International purchase, but UK delivery

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3 years 8 months ago #330456

-- HikaShop version -- : 4.4.0

Hello there,

I have florist site selling flowers - with flowers created and delivered only within the UK. Payment gateway is Opayo (SagePay). All the shop's displayed prices include UK VAT. Currently, only purchases can be made within the UK - I assume this is controlled by the payment gateway (Opayo Restriction Zone = "United Kingdom").

Recently a couple of customers tried to purchase flowers from the EU and US, but still have them delivered within the UK. I believe the above restriction stopped them from doing this. I have not set up a site allowing international purchases, so I have a couple of questions:

- For this UK based florist - if a purchase was made from the US, but still being delivered within the UK, which tax rates apply?

- Could the shop be configured so all the prices include UK VAT, allow international purchases, but force the payment in GBP - so the purchaser's card deals with the exchange rate?

- 99% of purchases will be from the UK, I would like to know the best and simplest approach to handle the 1% of international purchases.

Thanks for your help
Marc

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3 years 8 months ago #330474

Hi,

1. Normally, you should ask this question to your tax office as tax rules are complex and differ widely from one country to the other and depending on what you're selling. however, usually, when someone purchase a shippable good, you should tax it based on the delivery address. So in your example, the UK tax rate should apply. In the Hikashop configuration, you have the setting "Type of address used for tax" to select if the system should base itself on the billing address or the shipping address for tax calculations.

2. Yes. Note that by default, HikaShop will use the billing address for the "zone" restriction of payment methods.
So in your example, the payment method won't be available to the US customer as his billing address is in the USA. There are two ways to allow for that:
- You can restrict the zone on the shipping methods instead of the payment method. That way, it will be based on the shipping address automatically.
- You can go in your PHPMyAdmin and add an entry in the hikashop_config table with the namekey payment_methods_zone_address_type and the value shipping_address
That way, the zone restriction on the payment methods will be based off the shipping address

Regarding the currency, it's easy. Just publish the GBP currency and keep the other currencies unpublished and the payment will happen in GBP. The bank of the customer will automatically convert the amount when removing the money from his bank account (with usually a small fee for him).

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3 years 8 months ago #330774

Hi there - thanks for getting back to me. I'd like to:

  • force the online shop to only allow transactions in GBP currency
  • only allow shipment in UK (and therefore all transactions would have UK VAT)
  • but allow payments from foreign countries

Because I cannot test the changes, could you kindly review my proposed amendments? Based on your response - to meet my requirements, I believe the steps would be:
  • System->Currencies: only Display and Publish the GBP currency. (i.e. only GBP can be used)
  • System->Shipping methods => all restricted to Zone:United Kingdom and currency:GBP (i.e. only UK deliveries allowed)
  • System->Configuration->Main-> Type of address used for tax => delivery (tax driven by delivery address, i.e. always the UK)

If I've missed any steps, could you please let me know.

Many thanks for your help,
Marc

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3 years 8 months ago #330795

Hi,

I agree with your proposed amendments to match with your requirements.

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3 years 8 months ago #330807

Ah - run into a problem.

The website already had the following set up:
System->Currencies: only Display and Publish the GBP currency. (i.e. only GBP can be used)
System->Shipping methods => all restricted to Zone:United Kingdom and currency:GBP (i.e. only UK deliveries allowed)

However, as soon as I made the following change:
System->Configuration->Main-> Type of address used for tax => delivery (tax driven by delivery address, i.e. always the UK)

... all the prices were displayed without VAT (originally all the prices included VAT). I changed the "Type of address used for tax" back to "billing", but the prices still excluded VAT.

Somehow changing just the "Type of address used for tax" has effected the price display. Note: System->Configuration->Main-> Show taxed prices => "with tax"

Can you please advise as the site had to be taken off line.

Many thanks
Marc

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3 years 8 months ago #330808

Actually. after the changing "Type of address used for tax" back to "billing" - the prices eventually reverted back to include VAT. So some caching must have been occurring.

I'm going to turn off caching and once again try the change: Type of address used for tax => delivery. However, while I do this, if there's a known reason why VAT would be excluded from the display price, please let me know.

Many thanks
Marc

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3 years 8 months ago #330809

Not sure why the site initially displayed prices without VAT after that one change? But after turning off caching and making the change again: System->Configuration->Main-> Type of address used for tax => delivery

... the displayed prices didn't change this time, and still included VAT.

So, think everything is set up now. Thanks for the help,
Marc

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3 years 8 months ago #330810

Hi,

Maybe you were logged in with a user account with a shipping address outside the UK ? That would explain why, if the tax rule is limited to the UK only.

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