Description

This screen ("Hikashop->System->Taxes") enables you to manage all your taxation rules.

How does tax calculation works in HikaShop ? For example, you might sell food which might be taxed in your country at a low rate and electronics which are taxed at a higher rate in your country. But if you are inside Europe, you will ask the tax to customers only if they aren't a company with a valid VAT number. Then, for customers outside Europe, taxes won't apply. So you have several parts involved in taxation.

First, you might want to configure several tax categories for your products by going to the Categories HikaShop menu. You might have a category food and a category electronics with the example above. Then, when you add or edit products, you can set a tax category for each. Please note that in most cases, you don't need to go there as you probably only sell one type of products which are all taxed with the same percentage. And so you can use the default tax category for all your products and tax rules.

Then, by clicking on the Manage rates button on the taxations rules screen ( for which this documentation page is written ), you will be able to create tax rates. For example you will create a rate of 5% which will be used for food sales and a 20% rate for electronics.

Also, you might need to create tax zones in the zones management screen, in which you will be able to group states or countries, in order to set a specific rule for all of them in one taxation rule instead of one per state or one per country.

Finally, on this taxation rules screen, you will be able to manage taxation rules which will connect all those dots together. You will have to explain to the system which tax rate needs to be used for which tax category in which zone for which type of customer. Thanks to those rules, the system will then adapt the prices of products on your shop for each customer so that they pay the correct amount. Note that if you set a rule for Texas (a state in the USA) to pay 5% on food and that you have a similar rule for the whole USA to pay 10%. If the customer is in Texas, he will pay only 5%, but if he is in the USA but not in Texas, he will pay 10%.

If no rules match the current situation, no tax will be applied. So, in the example above, you don't need to set any rule for the rest of the world since your customers outside Europe would never pay any tax. Also, please note that as long as the customer didn't enter his address, the main zone and default customer type values will be used to calculate prices on your store.

In order to know what tax rate need to be applied in which circumstance we highly recommend you to seek advice to your local tax office.

Finally, once you setup your tax rules, when you create/edit your products, you need to select the tax category which will be used for the calculation of taxes for your products.

Toolbar

• Manage tax categories :This button will bring you to the tax categories management where you will see a listing of tax categories and be able to create and edit tax categories. Tax categories can then be used in taxation rules. Note that in most cases, you don't need to go there as you probably only sell one type of products which are all taxed with the same percentage. And so you can use the default tax category for all your products and tax rules.
• Manage rates :This button will bring you to the tax rates management where you will see a listing of tax rates and be able to create and edit tax rates. Tax rates can then be used in taxation rules in order to define the amount of tax to apply to the prices. You need to create at least one tax rate before creating a tax rule.
• New : Enables you to create a new taxation rule.
• Edit : Select a taxation rule and then click on this button in order to edit its information.
• Delete : Select one or several taxation rules and click on this button in order to completely delete them.
• Help : This button enables you to turn ON/OFF the help section, this screen will appear or disappear.
• Control panel : You can go back to the control panel using this button.

Column Headers

• # : An indexing number automatically assigned for ease of reference.

• Checkbox : Check this box to select one or more items. To select all items, check the box in the column heading. After one or more boxes are checked, click on the delete button in order to delete the selected taxation rules.

• Zone : A zone limiting the rule to a certain geographic zone. If you click on it, you will go to the edit screen of the zone.
• Tax category : The rule will only apply to a certain tax category. If you click on it, you will go to the edit screen of the tax category.
• Rate : If the rule applies to the situation (product in the tax category, customer in the zone and with the correct type), the rate of the rule will be applied to the product price(s).
• Customer type :You can limit the rule to only a certain type of customers.
• Published : If a taxation rule is published it means that it will be applied on prices based on the product tax category, the customer type and the customer zone.
• ID : This field indicates the ID of the taxation rule.

FAQ

My taxes do not appear on my website. Why ?

That can come from one or several of these possibilities:

• You unpublished the states for which you set your tax rules.
• You unpbulished the countries for which you set your tax rules.
• You created new zones for your tax zones without adding any countries/states as sub zones of your new zones and thus, the system cannot link your rules using these new zones and the addresses on the front end which use the countries/states.
• You set the "main tax zone" option of the configuration of HikaShop to country/state that you don't use in your tax rules and thus, the taxes are only displayed when the address of the user is in one of these zones and not before he enters his address.
• You unpublished both the country and the state fields.
• You changed the type of the country/state custom fields via the menu Display->Custom fields (it should always be "zone" unless you know what you're doing).
• The address you're using during the checkout on the front end is outside the zones in your tax rules
• You didn't set the "tax category" option in your products when creating/editing them.
• You set different "tax categories" in your products and in your tax rules.
• You set a post code in your tax rule and thus it will apply to the products only on the checkout and only for customers with that same post code
• You set a start date/end date in your tax rule and the current time is outside the time range for which the tax rule applies.
• Your set an "access level" in your tax rule and thus it will only apply to users from the user groups selected in that option of your tax rule.

Is there a solution for the VAT in Europe ?

Yes. Here is an article with more information about VAT in Europe: http://www.hikashop.com/support/2-uncategorised/287-europe-vat-rules.html