Major Estimated Tax Problems (inaccurate figures)

[bryan76]

there are two major problems with the Estimated Tax that Shopify refuses to address:

one:  an estimated tax figure shows in checkout before the customer enters their address.   this estimate seems to be based on the shops home state and not where the customer is located (aka IP address).  for store owners that only have nexus in their home state any potential customer is showing a tax that should read Zero.   it seems to be causing a lot of abandoned carts.   this is a blatant problem with the way Shopify decided to code the checkout process but support will only deem it as a fix suggestion instead of an actual real problem.

two: taxes shown during the entire checkout process (even after the customer confirms their order) could be wrong and the customer can be authorizing a different/unknown amount.   I have been shopping online since the first days of ecommerce and have never in my life not seen an accurate final amount before confirming my order.  Shopify has admitted that this is how they operate and feels it is okay when it is not okay whatsoever.

these are serious problems that need to be addressed.  can someone find a way to have Shopify respond to these problems in a way that we, as store owners, can accurately portray taxes to the customer?

[Dandruff]

I saw that too and it should be addressed, not everyone ordering online is ordering from the address they are shipping to. I used to shop online at airports all the time. 

I have also noticed the breakdown of taxes is crazy depending on the local taxes, especially here in California. See below for a one item invoice that takes up a full page!

I don't think anyone needs that level of detail on taxes. Anyway I am just posting this in the hopes that someone from Shopify will see how annoying it looks.

The "Shopify Taxes" program definitely needs some work. I tried to "opt out" but it won't let me until later for some reason.

[bryan76]

well I feel for you being in California.  as far as I have heard California ecommerce stores only need to collect district taxes for sales in the stores own district but Shopify is charging district tax all CA sales.   this is going to be a mess as you will have collected district taxes throughout California when you shouldn't have collected it.  

[Dandruff]

There are 58 Counties in California...But I am required to collect only state tax for 57 of them, and district tax for Los Angeles. I think Shopify is collecting district tax for all of California, which will be a nightmare for my sales tax filing. Hopefully they will be able to fix this. I understand why they are trying do do this for large retailers but for small shops like mine it really doesn't help.

[EloraTea]

This is a real and current problem.  I saw my conversions plummet after having to charge tax, and most items I sell are not taxable,

[bryan76]

the problem seems to now be fixed.  I see no taxes unless I enter an address in a state where I have the collect taxes button turned on.