tax based on custom options

Question

I have store which sell glasses products. A glasses can be rx glasses and non-rx glasses. Their price is different. A non rx glasses will have taxes applied to it but an rx glasses won't have any tax. Is there any simple way to apply this by using custom options? Basically those are the same glasses so I don't think I need to manage its inventory by using configurable products. And I don't really like the idea of creating configurable products as I don't like duplicating the products one by one but I don't see any other enlightment other than using configurable products. Any advice?

Answer 1

I think this is not possible out of the box.

The intuitiv way: Creating a configurable and two simples one with tax and one without won't work, because for the price calculation only the price and tax setting of the configurable is used.

I think there are two ways to achieve this:

1. Change the way this is handled and use the price and the tax setting of the simple
2. Hook into one of the add to cart events and add only the simple (then you have the problem that you can't click it if it is not visible or you have to add a rewrite or build an observer which redirects from the simple to the configurable)

Answer 2

I fear using configurable products (as you thought and philwinkle stated) is actually the "magento" way of doing it. As people will buy the "simple" products, you can apply different taxes. If the glasses only had different prices, you could use the product options.

There is another way, a module in alpha-stadium that can be downloaded here: http://www.webguys.de/magento/adventskalender/turchen-04-configurable-products-und-die-basis-artikel-nummer/ (German). It applies "basic product numbers", an attribute that links products. This way you will have only 2 (not 3) products. I have to say that I have not tested the module yet.

I hope I could help.