["automatically adding bottle deposit","automatically adding bottle deposit"]

[Wineshop]

How to add bottle deposit - using modifier does not work since the taxes charged for items and bottle depost are different.

[nika]

Hey @Wineshop- I'm not sure I understand the question. What is "bottle deposit"? Is it an item? Or a deposit you're wanting to collect before the time of a purchase?

If I could have some more context that would be helpful!

[5470]

perhaps the same issue - in store we add bottle deposit as an item.

However when someone orders online there is no reason for them to "choose" to add the .10 deposit for each bottle. Minimum 12 bottles, every online sale we currently lose 1.20 a sale. When added as a modifier then sales tax is added to the deposit which is inaccurate. So I'm kind of hoping we're asking the same question.  To your question: Yes, collecting a deposit at time of purchase that is not taxable. In our case online if it worked automatically in store even better. 

[RustysCanmore]

Did you ever figure out a way to add bottle/can deposits to products as a separate line item and then apply gst to just the item?

[RelMisgidSprits]

This is a consistent pet peeve for us. Square needs to recognize the needs of the craft spirits, beer, wine and cider industry. We mainly sell bottled products and legislators squeeze us with excessive costs which we have to pass on to consumers. In British Columbia it adds 24 cents to each bottle we sell, but consumers think it's part of the cost, because we can't clearly show it on the receipt. Come on Square, you can fix it. It's probably a couple hours work for a smart coder. Give us some support. You know the kinds of cash flow numbers our industry contributes. 

[_Violet]

Hi @RelMisgidSprits - Thanks for following up on this thread.

Have you tried creating a tax rate for the bottle deposit and applying it to the specific items that need it? Is there something preventing you from utilizing this setup?

I'll keep an eye out for your reply!

[RelMisgidSprits]

Hi _violet. Yes I have tried this in the past. The problem is, it's not a tax. It's a non-taxable environmental fee.

Here are the challenges:
1. Government requires that the fees be collected at the time of the sale, but they must be non-taxable and clearly shown as such.

2. The fee can be created as a seperate, non-taxable item, but that means adding it on every bottle sold. This inevitably leads to errors -- staff can add too many or too few fees, or forget to collect them at all. We tried this for a while, then gave up on it.

3. At bigger stores -- liquor stores, grocery stores and the like -- electronic cash register systems automatically add the environmental fee when a specified product (Coca-cola, Budweiser beer, etc.) is purchased. The system knows not to tax it because it's already set up that way. We should have the same ability. But there is currently no way to do this, Square does not provide the option. It's time it did.

[_Violet]

Got it. Thank you for providing the detailed explanation, @RelMisgidSprits.

The only other thing I can think to suggest is the service charge feature. You can make the service charge fee non-taxable so that the amount of the service charge is not impacted by any separate tax rates. Some Sellers use this feature when they need to charge a "bag fee" for example.

Hopefully this helps!

[Provision]

just an idea, not sure if it will work or not but give this a try.

1. Create a service charge

2. Then create a tax. input tax name and tax rate at 0%.

3. Under Tax Application, choose select items then select the items you wish to have the bottling fee on.

4. Choose the service charge you just created. 

I have not tested this because we don't charge bottling tax but I hope this helps you out.

In theory it should add a service charge per item automatically?

[RelMisgidSprits]

Interesting. Will give it a go when we have a spare minute. Thanks.

[Provision]

Let me know how it goes. If not, if i think of anything i'll post here.