Assessing tax on courses and programs

[taevans]

We are looking into best ways to calculate and add in taxes that are based on the address of the participant.

We have some colleges that may need to start charging sales tax on some course offerings. Our current payment integration does not allow for sales tax calculation after the request has been sent from Catalog.

On our first inquiry, Instructure said they do not have a tax feature in Catalog.

I'm curious if other Catalog clients have the need to add taxes on their courses...and if so, what does that process look like for you?

...and where does it take place: Catalog or integrated payment vendor... or perhaps somewhere in-between?

[jsowalsk]

We do not add in taxes. We only deal with credit card fees quarterly instead. @taevans 

[EllaEpshteyn1]

We are switching to Catalog from Arlo/Moodle. In Arlo, we do separate Canadian customers from international customers for tax purposes. However, we were told that Catalog does not have such functionality - we either add the tax to the price or we leave the price as is and absorb the cost, and there is no way to separate by geographic location and tax requirements.

[JeffScroggs]

With the rapidly changing tax laws in the US, this issue is quickly making Catalog obsolete. I'm working to pull us off of it as fast as possible. Catalog needs to find a way to integrate with TaxJar or other such open API platforms or it is quickly going to go the way of MySpace. That really stinks, because now I'm having to look for alternatives to Canvas as well.