Setting up tax (VAT) for UK

I can't seem to be able to set up VAT correctly.

I have it set up so that it shows the total price in the catalog (ie. price plus 17.5% VAT as a total). This is standard in UK for consumer catalogs, having the VAT added at the end makes UK customers feel as though they have been ripped off a little.

The problem is that it then doesn't display the total at checkout, or the invoice correctly.

It shows

1- Total **including **VAT
2- Shipping **including **VAT
3- VAT
4- Total of 1 & 2

To comply with UK invoices legally it should show.

1- Total **excluding **VAT
2- Shipping **excluding **VAT
3- VAT
5- Total of 1, 2 and 3

Another way fo putting it is that it need to have "Display prices with tax" for the catalog, and "add the tax at the end" for cart and invoices etc.

Is this possible? If not is it reasonably easy to sort out? I've put so much work into Zen Cart now that I really don't want to have to swicth to another cart.

This may be a silly question, but have you tried the instructions from the FAQ?

Yes, I've tried the FAQ, and I've tried searching the forum. I have found one thread which has some changes to files but I haven't had chance to go over it yet. I assumed there would be simpler answer as there must be a least a few UK VAT registered Zen Carters. I'll try the edits, although at first glance I don't think they are all overrides which kinda puts me off a little, but better that than to start with a entirely new cart!

Find the FAQ, scratch all that you've done and start afresh. I had to do that with oscommerce before and I followed the faq for ZC and it worked perfectly first time...

I'd go with Waitrose Carpark's advice. I'm in the US and not using VAT, but I know that there are UK based stores which use it. Unless I'm mistaken, the person who wrote the FAQ is UK based.

Unfortunately, some of the mods can't be done with the overrides... not right now, at least. Some of the changes you'll just have to make to the regular files and run something like WinMerge on the files before/while upgrading in future.

Thanks for the replies, but it's all starting to get a little complicated!

I have no idea what I'm doing with PHP and sadly don't have the time to learn, so I'm hacking it to bits.

I've set admin to "add VAT at the end" and managed to get it to display the price as VAT inc on the products page if the customer is in a VAT zone and display it VAT ex if they are outside a VAT zone.

I used this (as detailed in another thread)...

function display_price($products_price, $products_tax, $quantity = 1) { 
if ($products_tax <='0.0000'){ 
 return $this->format ($products_price * $quantity);  
 }else{ 
  return $this->format (zen_add_tax($products_price, $products_tax)* 1.175* $quantity); 
return $return_this; 
      } 
    }   
}  

My problem now is the checkout (and checkout sidebar)

In includes/modules/pages/shopping_cart/header_php.php

I have changed php $cartShowTotal = $currencies->format($_SESSION['cart']->show_total()); to ```php
if ($products_tax <='0.0000'){
$cartShowTotal = $currencies->format($_SESSION['cart']->show_total());
}else{
$cartShowTotal = $currencies->format($_SESSION['cart']->show_total()*1.175);
}

It seems as though it would work but it seems to return $products_tax as 0 whether the customer is in a VAT zone or not. Do I have to define products_tax somewhere in includes/modules/pages/shopping_cart/header_php.php?

You shouldn't have to hack any code to get VAT working - it's all to do with modifying the zones and rates.

Seriously, I'd download the source files again, restore any files you've hacked and just configure it via the admin panel.

It may be an idea to reinstall ZC and start afresh (or just restore the php files if you've populated the database).

And use the FAQ!!!

Waitrose Carpark:

You shouldn't have to hack any code to get VAT working - it's all to do with modifying the zones and rates.

Do you have VAT inclusive prices on your catalog, and then a proper breakdown on VAT on your invoices and checkout? ie.

1- Total **excluding **VAT
2- Shipping **excluding **VAT
3- VAT
4- Total of 1, 2 and 3

Waitrose, I just tried it on a fresh install and I still can't get it working. Double check that yours is working fine as I expect that it isn't, although I'm praying that it is as I have spent weeks setting my cart up and I really don't want to have to swap to another cart at the last hurdle.

