Correct me if I am Wrong...

[Mort-lemur]

Firstly, dont get me wrong - I love OSC and run 3 stores on 2.2 rc2a and they work great and pay the bills!

 

But there are (in my opinion) several areas of core functionality that need to be addressed and dont seem to be in later updates, and the contributions that try to address these dont work and are a bit messy.

 

The main areas that I think need improving are related to Tax and specifically VAT as follows:

 

1) In UK (and europe I think) Vat is not charged on shipping of zero VAT rated goods - there is no way in OSC that I can see to cater for this

 

2) In these days of free european trading it would be nice to have a core TVA Vat Intracom function that could be turned on or off.

 

3) Finally it would be nice to have a small module that allowed the profitability of an order to be shown in a report - Selling Net - Cost price = Profit.

 

I know that OSC is international and the above would not apply to all, but in my view the functionality of 1 & 2 above would greatly enhance OSC.

 

Thanks

[GemRock]

correct or not, but i do want to correct you: all your wanted list as in your post are already built in from (almost) day one when osc was released. i guess your are not a developer. if you are, you would have looked the code especially that part of code RE tax you would undetstand how it works.

what you need to do is create different tax classes, eg, one for taxable at 20%, and one for zero vat (for food etc), and if needs be, one for 5% vat. then when you create the products, you just need to select the tax class that applies to that product. as to whether shipping or something else should charged vat, thats an issue of sort order of the order total model.

i know many people do not understand the above and often get confused then jump to the conclusion that osc cant do it.

what i say above is based on facts that i take it for granted to have achieved when developing web shops of different requirements from different clients.

i trust you would see that when you take a second look at the 'issues' you raised.

RE point 3: there is an addon monthly order details statistics report (not exact title) that shows (or just need a bit of mod) similar what you are talking about.

Ken

[burt]

I think Heather is wanting a system of not charging VAT to companies who supply their Intracom number.

 

VAT chargable to retail customer in EU VAT Zone

No VAT chargable to any customer outside EU VAT Zone

and

No VAT chargable to customers in EU VAT Zone who supply Intracom (b2b sales)

 

Could you be more specific in your needs Heather?

[Mort-lemur]

Hi Guys,

 

Firstly No I am by no mean a developer - I stumble by with lots of kind help from this forum.

 

Ken,

 

I understand the Vat Rates and order total module - But its a different question to that - I sell some items that are vat rated and some that are not. - I have covered these with the tax classes.

 

I also have Vat on shipping turned On by default.

 

However, if a customer only buys Non vat rated goods, he should not be charged vat on the shipping of these items.

 

If he buys a mix of Vat Rated and Non Vat rated goods he should only be charged vat on the shipping that relates to the Vat rated portion of the goods - In effect he is sometimes being charged vat when he should not be.

 

Gary,

 

Thats it in a nutshell - There is a Vat Intracom add-on - But it does not work (in my view).

 

There is a lot of effort put into how a site looks but some of the tax functionality could be better

 

Thanks

[GemRock]

However, if a customer only buys Non vat rated goods, he should not be charged vat on the shipping of these items.

my question is: is that necessary? IMO, shipping is a service that is always VAT'able or otherwise whatever you buy, its just like your other VAT goods whhich would not become non-VAT'able if s/he buys also zero rate vat goods.

i do have a client whose web shop sells 20% and 0% VAT goods, but i have never been asked that question, ie, the owner does what i said above.

RE intracom: i dont think a module is required, although an addon would be handy and helpful. otherwise a bit of mod to the existing code would do the job. of course you are entitled to have your own opinion.

btw, i am not a politician but i do see the idea of EU and the single currency is flaw at the very beginning when it was first conceived. the UK is now dragged into this nightmare.

Ken

[Mort-lemur]

Hi Ken,

 

Im No politician either - so lets no go there....

 

The Vat Notice Here Tells me at Para 2.3 that Delivery of zero rated goods should also be zero rated. but that delivery of standard rated goods should carry vat at standard rate.

 

Thanks

[GemRock]

well, reading that sort of 'notice' is like reading politicians manifesto (sorry have to mention it again). i would not personally rely on that info to decide what i should do or not to do. i do not run any online shop btw.

i think it all depends on

 

1. what delivery services you use (assuming you dont deliver goods to your customers personally), because it also says if you use royal mail's delivery service then it would be vat exempt.

2. how big is you business or is it that the delivery charge is quite a big figure. is the business big enough for the HMRC to be interested in taking a detailed look into the business tax matters? with the undergoing job cuts, they only have the time to investigate matters such as 'missing trader' vat fraud that causes billions of pounds of lost revenue. and in this particular case, you are actually handing over more vat to them so i reckon they would not say no (sorry for being cheeky).

3. from a pratical point of view, how many of your customers are vat experts that, if its true, would complain to you that they should not be charged vat as they only order zero vat goods. people are only interested at most in seeing the vat info of goods they order, and if you only show delivery cost as a whole, not interested in knowing how much vat you charge, if any, in the delivery.

4. having said all that, its still do'able to split delivery cost based on vat rates of goods in a single order. but i dont think the osc developers would be interested in coming up with a new module that would handle that sort of self-imposed complexity.

 

i dont run any web shops but i do order quite a lot of stuff from different big name online shops, and everytime i would be interested in all aspects of theri order processes. in my memory, i have never seen any unusual vat display but i would continue to pay attention in this matter in the future.

 

Ken

[Mort-lemur]

Hi Ken.

 

Im sorry but I tend to dissagree, I would like to get the way my stores calculate VAT correct and in line with current rules.

 

Just bexause a VAT notice is not easy to read or that customers "are not VAT experts" is no reason to overcharge them.

 

I personally dont accept the "its close enough" reason not to look to get it 100% correct - after all a lot of people are putting a lot of effort into OSC and Im sure they want to get it as correct as possible.

 

Anyone else have any views?

 

Thanks