I first reported this problem in June of 2024. I have talked with customer service, who said it does appear to be a backend problem, but a year later Square is still charging the wrong sales tax for items in my online store. How can a company like Square legally operate if they can’t fix something as simple as this?
for information, my latest tech support case number is 109670737.
I have an item in my online store called "raffle ticket". That’s what it is, a raffle ticket priced at $1.
I have the item configured to include sales tax in the price, so anyone who buys a ticket will pay exactly $1. It works fine when I make a sale in my physical store. Tax is included.
But when a customer buys a ticket online, the sales tax is added, instead of being included. I have the tax configured correctly both in the physical POS and in the online settings. That’s problem number one.
Now problem 2: Square is not charging the correct sales tax for online purchases. In my state, Oklahoma, sales tax is a combination of the city, the county, and the state rates. In my city it should be 10%. In my POS settings, I have it set to use Oklahoma's rate, and it even specifies 10%. I have the online store configured to use the same (in-person) tax rate. But Square is using a rate of 9.75%. So, not only is it adding the tax instead of including it, Square is using the wrong rate.
it may be relevant that 9.75% is what our tax rate was more than 5 years ago, but it was change way back then. And even so, my in-person sales always collect the correct 10%.
I've spent hours on the phone with tech support, to no avail. Whenever I call, the call center agent keeps having to put me on hold while he consults with the "advanced team". So I explain something to him, and then he talks to them and then gets back to me. This is so not helpful.
after my last call, last month, the agent said the advanced team said it appears to be a problem on Square's end, rather than with my settings. But it’s still wrong, and I can’t get it fixed.
So how do I get this fixed? Collecting the correct sales tax is a serious issue, with legal repercussions as well as a financial and reputational cost to me.
I just did a survey that Square sent me, and I told them that, based on all the problems like this that I have had with Square over the years, I don’t believe the software is ready for commercial use. It should still be in beta testing.
Someone please tell me how to fix this?
