Tax being applied to shipping

-- HikaShop version -- : 2.4.0
-- Joomla version -- : 3.4.1
-- PHP version -- : 5.4.39

I'm using Tax Cloud and on both USPS and FedEx shipping, tax is being applied. I set the product tax category for each to None, but still get tax being applied.

It is very important that you set the appropriate TaxCloud Taxability Information Code (TIC) for your shipping configuration.

Why?
Shipping is taxable (or exempt) based upon the your customers' state taxing rules (and in some states, based upon the categories of goods being sold).

Details:
Usually the correct TIC for shipping is 11010 - this TIC will attract exempt shipping where the destination state exempts shipping. However, the rules around sales tax exempt shipping are varied on a state-by-state basis, but most importantly, those states that do exempt shipping, only allow that exemption if you are not marking-up your shipping charges to customers, as can be demonstrated by your actual shipping cost invoices which can be compared to your customer invoices with shipping charges. If you are marking-up you shipping charges, you should use TaxCloud's Shipping & Handling TIC 11000, and it will be taxable in every state.

Further complicating things, some states that tax shipping charges (that are the actual cost of shipping) will exempt shipping if all the items being purchased are exempt!

Remember: Just because shipping may be exempt in your state, no states share the same rules. These crazy rules are why you have chosen TaxCloud in the first place - because you don't need to know any of this stuff, our service is free, and we even indemnify you (and your customers) if there are any errors.

TaxCloud wrote: It is very important that you set the appropriate TaxCloud Taxability Information Code (TIC) for your shipping configuration.

Why?
Shipping is taxable (or exempt) based upon the your customers' state taxing rules (and in some states, based upon the categories of goods being sold).

Details:
Usually the correct TIC for shipping is 11010 - this TIC will attract exempt shipping where the destination state exempts shipping. However, the rules around sales tax exempt shipping are varied on a state-by-state basis, but most importantly, those states that do exempt shipping, only allow that exemption if you are not marking-up your shipping charges to customers, as can be demonstrated by your actual shipping cost invoices which can be compared to your customer invoices with shipping charges. If you are marking-up you shipping charges, you should use TaxCloud's Shipping & Handling TIC 11000, and it will be taxable in every state.

Further complicating things, some states that tax shipping charges (that are the actual cost of shipping) will exempt shipping if all the items being purchased are exempt!

Remember: Just because shipping may be exempt in your state, no states share the same rules.

Thanks. I did get it squared away. I missed that there was a setting within the TaxCloud plugin.

TaxCloud wrote: These crazy rules are why you have chosen TaxCloud in the first place - because you don't need to know any of this stuff, our service is free, and we even indemnify you (and your customers) if there are any errors.

Colorado does have a very complex tax structure, so I do appreciate your service. Before, we just charged the state tax and swallowed the rest, as our old shopping cart could not manage the complex structure. However, I do notice that Taxcloud doesn't reflect the 1.1% "Special District" tax within the Denver Metro Area. So, it is closer now to what it should be, but still a bit off.

We should have the special district as well - did you validate the address to include a full plus4 zip code with the street address?
If that doesn't fix, send an email to our service team to open a support ticket - be sure to include the street address so our team can investigate.

Thanks for using TaxCloud!

Even with the zip+4 it still returns a rate of 3.9%. That is the same rate that the TaxCloud website shows for that address. The Special District tax is 1.1%, so the total tax rate should be 5.0%. I sent in a support email about this.

We are investigating - thanks for the heads-up. Colorado doesn't provide us data like most other states, so we have to buy data from several third-parties, and sometimes they just don't get it right. We are working on getting this special district added ASAP.