Overview
You want to update a customer's sales tax status to exempt. You may want the exemption for certain tax types (state/city/county/special district).
Or, you want to change the Utility Users Tax (sometimes referred to as sales tax) rate for certain accounts if the tax rate has changed at given geography.
Solution
Please note that tax rates cannot be changed for individual users. They come from the CCH system and the invoicing system automatically uses those rates & the CCH database can't be updated manually. While tax rates cannot be modified, customers can be updated to be marked tax-exempt depending on the exemptions applicable to them by way of their premise, or due to any charge codes charged in error. Tax exemptions can happen at multiple levels, including the customer level, the premise level & the T&D charge code level.
1. The Customer Level: This is the top-level exemption and is the highest in precedence. If the account is exempted at this level, it is not considered for any tax calculation.
The field 'Taxable' in the section Billing Information on the Customer Info Tab on the CSR site represents this flag.
Updates at this level can be applied from the UI (CSR site).
Steps:
<supportagent>
You need access to the client-specific CSR site for the steps below.
</supportagent>
- Log in to the CSR site. Search for the customer using the account number from the top right Search section on the screen.
- In the resultant information, navigate to the Customer Info tab. In the Billing Information section, click on the Edit option (the pencil icon). The section is displayed with the fields in editable mode.
- For the field Taxable, the radio button Yes should be selected if the account is to be exempted from tax. The radio button No should be selected if the account is not to be exempted from tax.
- Click on the Save button.
2. Premise Level: Any account can be exempted at the Premise Level. A Premise Level exemption applies to a single ESI ID (Utility Account Number).
Typically, accounts with Billing Type as “Supplier Consolidated” are solely exempted at the Premise Level.
Tax at the premise level is controlled through tax flags and overrides CCH - If CCH indicates that a premise is eligible for a tax but the flag is “unchecked”, that tax will not be passed through.
The flag is found on the Utility Accounts tab under the Tax Assessment section on the CSR site.
Updates at this level can be applied from the UI (CSR site).
Steps:
- Log in to the CSR site. Search for the customer using the account number from the top right Search section on the screen.
- In the resultant information, navigate to the Utility Accounts tab. Click on the Edit Utility Account option (icon pencil).
-
On the pop-up screen, under the section Tax, click on the radio button Tax Exempt for the field Tax Exemption. You will find the checkbox for Active is auto-selected and the Start Date is pre-filled with the system date.
For the field Tax Assessment, uncheck the Taxable checkbox for the Tax Type that you want the customer to be exempted from.
For example, if you want the account to be exempted from state/city/county/special district tax, then uncheck the corresponding checkboxes. -
Click on Save.
3. T&D Charge Code: Applies to TX charge codes and is configurable per code. This is stored in the Taxable
field in the TDSPChargesLookup
database table.
There is no UI for this and can only be changed in the database.
Changes to these charge codes will affect all customers for whom these charge codes apply.
If you need assistance with updating the tax flags, please raise a support ticket mentioning the customer account number, the type of tax exemptions you want to be applied (for example, state/city/county/special district). We will make the updates and inform you.
<supportagent>
If the client requests to disable a T&D Charge code, you can disable them in the database like this.
use <client-specific database> update TDSPChargesLookup set Taxable='N'
where TDSPChargeCode='<client supplied charge code>'
Set Taxable to 'Y' if the request is to enable the Charge Codes.
Checking the tax rate in the database
In the paes_CCHTaxV2 database.
- the GeoCodes should be supplied by the requester.
- TaxType is static (16).
use paes_CCHTaxV2
Select TaxCatDesc,Description,TaxRate[Tax Rate],GeoCode from Detail D Join TaxCat TC on D.TaxCat=TC.TaxCat Where 1=1 and GeoCode='US0601924134' and TaxType='16'
In the client database (per invoice ID).
- the invoiceID should be supplied by the requester.
- RateDescID is static (24).
Select * From Invoicedetail Where invoiceID=33772673 and RateDescID=24
Checking the tax rate in the customer portal
- Log into the client-specific CSR site. Search for the account using the given customer account number.
- Navigate to the AR/Billing tab.
- Under the AR Summary section, search for the Invoice Number (same as Invoice ID).
- Click on the Invoice Number hyperlink to expand it and view the Invoice Details.
The Utility Users Tax is expected to be displayed.
In some cases, only the Sales Tax can be displayed.
Sample 1
Sample 2
</supportagent>
Testing
After the steps in the Solution section are performed for updating the tax flags for Customer and/or Premise level, refresh the page.
For Customer level
- On the Customer Info tab, under the section Billing Information, the Taxable field will display as No (if the exemption is applied).
For Premise level
- On the Utility Accounts tab, under the section Tax Assessment, the fields for which the tax exemption was made will display as No.
For example, if the account was exempted from state/city/county/special district tax, these fields will display 'No'.