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Canadian Sales Tax


jamiepenner

Question

Just having a look through the v4 demo and it appears that the required sales tax setup for Canada is not part of it.   So, I'm wondering how I can go about getting that done?   Is the codebase such that someone can write a custom module or can it be included?

Basically, what we have is a multi sales tax system, all of which must show separately from the price.     Some provinces/territories have a single tax (HST or GST).    Some provinces/territories are both GST and PST.   (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_Canada for more info).   

We also require the ability to produce reports showing how much of each tax was collected against the sales.

To make matters worse, some items may be exempt from one or both taxes.   As well, particular clients may be exempt from one or both taxes.

Any advice here?   Unfortunately, this is still make or break for using the product.   It's a legal requirement for Canadian business to do it this way.


Thanks in advance for your time!

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8 hours ago, jamiepenner said:

The problem as I see it (and would be happy to be corrected) is that you can't exempt 1 of multiple taxes on some products, and for some customers.   As well, the invoice doesn't break out each tax separately, it only combines them.

i have not tested multiple taxes , but from what i have see in the settings, the multiple tax are applied to the product, there are no option to allow only one tax if there are 2 taxes . and the tax are applied separately, and the total show the total amount with all the taxes applied . i'm not aware how taxes in canada, but if there are multiple taxes for state and only will be applied, then add only 1 tax for this state .

just curios, how it will apply one tax if exist two tax for the state? what is the criteria to exempt the tax for product x ?

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Different provinces (and territories) in Canada have different rules.      There is GST (the federal sales tax that every province has), PST (which each province can set their own rate and rules for and, in one province, there is no PST), and HST (which in some provinces is a combined PST and GST (Harmonized Sales Tax) that is collected by the federal government on behalf of the province).    

In British Columbia, where I am located, some products are subject to PST and GST, and some are PST exempt and you only charge GST.     If you are selling to another province, you collect either the GST or HST, whichever is applicable there.  So, as an example of a sale in BC, if I sell hosting and domain registration, the hosting gets charged 5% GST and 7% PST, and the domain is only charged the 5% GST.    In some cases, the client can also be GST and/or PST exempt under different circumstances.   

The criteria for exemption could be the type of product (i.e.: hosting is a communication product so is taxable with both taxes, but the domain is not so it is exempt from 1 of the taxes), if a product is for resale, etc..   The exemption rules are insane!

We are required to breakdown the amount of tax on an invoice as separate lines items, for example:

INVOICE SUB TOTAL:  $100.00
GST (5%): $5.00
PST (7%): $7.00
TOTAL PAYABLE: $112.00

More information on this mayhem can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_Canada

 

Edited by jamiepenner
to clarify information given
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13 hours ago, Hopla said:

Hello!

I would also like to know if this is finally possible or not?

@jamiepenner Did you make it?
If not, what else do you use to bill your clients?

Thanks!

Hi there!   I am still searching for a solution that handles the taxes the way we need them.   For the time being, I'm still using an archaic Perl script setup I created back about 22 years ago   I REALLY need something more modern.  lol   

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On 4/26/2020 at 6:49 PM, Hopla said:

Hello!

I would also like to know if this is finally possible or not?

@jamiepenner Did you make it?
If not, what else do you use to bill your clients?

Thanks!

Still no solution.  Have you found anything?

I have something that is all manual action that I scripted about 22 years ago. Definitely not the best solution but tax audits have made it clear what we have to do. 

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Came back today and played with the demo again for a bit. (I'm persistent at least and really want to utilize this software!)   Seems like the sales tax stuff is considerably better than it was a few years ago.  

What I still see missing is the ability to exempt a particular client from either or both level 1 and level 2 taxes (regardless of location) and the ability to exempt either or both level 1 and level 2 taxes on a per item basis when creating invoices, services and packages.

Has anyone been able to achieve this with a some custom coding?  I'm considering installing the demo again and having one of our devs have a look to see if this is feasible.

