DETERMINING TAXES IN AN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE SYSTEM

• US 20070299733A1
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Derby, Herbert G., Stukenborg, Stephen, Chao, Hubert M., Gluzberg, Eugene
• Granted Patent: US 8,818,878 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

An electronic commerce system includes a broker that enables customers to purchase items from multiple different merchants. A customer anonymously interacts with the merchants to identify items to purchase, and the merchants provide virtual shopping carts including the item and tax information to the broker. The tax information describes tax rates for the item in multiple jurisdictions. The broker determines the jurisdiction applicable to the customer by, for example, determining a shipping address for the customer. The broker uses the tax information and jurisdiction to calculate the taxes to collect for the item. The broker determines the total cost for the transaction, and conducts an electronic commerce transaction for the item with the customer.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of determining tax rates in an electronic commerce system, comprising:

receiving a virtual shopping cart associated with a customer, the shopping cart including an item and tax information for the item;

determining a jurisdiction of the customer; and

calculating taxes applicable to the item responsive to the determined jurisdiction and the tax information in the virtual shopping cart.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

conducting a commerce transaction for the item with the customer and collecting the calculated taxes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart comprises one or more tax tables describing tax rates for the item in a plurality of jurisdictions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the jurisdiction of the customer comprises:

determining a shipping address for the customer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart comprises information describing whether a plurality of different jurisdictions collect taxes on shipping charges.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart describes tax rates for a plurality of jurisdictions and comprises:

a default tax table describing default tax rates for the item in all of the jurisdictions;

an exception tax table describing special tax rates for the item in only a subset of the jurisdictions; and

indication information indicating whether to use the default or exception tax table to calculate the taxes applicable to the item in the virtual shopping cart.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the indication information indicates to use the exception table to calculate taxes applicable to the item, and calculating taxes comprises:

calculating the taxes applicable to the item using the default tax table if the exception tax table lacks a tax rate for the determined jurisdiction of the customer.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the virtual shopping cart describes a plurality of items and wherein the tax information indicates whether to use the default or exception tax table to calculate the applicable taxes for each of the plurality of items.

9. A computer program product having a computer-readable medium having computer program instructions tangibly embodied thereon for determining tax rates in an electronic commerce system, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving a virtual shopping cart associated with a customer, the shopping cart including an item and tax information for the item;

determining a jurisdiction of the customer; and

calculating taxes applicable to the item responsive to the determined jurisdiction and the tax information in the virtual shopping cart.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising instructions for:

conducting a commerce transaction for the item with the customer and collecting the calculated taxes.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart comprises one or more tax tables describing tax rates for the item in a plurality of jurisdictions.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein determining the jurisdiction of the customer comprises:

determining a shipping address for the customer.

13. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart comprises information describing whether a plurality of different jurisdictions collect taxes on shipping charges.

14. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart describes tax rates for a plurality of jurisdictions and comprises:

a default tax table describing default tax rates for the item in all of the jurisdictions;

an exception tax table describing special tax rates for the item in only a subset of the jurisdictions; and

indication information indicating whether to use the default or exception tax table to calculate the taxes applicable to the item in the virtual shopping cart.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the indication information indicates to use the exception table to calculate taxes applicable to the item, and calculating taxes comprises:

calculating the taxes applicable to the item using the default tax table if the exception tax table lacks a tax rate for the determined jurisdiction of the customer.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the virtual shopping cart describes a plurality of items and wherein the tax information indicates whether to use the default or exception tax table to calculate the applicable taxes for each of the plurality of items.

17. An electronic commerce system comprising:

a communications module for receiving a virtual shopping cart including an item and tax information for the item;

a tax determination module for determining a jurisdiction of a customer associated with the virtual shopping cart and for determining taxes to collect for the item responsive to the tax information in the shopping cart and the jurisdiction of the customer; and

a transaction module for conducting a commerce transaction with the customer and collecting the determined taxes.

18. The commerce system of claim 17, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart comprises one or more tax tables describing taxes to collect for the item in a plurality of jurisdictions.

19. The commerce system of claim 17, wherein the tax information indicates whether a jurisdiction taxes shipping charges.

20. The electronic commerce system of claim 17, wherein the customer indicates a shipping address and wherein the tax determination module comprises:

a jurisdiction determination module for determining the jurisdiction of the customer responsive to the indicated shipping address.

21. The commerce system of claim 17, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart describes tax rates for a plurality of jurisdictions and comprises:

a default tax table describing default tax rates for the item in all of the jurisdictions;

an exception tax table describing special tax rates for the item in only a subset of the jurisdictions; and

indication information indicating whether the tax determination module uses the default or exception tax table to determine taxes to collect for the item in the virtual shopping cart.

22. The commerce system of claim 21, wherein the indication information indicates that the tax determination module uses the exception table to determine taxes for the item, and wherein the tax determination module is adapted to use the default tax table if the exception tax table lacks a tax rate for the determined jurisdiction of the customer.

23. The commerce system of claim 21, wherein the virtual shopping cart includes a plurality of items and wherein the tax information indicates whether the tax determination module uses the default or exception tax table for each of the plurality of items.

24. The electronic commerce system of claim 21, wherein the communications module receives the virtual shopping cart from a remote merchant in a different domain.

25. The electronic commerce system of claim 21, wherein the tax determination module comprises:

a tax tables module for holding a plurality of tax tables describing tax rates; and

a tax calculation module for analyzing the tax information described by the shopping cart to identify a tax table of the plurality of tax tables and for calculating the taxes to collect responsive to the identified tax table.

26. The electronic commerce system of claim 17, wherein the tax determination module comprises:

a default tax tables module for storing a default tax table received from a merchant, the default tax table describing default tax rates for the item in all available jurisdictions; and

an exception tax tables module for storing an exception tax table describing special tax rates for the item in only a subset of the jurisdictions.

27. The electronic commerce system of claim 26, wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart indicates whether to use the default or exception tax table to calculate the taxes applicable to the item in the virtual shopping cart.

28. The electronic commerce system of claim 26, wherein the tax determination module receives the default and/or exception tax tables from a merchant prior to the communications module receiving the virtual shopping cart.

29. The electronic commerce system of claim 17, wherein the tax determination module comprises:

a default tax tables module for storing default tax tables received from a plurality of merchants, the default tax tables describing default tax rates in all available jurisdictions for items sold by the merchants; and

an exception tax tables module for storing exception tax tables received from a plurality of merchants, the exception tax tables describing special tax rates in only a subset of the jurisdictions for items sold by the merchants;

wherein the tax information in the virtual shopping cart indicates which of the default and/or exception tax tables to use to calculate the taxes applicable to the item in the virtual shopping cart.