Forum Moderators: buckworks
However, these buttons are flawed. You cannot process shipping or tax with these buttons. I then looked at FatFreeCart, a simple solution that works with Google Checkout that can handle shipping, but can only charge a flat tax rate (the tax you charge will vary based on the customer's location correct? so this is useless).
What is the best solution for selling one product online? Google Checkout would have been great if it handled shipping/tax, and I don't feel a whole shopping cart system is necessary for one product.
If my store is based out of place X, which has no sales tax...and someone drives to it and buys a product, I don't charge them tax because they are from place Y which does.
So, why would we online, and how is it even feasible with so many gov'ts around the world and so many different methods of taxation and collection?
[edited by: Gibble at 7:44 pm (utc) on July 20, 2007]
I will have to look into FatFreeCart a little more then. What else would you use for a single product, other than using the Google buy now button and including shipping and taxes in the whole price?
That is true; so I guess I am misunderstanding taxing then?
Depends on where you are. In Ohio, for example, if you ship a product to an Ohio customer, you have to charge sales tax based on where the customer is. It's called destination-based sales tax. And, there are 88 counties in Ohio, each with its own sales tax rates, plus areas where cities have an additional sales tax on top of that.
I don't know how many other states currently do that, but it will surely reach them eventually.
I have a client in FL where the tax is applied the same way: only to FL residents and it is based on their county of residnece.
Personally, I think the tax should be based on the physical location of the company, not the county of the buyer, and then only applied to people whose billing address is the same state. But that's too simple.
Marshall
Has that passed in Ohio?
Yes.
And I believe they are planning an exemption for companies with yearly sales under a half million...
Vendors with more than $30 million in delivery sales in 2005 were required to switch to destination-based sales tax in May of 2006. Those with under $30 million were required to switch by May of 2007. That has been extended to January of 2008.
Vendors required to have a service or delivery license are required to use destination-based sales tax.
On top of all that, they have lowered the vendor discount rate. So, they expect merchants to do more work for less money. Where are the minimum wage advocates when it comes to the work merchants have to do?
Seriously, you want a strong economy, don't tax business to death. It will INCREASE your employment rate as business owners can afford and require more employees because they will do more business AND ultimately, that increases the taxes you collect.
But instead, they not only tax, they make it so difficult and confusing, many business don't do as well as they could, and others may not even get off the ground.
...wow, am I ever off topic here...
But back to selling just one product, what would you use?
You may want to check NJ's tax laws at [state.nj.us...]
And this site may interest everyone in US [streamlinedsalestax.org...]
Marshall
What is the best solution for selling one product online? Google Checkout would have been great if it handled shipping/tax, and I don't feel a whole shopping cart system is necessary for one product.
Why not just use PayPal's Website Payments? It's a lot easier to setup than Google Checkout, and can be far less intrusive into your website.
Plus, I just don't trust Google to not use the shopping cart data they collect in order to identify hot markets and release their own products and services to compete in those markets.