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On 6/9/2021 at 11:30 PM, jamiepenner said:

What I still see missing is the ability to exempt a particular client from either or both level 1 and level 2 taxes (regardless of location)

i think this possible, from client edit profile, you have option to except from tax.

On 6/9/2021 at 11:30 PM, jamiepenner said:

ability to exempt either or both level 1 and level 2 taxes on a per item basis when creating invoices

when creating package, you have option to make the package taxable or not.

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On 6/9/2021 at 3:30 PM, jamiepenner said:

Came back today and played with the demo again for a bit. (I'm persistent at least and really want to utilize this software!)   Seems like the sales tax stuff is considerably better than it was a few years ago.  

What I still see missing is the ability to exempt a particular client from either or both level 1 and level 2 taxes (regardless of location) and the ability to exempt either or both level 1 and level 2 taxes on a per item basis when creating invoices, services and packages.

Has anyone been able to achieve this with a some custom coding?  I'm considering installing the demo again and having one of our devs have a look to see if this is feasible.

Blesta Addons response above is accurate. The only thing is that it's not possible to exempt level 1 or level 2 tax independently. Either the tax applies, or it doesn't. Level 1 and level 2 tax can be set by area, which would control which of the 2 tax levels apply to any specific client, and a client can be marked as exempt from all tax.

If you install the version 5 trial again and have any questions or need any help, let us know :) 

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Thank you for the response.  

Yes, that does make it incompatible for compliance in many provinces in Canada.  To be completely compliant, many areas need the ability to exempt either one or both levels of tax on a per client and a per product basis.  Not fun!  :)

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4 minutes ago, jamiepenner said:

Thank you for the response.  

Yes, that does make it incompatible for compliance in many provinces in Canada.  To be completely compliant, many areas need the ability to exempt either one or both levels of tax on a per client and a per product basis.  Not fun!  :)

Is manual exemption on a per-client basis fine? For example, if we made it so that if you click to make the client tax exempt, we added an option to exempt level 1, level 2, or both. Would that resolve it?

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2 minutes ago, Paul said:

Is manual exemption on a per-client basis fine? For example, if we made it so that if you click to make the client tax exempt, we added an option to exempt level 1, level 2, or both. Would that resolve it?

That would definitely work for the client but even from product to product, some will have 1 of the taxes and some will have both, even with the same client in the same province.  The issue being that some products are exempt from provincial taxes but not the federal tax so if we can set which taxes are applicable to each service/invoice item as well, that'd do it.  

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48 minutes ago, jamiepenner said:

That would definitely work for the client but even from product to product, some will have 1 of the taxes and some will have both, even with the same client in the same province.  The issue being that some products are exempt from provincial taxes but not the federal tax so if we can set which taxes are applicable to each service/invoice item as well, that'd do it.  

Sounds like several things would be needed.

1. Under a Package, the "Taxable" option if checked, would need to allow Level 1 / Level 2 tax to apply individually
2. Under a client, the Tax Exempt option would need to allow them to be exempt from all tax, or Level 1 / Level 2 independently
3. When creating/editing an invoice, there is a "Tax" option, but you need to be able to manually apply Level 1 / Level 2 or both taxes to each item?

Let me know if that sums it up.

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27 minutes ago, Paul said:

Sounds like several things would be needed.

1. Under a Package, the "Taxable" option if checked, would need to allow Level 1 / Level 2 tax to apply individually
2. Under a client, the Tax Exempt option would need to allow them to be exempt from all tax, or Level 1 / Level 2 independently
3. When creating/editing an invoice, there is a "Tax" option, but you need to be able to manually apply Level 1 / Level 2 or both taxes to each item?

Let me know if that sums it up.

Yup, that's it!  :)

Each province (there must be some other country on this planet as crazy as us for this) might have a provincial tax and a federal tax, each having different rates for their jurisdiction as well as different applications of the taxes.  My responsibility would be to set Level 1 as Provincial and Level 2 as Federal so that it can be applied consistently across the board.  That way, your concept above works!

 

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