Problem with VM3 discount price and tax. Canadian store

[baldy]

Hello everyone,

So I'm having a problem with displaying prices of products and discounts and taxes.  I need the product to show like this with countdown, without tax (until checkout or in the cart): http://awesomescreenshot.com/03d4mg8056

I have one tax rule setup for GST for all Canadian provinces, and another rule setup for PST just for BC (where I am located). It is setup as "tax per product", as some products are not taxable and I have a 0% tax rule setup for them. (That is why I cannot do "tax per bill").
Tax rules I created are: http://awesomescreenshot.com/07e4mg9846
Details of each rule (GST and PST) are like this: http://awesomescreenshot.com/08b4mg9e6f

In each product, I have the tax calculation rule set to "default rules" so Virtuemart picks and uses both rules or none, if need be depending on whether the user is logged in and their location.  This is my understanding of how the tax calculation works. (Is this correct?)
Screenshot of how I have it saved: http://awesomescreenshot.com/03b4mg9k87

Unfortunately, when I put an item on sale on my website, the price displayed is only the "sale" price, and not the original and how much the discount is like above.  I contacted the template coder and he says that virtuemart needs to have a tax rule chosen in the product for those prices to display as I just mentioned.
If I have it saved as aforementioned, it shows without the countdown like this: http://awesomescreenshot.com/02f4mg9s7f
And in the product view, there is no price shown like this: http://awesomescreenshot.com/00d4mg9ve0

Another issue I am having that is related, is the template coder told me (and I verified this is how it works) that if I set a sale price i have to have "overwrite final" selected, and NOT "overwrite price to be taxed" (which is how I need it to be setup since if a USA or EU customer purchases, then no tax is charged, and if someone in my province purchases then I need to charge PST (provincial tax) and GST (federal), but if someone in another province purchases they only get charged GST (federal tax). 

The coder I purchased the template suggested me to:
"see here" https://velikorodnov.ticksy.com/faq/1874
"make settings like on my demo"
http://awesomescreenshot.com/0874lamicd
Then told me "You have to apply TAX rule. If you don't need TAX- create 0% tax rule and apply it"

So I explained further "The problem is, in Canada we do not have 1 set tax. There is country tax called GST, and if I sell in my province I have to charge provincial tax as well called PST. But if I sell to USA or EU, there is no tax. That is why I need "default" as the rule, so it will charge tax based on the user login location. If I set to ONE rule like you say above, it will not charge the correct tax to the customer based on their location. "

And the response was:
"I don't know all VM settings. We just added our design. You needs to ask here http://forum.virtuemart.net "

So here I am, asking for your help. Please.


I have searched online and have come up empty handed as nobody has shared their solutions, or they do not apply to VM3 (supposedly).

In my searching the past week I found this:
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=121993.0
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=118592.0
http://www.flexiblewebdesign.com/forum-virtuemart-2-template-support/1661-price-override
http://www.tips4developer.com/joomla/virtuemart-20-resolving-multiple-tax-issue/
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=104288.msg436951#msg436951

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I am not a programmer, nor a coder, however I am a quick learner and computer savvy (I created the whole website on my own (from template of course), fixed the compare module for myself, the coder and others (to display custom fields in comparison view), and have edited many settings and custom.css, etc. all with the help of this and other forums.)

I am not asking for a handout, as I am willing to learn and hopefully this will help others having the same issues in countries that have multiple taxes.

Thank you for your time.