Weighting Unit and Taxes

 the unit of measure for weight  is applied globally throughout the store  The default weighting unit in Zen Cart is the pound (lb)

◦ is not a trivial task ◦ Two tasks to be perform: 1. Search for source files that have weighting unit information contained in them 2. Apply the changes to these files.

 A tax imposed by the government at the point of sale on retail goods and services.  It is collected by the retailer and passed on to the state  can be applied to shipping as well as to goods and/or services in Zen Cart

 Zone, Zone Definition, Tax Class, and Tax Rate are used to calculate the tax charged on goods or services sold in Zen Cart  Zone Definitions and Zones are used to identify the geographical regions where a tax rate should apply.  Tax Class allows different products to be separated into different groups so that each group can be taxed at a  different rate.

 Tax Rate defines the percentage of a product's retail price or shipping charges that should be collected as sales tax. ◦ It ties together the information you have defined for a Zone Definition and a Tax Class to trigger the collection of a sales tax.

 sales tax is collected can be based on:  A customer’s shipping address  The store address  A customer’s billing address  To specify the basis for sales tax calculation: 1.Click on Configuration > My Store 2. Set the following fields to either Shipping, Billing or Store.  Basis of Product Tax  Basis of Shipping Tax

 The following settings in Configuration > My Store might affect whether you get to see tax calculations being displayed and how these tax calculations are derived ◦ Tax Decimal Places ◦ Display Prices with Tax ◦ Display Prices with Tax in Admin ◦ Sales Tax Display Status

 A tax class allows you to classify your goods into a specific category so that tax rates can be applied.  To add a tax class: 1.Click on Locations/Taxes > Tax Classes 2.Click on new tax class 3.Enter your desired values for the Tax Class Title and Description fields. 4.Click insert to save your changes into the database.

 A tax rate specifies a percentage of a product's sales price to be added as tax.  To add a tax rate: 1.Click on Locations/Taxes > Tax Rates 2.Click on new tax rate 3.Choose the tax class which you want to apply a tax rate to by selecting from the Tax Class Title field. 4.Choose a zone definition to which the tax rate should apply from the Zone field.

5. Specify the tax rate you want to charge in the Tax Rate (%) field. 6. Specify a meaningful description for the Description field. 7. Specify how you want different tax rates to apply by entering a number into the Priority field. 8. Specify how you want different tax rates to apply by entering a number into the Priority field.

 In some cases, different tax rates need to be applied to a product.  The final tax rate that applies for the product will depend on whether these tax rates are compounded or added.  Zen Cart allows you to perform the compounding or addition of tax rates by way of the Priority field.

 Zen Cart needs the State/Province information in order to determine which Zone a customer is located in so that it can decide whether the customer is liable for sales tax.  If zone information is not collected during customer registration, setting the tax basis to Store is the only way to assess taxes.  To make sure that customers specify a state or province when they sign up for an account: 1.Click on Configuration > Customer Details to access the Customer Details screen. 2.Make sure the State field is set to true.