Hi all,
This ‘technically’ is not a major problem but more of a psychological problem in my online store (2.2.5 Pro). The problem is that when a customer adds any items into the online cart and then goes to the View Cart or Checkout (checkout button I have set to first show the cart because of the quick PayPal checkout button), it will first show in the subtotal ‘NJ Sales Tax (7%)’ plus the tax amount.
Once the customer enters their shipping location into the shipping estimator and then clicks the ‘Select’ on one of the shown shipping methods, the ‘NJ Sales Tax (7%)’ will disappear.
This is a problem as I have received a few messages from customers about to purchase but sees (what looks like) they are going to be charge NJ sales tax and they stop the purchase. Then will contact me (at least some contact me) and ask why are they being charged NJ sales tax when they are not in this state.
I have attached a picture of what I am talking about. I started on a cleaned (no cookie) browser and I first add an item into the cart…then click the checkout/view cart button. As you can see it immediately shows ‘NJ Sales Tax (7%)’. In this example the customer will immediately see the +$40 USD tax added on and might get else to purchase since it appears they are being charged tax when they shouldn’t.
Is this a bug in the software or is there a setting somewhere to make the tax line only appear if the customer puts the tax location for NJ? I would think the customer should never see this tax since they would not be paying it unless they are shipping to the tax location state.
Thank you very much for any help/suggestions.
-Tim
[quote]I would think the customer should never see this tax since they would not be paying it unless they are shipping to the tax location state.[/quote]
Hello Tim,
Your correct!
Try this, Admin>Settings>General>Default Location (Leave all fields blank other than your Default Country of United States)
What is currently happening on your site is that it is determining / assuming by default that all of your visitors are from New Joysey thus displaying your NJ tax rates, which of course is causing more harm than good. 
PS: In this case, “Default Location” = Default Destination which should help you to understand why too much granular detail entered into this area of your admin settings can easily create problems…
Thank you Struck!
I did have the business address filled out in the Default Location. Removed everything except for the country and it works now like I hoped it would. 
[quote name=‘Tim Hensel’ timestamp=‘1340938693’ post=‘139572’]
Thank you Struck!
I did have the business address filled out in the Default Location. Removed everything except for the country and it works now like I hoped it would.
[/quote]
Who da thunk?
Your welcome! 