If you think yours is working, is there any chance I could have a look at your site and make an order up until the checkout. Just so I know we are both are talking about the same thing? It would be most appreciated, I'm totally gutted about this and there doesn't seem to be a solution unless I learn PHP!

I've just noticed another problem also, relating to the Royal Mail add-on, if you have "add VAT at the end" on, the Royal Mail mod (logically) displays the postage without VAT. My headache gets worse!

DaveS, YHPM

Cheers! Thanks for letting me look at your site.

I just set up an account on yours and took it as far as the checkout... yours is the same...

Sub Total - 4.00
Shipping - 2.00
VAT - 0.90
TOTAL - 6.00

As I understand it, that's not sufficient for the VAT man. The sub total and the shipping prices need to be VAT exclusive and the total needs to be VAT inclusive.

The only way around this is to raise a VAT invoice in another piece of accounting software for each sale. This might be OK for you as your products are higher value so I assume you sell less of them than me. The bulk of my products are under £3 but I currently sell 50-60 a day online and I'm not going to have the time to raise 50 invoices a day when my website catches up.

I'm going to look at bulk exporting the invoices so they can be re-formatted in excel or something, but at the moment I'm considering looking at another more UK friendly cart. I love Zen Cart, but this is something which is pretty much essential to the running of my business.

There has to be someone in the UK who is VAT registered and has a correctly working cart. Please help!

Will the developers fix this for me if I pay them?

Indeed, that's what I do here I have another program to invoice people on. PM me your website DaveS and I'll take a look

Will do. Although I can't remember what state I left it all in, I think I actually reset it to the default like yours and put the original files back where they should be.

What program are you using for your invoices?

I am using a niche program for my line of work (car garage) for invoicing which no one will have heard of.

Internal invoicing is done with Quickbooks.

How are you exporting the invoices from Zen Cart? Or are you entering them manually onto your other system?

Hi,

I too am in the UK and trying to get prices to show without VAT to show a Subtotal and then show VAT anbd and then show and inc. VAT total. Can no one on the Zencart development team enlighten us. Please?

Many, Many thanks in advance.

MG

I have the same problem here. I have been tinkering with Zen for the last 2 or 3 years now and again - now determined to get my store opened!. As far I can remember this has always been an issue.

The only fudge I can think of is to show the VAT amount in brackets with a disclaimer saying something like 'Your total includes VAT of xx'.

I find it hard to understand that there is not more info on this. ZenCart now in its 1.3.7 guise is so powerful and a joy to work with compared to the first version. Surely someone, somewhere, has a workaround for this.

Just so you are aware yo are calculating your VAT incorrectly.

Strictly speaking you should calculated on a per individual product basis and then totaled up at the end.

You should not be totaling the ex vat and shipping and then calculating VAT.

If you sell 2 of 1 product then you calculate VAT on 1 and then the vat on the other.

eg

1 x productA £100
2 x productB £80

total ex £180
shipping £20
VAT £35
total £235

Is wrong.

1 x productA £100 £117.50
1 x productB £40 £47
1 x productB £40 £47

total ex £180
shipping £20 £23.50
VAT £35
total £235

is correct.

I appreciate that my examples gives the same figures but they don't always and if you use method A then you are under paying the VAT

Chrome Orange, I'm not an accountant but... I think in actual fact you can do it either way, as long as you are consistent and stick to which ever way you decide on.

Neither way makes you under pay on VAT, as sometimes you will round figures up as well as down, but yes they give different results.

However, calculating VAT at the end on the total gives a more accurate figure, because you only round once rather than several times which introduces more inaccuracy.
The advantage of calculating it per line is that it makes it easier to display VAT inclusive prices on your site, catalogue or in your shop (otherwise the VAT inc price might be different on the invoice.

Sorry to drag this old post up ..

But I too need to do this on several UK web stores.

Is it just a question of hacking about with the Order Invoice templates or is there a switch I am missing somewhere.

I too Need :-

1. Sub Total Ex VAT
2. Shipping Ex Vat
3. VAT
4. TOTAL

If any of you UK stores people have it done already , please let em take a look.

Cheers