If you are running a store regardless whether it is online or an outlet, you need to deal with taxes. With ViArt Shop it is possible to set up individual tax rates for each country, a few taxes per a country, tax rates for different product types and a few more settings. This article covers the below sections:
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General Settings for tax rates
To add a tax rate, please go to Administration > Orders > Tax Rates. For your convenience you can sort it by ID number, alphabetically (by country or state) and by tax percent (click the up and down arrows next to the corresponding column name).
Press the 'Add new link' to add a tax rate. See a below sample for correct settings:
where
- Default enables you to make this tax rate a default one.
- Tax name is a name of the tax in the country for which you add a tax. This can be a VAT, GST, PST, etc. It will be shown to your customers at the checkout.
- State specifies the state for a country the tax is set for and is valid if you create a tax rate for United States, for example, and want to set different tax rates for states.
- Country is selected from the drop down list.
Note: The country list (as well as the state list) is defined within the 'Static Tables' section. For more information about static tables see section 12.3.
- Base Tax Percent defines the percentage of the tax which will be added to the item and shipping cost on the checkout; please enter only digits separated with dots, e.g. 17.5 and not 17.5 %.
- Tax Percent per product Type sets the individual percentage per a product type. Please, note that this feature is available from version 3.0. This value will overwrite the base tax rate. Please, ensure that a product type(s) are added via Admin > Products > Products Types > New Product Type (for more information on editing of the product types see section 5.3.2.1 ). When your product type is added you can set an appropriate tax value in the Tax settings.
To save the changes, press the 'Add new' button or 'Edit' button if you edit the tax rate.
To delete the tax click the 'Delete' button.
If you want to leave without saving press the 'Cancel' button.
Here are a few more things we advise you to keep in mind when setting up taxes:
- By default, the tax value of the default country is added to the total order cost. You can specify the default country at Administration > System > Global Settings (see section 3.1).
- If you do not wish to add taxes to your customers' orders, you need to set your default country tax to 0 or delete it altogether (the difference is whether it will be shown at checkout or not).
- If you have different tax values assigned to different countries and a customer placing an order is not from the default country, the tax of the country the customer is from will be added. In other words the customer country tax has the priority over the default one.
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Display of tax rates
Display of tax rates are set Administration > Products > Products Settings > Tax Settings tab. Please, view the image below for a sample:
- Prices Types field gives you two option to choose: including or excluding taxes. With this field you set whether the price will already include tax or will be displayed without tax.
- Display Prices enables you specify how the tax rates messages will be displayed. For example, if you select 'Price excl.tax (Price incl.tax) then the price will be displayed as:
Our Price: $4.74 ($8.01 incl. TAX)
- Tax Note fields are used for specyfying the text of messages for including and excluding tax rates. In other words, you're able to replace the default text message to your own one to match your type of tax, like incl.PST.
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Tax free products
ViArt php shop provides you with the possibility to avoid taxes per a product. This setting may be useful for you if you want to release a client from paying a tax per a particular product. To activate a tax-free option, please go to Administration > Products > Products&Categories > Edit product page > General tab, Additional Options field and tick off an option 'Tax free product'. Save the changes by pressing the 'Update' button.
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A tax rate for a shipping method
Sometimes you may need to charge a tax on the shipping charges or any handling adding to shipping charges as well the products.
To add a tax to a shipping method, please go to Administration > Products > Shipping methods, select a method you want to use and tick off the option 'Is Shipping Taxable', then check the site. When selecting this shipping method, the tax will be added for this method.
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VAT number validation creation
VAT validation number field is rather useful feature as it allows users with VAT number not to pay the tax for products.
To create such field, please perform the below steps:
- You add a custom field (VAT, for example) via Administration > Orders > Order profile Page and select where to locate this field, on the shopping cart, on the Personal Details page or on the Delivery details page.
- Open your var_definition.php file from the 'includes' folder and uncomment the following strings:
//vat validation
//$vat_validation = true;
//$vat_obligatory_countries = array("GB");
like:
vat validation
$vat_validation = true;
$vat_obligatory_countries = array("GB");
You can specify codes of the countries from which the users will obligatory pay the VAT (regadless whether they specify a VAT number or not) in the third string, like: "GB","FR","LT", etc.
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Setting up multiple taxes per a country
From beta version 3.5.13 you have the possibility to set multiple tax rates per a country. For example, you need to have a few tax rates for Canada. Then you create a different tax rate and select an appropriate country. If you set one of the tax as default one then another tax for this country will be also default. Please, see a below image of how it can look like:
When the taxes are added, you can select what columns with taxes to display on the checkout. This can be done via Administration > Products > Products Settings. Further check the site.
Please, note that multiple taxes per country are summarized, but they are displayed separately as well, therefore your users will see the separate amounts for this or that tax on the checkout depending on what columns you select to display on the basket and checkout pages. Please, see a below image of how it will look like:
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