payment processed is deducted from the grand SUBTOTAL and the difference remaining is taxed. To do this, there must be a system wide tax amount (like the one set up in the company information).

That means that there needs to be another field in that database for EBT sales, as well as the sales, and the sales_tax.

I would be willing to contribute some time into the programing of the changes, but would want to have someone to collaborate with so as to not be writing code that someone else is working on, and also not be writing code that BREAKS what someone else is working on.

As for the customers that should be tax exempt, that would require another entry for that customer entry which flags them as tax exempt, and another field for that customers' sales tax permit number. When the tax is calculated it should look first to see if that customer is tax exempt, and if so the tax is entered as "0", and the customer's tax exempt status stated on the invoice or receipt.

Guys, I hope that the authors of this will agree with me that this *IS* an urgent need for this system if it is to be used by markets that sell food to the public. Not all convenience stores process EBT, but the ones that don't want to throw away the money DO.

I could more easily install quickbooks POS and be done with this, but I see SO much potential in this system. I'm willing to invest programing time, or help in a team environment to see this happen.

[LeMec]

I do not think that this product will have these complicated features anytime soon.

After all, this is still Beta. We need to take it as is and see what we can do with it.

I was lucky to have a client with minimal needs.

You can email me at amechaly@hotmail.com

[tmoore]

We'll see. I am willing to do the coding or help in any other way. Since it's NOT my project, I'm mearly posting here and hoping that those who are in charge of the project will agree. If they do then I will contribute my time and effort to make it a reality for all of us. If they don't, then I'm sure that I can make the changes myself and use it for me only.

I would FAR rather contribute to the community and allow others to share the benefits.

[gmlga]

The per item check box (true/false, yes/no) is a good idea but there should also be a per sales transaction check box as well. Perhaps a Drop down or bullet selection in the store config that determines whether or not you even need a per item check box in the items pages.

I can see several needs here that shouldn't be too hard to implement. In "store config" have a bullet selection for per item tax config or taxes on every item or taxes on no items at all.
If taxes per item is selected then every item will require that you choose whether or not that item should be taxed.
Taxes on everything (self explanatory)
Taxes on nothing (self explanatory)

On the items entry page have a "taxable" check box only if the taxes per item bullet is selected in the store config.

Then on the sales screen have another choice as to whether this is a taxable sale in general.
No (for internet sales, food items, what ever)
yes (obvious)

Final sale will record what options where selected or rather if taxes were collected and how much.

Would that about cover the tax issue?