State Restrictions?

[ventro]

After working with prestashop for a few days now I seem to have everything setup properly except restrictions. Is there any way I can restrict orders from my state? I'm currently working on getting a sales tax permit. But for the time being I'm pretty sure I can sell out of state without worrying about charging my customers tax for the product or shipping since I live in texas. So I'm trying to temporarily restrict any orders from my state if possible? To start off I'm using only paypal as a payment option and fedex as my carrier for the time being. I found the geolocation restriction but thats based of country and not state ips so I'm kinda stuck on this. I'm sure I can add a notice saying I won't be able to sell to any one in texas, but that wouldn't psychically prevent people from placing an order.

[PrestaHeroes USA]

do you have a brick and mortar store in Texas?  If not then you would not need to charge taxes in Texas.

[ventro]

do you have a brick and mortar store in Texas?  If not then you would not need to charge taxes in Texas.

From what I've researched and was told even if I don't have an actual commercial location for my business. If I sell to a customer in Texas I have to collect state sales tax but if I sell out of state then I don't have to collect sales tax and apparently the state in which the customer is in will send the customer a bill to pay the tax is what I was told. 

 

Either way I don't feel like dealing with all of the tax regulations if I'm just starting off, I want to build up slowly and at the same I'll read up on more of the requirements and such for a sales tax permit. So I just need to temporarily disable orders from texas. I've already put up multiple notices on the shop, but thats not gonna physically keep somebody from placing an order with paypal. Which I would have to refund but still lose the 2.9%+.30 transaction fee, meaning I would lose between 20-25 dollars per transaction from an order that I can't ship to. If there's no way to restrict a state is there at least a way for me to review an order before letting it go through?

[tdr170]

do you have a brick and mortar store in Texas?  If not then you would not need to charge taxes in Texas.

Sorry but this is a nasty rumor that someone started and has somehow taken hold, here is a little reading on sales tax and physical presence.

 

The current default rule throughout the United States is that you must collect sales tax on Internet sales to customers in those states where your business has a “physical presence.” The physical-presence rule is based on a 1992 United States Supreme Court decision, Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, that addressed the obligations of mail-order businesses to collect sales tax on out-of-state sales; the decision has been extended to include online retailers. Generally speaking, a physical presence means such things as:

• having a warehouse in the state
• having a store in the state
• having an office in the state, or
• having a sales representative in the state.

While the physical-presence rule may seem clear, in the case of Texas, as well as quite a few other states, that is not necessarily the case. In Quill, the Supreme Court discusses not only physical presence, but also several types of potential “nexus” (connection) between a business and a state. The type of “nexus” the Supreme Court ultimately found relevant for mail-order businesses was based on the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which—as described by the Supreme Court—means physical presence. However, many states, including Texas, have used the term “nexus” rather than “physical presence” in their sales tax laws, and, in the process, have sometimes defined nexus in ways that some people may think goes beyond physical presence.

For basic guidance on how physical presence is defined specifically under Texas law, consult Section 151.107 of the Texas Tax Code (Tax Law), which provides a variety of definitions for “RETAILER ENGAGED IN BUSINESS IN THIS STATE.” (The entirety of Texas’s sales tax law is available online as a single PDF file.) The first of the statutory definitions refers to maintaining a place of business in the state directly, or indirectly or through a subsidiary or agent; the fifth definition acts as something of a catch-all, by stating that, if permitted by federal law, a retailer who solicits orders by mail or other media can be required to collect and pay sales tax.

For additional guidance, check Rule 3.286 under Title 34 of the Texas Administrative Code, which provides definitions of when “A person is engaged in business in Texas.” Some of these definitions overlap with the foregoing statute. The Rule begins with the general statement that a person is engaged in business in the Texas “if the person has nexus with the state.”

As you might expect, the corollary to the physical-presence rule is that, if you do not have a physical presence in the state, you generally are not required to collect sales tax for an Internet-based sale to someone in that state. An online publication from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (TCPA) on Internet sales states that businesses with “physical representation” in Texas must collect sales tax, but “An out-of-state seller is not required to collect Texas tax if the seller only conducts business in Texas from out-of-state by mail, telephone, or via the Internet . . . .”

 

 

 

 

Now to answer your question, Go to localization, States and disable your state this way customers can not choose Texas when registering to place an order. 

Edited April 19, 2014 by tdr170 (see edit history)