Spree::TaxCloud

Spree::TaxCloud is a US sales tax extension for Spree using the Tax Cloud service.

Based on the work of Chris Mar and Drew Tempelmeyer.

TaxCloud Configuration

1. Create an account with Tax Cloud (https://taxcloud.net)…

2. …and get an api_login_id and api_key.

3. Go to Your Account >> Tax States, and turn on sales tax collection for the relevant states in which you want/need to collect sales tax. (NOTE: Unless states are explicitly added, TaxCloud will return zero sales tax by default for orders shipping to those states.)

Spree Configuration

Installation

1. Add this extension to your Gemfile with this line: ruby gem 'spree_tax_cloud', github: 'spree-contrib/spree_tax_cloud', branch: 'X-X-stable'

The branch option is important: it must match the version of Spree you're using. For example, use 3-0-stable if you're using Spree 3-0-stable or any 3.0.x version.

1. Install the gem using Bundler: ruby bundle install

2. Copy & run migrations ruby bundle exec rails g spree_tax_cloud:install

3. Restart your server

If your server was running, restart it so that it can find the assets properly.

In the Admin section of Spree, go to Configurations, then select TaxCloud Settings.

Enter your api_login_id and api_key, and optionally your USPS login. You can also configure the default Product TIC and Shipping TIC for TaxCloud to use, although it is recommended to leave the defaults as is: 00000 for product default and 11010 for shipping default.

All Products will default to the default product TIC specified here unless they are given an explicit value. Specific product-level TICs may be specified per-product in the Products section of the Spree admin backend. If you are uncertain about the correct TIC for a product (whether it be clothing, books, etc.), taxability code information may be obtained from Tax Cloud.

To complete your Spree::TaxCloud configuration, you will need to create a TaxRate to apply rates obtained from Tax Cloud to your Spree LineItems and Shipments. Under Configuration select Tax Rates, and click Create a New Tax Rate. Recommended defaults are as follows:

• Name: Sales Tax (This label will be visible to users during the checkout process)
• Zone: USA (Note that TaxCloud is only designed for United States sales tax)
• Rate: 0.0 (Note that the actual rates will be applied by the calculator)
• Tax Category: Taxable
• Included in Price: False (US taxes are 'additional' rather than 'included')
• Show Rate in Label: False (We will not display the static rate, which is left at 0%)
• Calculator: Tax Cloud

Notes

Spree::TaxCloud is designed to function in a single TaxCategory. It is expected that all Products and all ShippingMethods will be in the same TaxCategory as the one configured for the TaxRate using the Tax Cloud calculator above (in this example, Taxable).

Spree::TaxCloud is designed to perform all US-related tax calculation itself, and as such does not use Spree configuration like TaxCategories to specify whether goods are Taxable, Tax-Exempt, Clothing, Food, etc. Spree::TaxCloud does not use the Spree configuration tax_address (which specifies whether the shipping or billing address should be used to compute tax), instead always using the shipping address if possible, and only falling back to the billing address if the shipping address is nil. (Asking Spree::TaxCloud to compute orders whose shipping and billing addresses are nil will result in an exception.)

TODO

Some work on the Spree:TaxCloud extension is ongoing. Namely:

• [x] Fill out a more complete set of feature specs using the test case scenarios provided by Tax Cloud.

• [ ] Address Validation: Support an address validation step via the Tax Cloud gem (which will fix the one non-passing spec at the moment).

• [ ] Split Shipments: Scope Tax Cloud transactions to Shipments rather than Orders, to account for the unusual cases where sales tax depends on the origin address as well as, or instead of, the destination address.

• [ ] Item Returns: Create feature specs and make the appropriate API calls to properly process sales tax on item returns.

• [ ] Promotions: Spree::TaxCloud is not (yet) fully compatible with some types of Spree promotions. For instance in cases such as $10 off all orders over $100, it is not explicit how such a discount will affect the costs of individual items. In these cases, Spree::TaxCloud will fall back to charging sales tax on the full (undiscounted) item price.

Discussion and pull requests addressing this functionality are welcomed.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright by Jerrold R Thompson