Help needed in correct way to set up Tax/VAT for UK.

[Enzo_UK]

I have a live site thats running in the UK (and has been for many years) but I know that the way I have the Tax/VAT set up is not correct, even though it gives the correct total (apart from when trying to use some adons, including checkout with PayPal)

 

Basically I don't have anything set up in Zones, and just need a super quick hand with how it should be set up.

 

I only have two different rates of tax to charge, normal UK VAT of 20% on pretty much everything, and then a 0% on items that are exempt (which for us is mainly just the odd books we sell)

 

We do send goods to some EU countries, but its all 'Business to Consumer' so for pretty much everyone it will just need to charge the standard rates set for that product.

 

The only exception is the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) as they don't pay any VAT, and this is one of the bits that currently doesn't work, and if someone wants to order from there I have to manually remove the VAT afterwards and refund the difference.

 

And my 'Display Prices With Tax' is set to 'true'

 

This is my current setup:

 

'Countries' Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

 

'Tax Classes' VAT, No VAT

 

'Tax Rates' VAT to EU 20%, No VAT to EU 0%, VAT to UK 20%, No VAT to UK 0%

 

'Tax Zones' EU, UK (all set up with respective countries in each, and all set to 'all zones')

 

'Zones' Empty!

 

How do I need to set it up to do what I need?

 

Now I have typed it out I don't even know why I have split EU from UK, and done the two tax zones, and done two lots of tax rates.

 

Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

 

[♥raiwa]

@@Enzo_UK

 

If you do not have already zones in your database, it's supposed that you do not use the "state" entry in your customer accounts.

So one way to do it would be to use the ZIP codes to check if the address is in the channel islands.

I do not know if there exists already an add-on which does this as is.

There is a shipping surcharge module which uses UK ZIP codes to apply surcharge on shipping to islands and highlands. So you would need to adapt it for the ot_tax.php order total module or for the order.php class.

Download the last version "http://Shipping Surcharge

 

Otherwise if you wish to define zones and use the standard zone setup, do the following steps:

1. add all UK zones to your database
2. enable "state" in Admin/Configuration/customer details.
3. for the UK tax zone, instead of "UK" "all zones", add all UK zones, one by one, except the channel islands.
4. assign the correct zones to all your existing customers. If you have a lot, you might need some sql knowledge to do it in PHP my Admin in your database. Select the customers of each UK zone using the first 2-3 digits of the ZIP code and fill in the corresponding zone by sql query. Repeat this for each zone.

If you feel lost, post an enquiry in the commercial support forum.

 

Hope this helps

rgds

Rainer

[Enzo_UK]

I have just had a play, and think I have something that works... which is always fun with a live site!

 

I have added Jersey and Guernsey to the Countries list,

Changed my Tax_Zones to EU, and Non-EU,

Moved the UK into my EU tax zone,

Put Jersey and Guernsey into my Non-EU zone,

Then set up three rates.... EU VAT 20%, EU No VAT 0%, Non-EU No VAT 0%

And my Zones is still empty.

 

We do get sometimes asked about shipping to Australia, so that would be easy to add on now, as then we would just need to add it to countries list, put it in Non-EU and set up shipping rates.

[♥raiwa]

@@Enzo_UK,

This works as long as your Jersey and Guernsey customers choose these "countries" in the countries list instead of UK.

You should at least add a big red info text in create account and even this is no guaranty. :-

 

rgds

Rainer

[Enzo_UK]

I suppose worst case is if they dont spot the 'Jersey' and 'Gurnsey' in the countries list the only thing that will happen is they will be charged VAT... and I will have to look out for it, refund the difference and change their address for when they return.

[♥raiwa]

@@Enzo_UK,

 

And change the address of your already existing 'Jersey' and 'Gurnsey' customer. :)

[Enzo_UK]

Thanks for reminding me.