Shopping cart software for NY sales tax?

[TerakRall]

I am starting a very small e-commerce site to sell self-published sheet music. As I live in NY, I will need to charge sales tax to NY residents and it appears that I need to charge a different rate based on the county and/or municipality where I am shipping. Needless to say, as someone who is not primarily a businessman, this is a very daunting prospect.

Are there any free or cheap shopping cart solutions that can integrate with Paypal that will automatically calculate sales tax for different zip codes in NY? I saw that Google Checkout allows you to manually do so with XML, but to be completely honest I don't even know what XML IS or how to use it (I'm building my site with a simple WYSIWYG editor).

Can anyone help me out with some suggestions?

(Also, I have applied for a Certificate of Authority to collect sales tax with NY. Do I need to do anything on the local level to establish my business, and do I need an EIN since I am the only person who will be involved with the site?)

- Scott

[edited by: TerakRall at 3:31 pm (utc) on May 2, 2007]

[Corey Bryant]

Some electronic payment gateways have a tax option. You might check to see if that is available with Paypal as well.

Having said that - for shopping carts the first thing that needs to be known as ASP, PHP, or .NET? Or maybe even consider using a hosted solution? This is going to cost more monthly though.

Most merchants usually charge an average since sales tax can vary per county (in all states). You might talk to your accountant and see if he / she recommends you do that.

Otherwise, you might be in a bit over your head and consider locating someone to help you implement everything

-Corey

[gusak]

you may try litecommerce or free shopping carts like: oscommerce, cometmall, zend cart, others

[Conard]

The trick in charging NY sales tax is to NOT charge by zip code as the codes cross county lines with different tax rates.

If you can find a cart that lets you set up a "User Selected Sales Tax" rate, you can populate it with all of the counties and rates there in.

It is a pain as NY has the most confusing sales tax rates in the world, but it is do-able.

[TerakRall]

I think what I'm going to do is charge everyone the flat 7% (the lowest tax rate) and eat the difference myself come tax reporting time. I honestly don't expect to do a ton of business; this is more of a hobby than anything else. If I do $1,000 of sales at a tax rate that's 1.5% higher than I'm charging, then I'm only laying out $15 myself. I've seen numerous webmasters use this approach and it seems to be the easiest way.

If this transforms into a real money-maker I'll probably consider a better solution.

[BradleyT]

I'd like to hear more on peoples thoughts about charging the lowest rate and eating the costs yourself.

Here in WI we have 5.0%, 5.1%, 5.5%, and 5.6% depending on the county so it's probably just as bad as New York!

[FalseDawn]

The trick in charging NY sales tax is to NOT charge by zip code as the codes cross county lines with different tax rates.

But for all practical purposes, it's good enough, and a whole lot better than forcing users to enter their NY State (I'm all for keeping checkouts as foolproof as possible.)

Charging the lowest rate of sales tax is fine, especially if you don't expect much NY business.