Kryptronic Software Support Forum

west4 wrote:

Hi All,

I think this link might be helpful to Nick...

Code:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/BeginnersGuideToTax/DG_4015895

Here we go... We are VAT registered and we show prices without VAT on the web site. At checkout we need to add VAT to products that have VAT on them and not charge VAT on products linked to non-VAT settings, if any non-VAT products have any extras that are VATable then just the extras need to be VAT charged, Couriers charge us VAT and we pass that on to our customers. Only the Royal Mail are allowed to NOT charge VAT on there sales by law (they have an exemption, all other Vat registered companies HAVE to charge VAT), as we do not use the Royal Mail it doesn't effect us. But if we did then that should be reflected in the VAT calculations at checkout for the shipping. UNLESS (the delivery address is outside the UK) the items are being shipped outside the UK then we would not pay the VAT on the shipping and would not pass it on to the customer.

WE need to see the Standard rate of VAT on all documents related to the sale, e.g. checkout, emails, etc. displaying an average rate of VAT is not only misleading to us and the customers but may lead to lost sales and possible infringements of the law.

If we sold one item at standard rate and one at the reduced rate and one at zero rate, we would like to see the rates listed by each item in the checkout and email receipts. If all products are the same VAT rate then a simple VAT Total is all that is required.

Each product and product option has a VAT drop down box, the calculations should be made from that drop down selection and be easy to combine different rates within the same product. the same for shipping if the shipping is set to VATable the vat should be added to the shipping if not VATable then not added.

There are three VAT rates in the UK at the moment including.

Standard rate

You pay VAT on most goods and services in the UK at the standard rate, which is 17.5 per cent.

Reduced rate

In some cases, for example children's car seats and domestic fuel or power, you pay a reduced rate of 5 per cent.

Zero rate

There are some goods on which you don't pay any VAT, like:

food
books, newspapers and magazines
young children's clothing and footwear
special exempt items - for example equipment for disabled people

Although each EU country has its own rates of VAT.


Hope this helps

Cheers,
Bruce.

Hi West4

Thanks for email with details I will now check this to make sure it is same issue then we I will reply with what I believe we need to tell Kryptronic to get this fixed.  This way we all know we are in agreement as to issue.

webmaster wrote:

Ok, this is all well and good - but nobody really answered my question - at least I don't think so. 

I understand now:

(1) Delivery should be charged VAT where applicable, even on VAT exempt items as delivery charges are separate.

(2) You don't want actual VAT rates in the checkout summary - you'd rather have the rate as selected in admin - regardless of what the actual rate is.  This is confusing.  What if I am an exempt customer who checks out?  I would see a 17.5% rate and a zero amount and a refund amount.  Really?

You guys need to better explain this and come up with what you want.  Our VAT coding is by the book and perfectly legal - but may not be what the store owners particularly want in some instances.

Hi Nick

I am working on writing up the exact issues and will respond here within 24 hours with exactly how it should work to keep customs & excise happy.  But I will make sure it is very easy to follow.

webmaster wrote:

You have a ticket open - right?

Ticket SB00000755 correct so I will reply to that ticket with how it should work if that is ok, cheers.

Hi guys

Did Nick ever fix this issue? I'm building my site and find that the VAT %age displayed is wrong.
HMRC will slap me hard if I go live with the code as it is.

I add a "small order surcharge" of £1.50 to orders below £25. This results in the following display in the cart:

Order Totals
Item Subtotal Exc VAT     £12.00
Small Order Surcharge (under £25)     £1.50
VAT Total     £2.36
Total     £15.86

The checkout however shows:
European Union VAT Summary
Item  Quantity     Total Exc VAT     VAT     Actual Rate
10458         24     £12.00                  £2.36     19.667%

No mention of the surcharge, and the VAT rate is wrong (it's calculated as 2.36 divided by 12.00).

1.  The checkout should surely display the surcharge
2.  The VAT rate displayed should ALWAYS be 17.5%. To show a rate of 19.667% will land me in a whole pile of you-know-what with HMRC.

Is there a fix for this?

(Europacart is sold as ready for the European market. Issues I found recently tell me otherwise).

Regards
Paul

Okidoki mysoftware.

----->  Nick, I can't express this any other way...

It's ILLEGAL under UK VAT law to produce sales documents (visual or printed) showing non-compliant VAT rates.

How therefore can Europacart be UK compliant?

(Have you ever experienced a HMRC VAT compliance visit? Pretty tough...)

Is there a (quick) fix?

Paul

Last edited by NicheDev (04-04-2010 16:36:03)

mysoftware wrote:

Nope, been promised 7.1.2 however for a client we are fixing these issues ourselves now as to be honest I dont know what is taking them so long.  This is not usable in Europe at all and we are now fixing issues not even caused by ourselves.

Are you able / willing to share the changes you applied to make Europacart comply with UK VAT requirements?

Happy to pay you for the info, rather than wait an unspecified time for Kryptronic to issue a fix.

Kind regards
Paul

Nick ----------------

Is there anything you can do to help us make Europacart comply with UK VAT legislation?

Please?

Kind regards
Paul

I too await a resolution of this issue.

For the moment, I am going to have t turn off the display of the European Union VAT summary. It looks as if there are 5 Order Summary scripts in core-private/apps/ecom/ECOM/includes and I am guessing I will have to hack all 5 of them. If anyone has done this already and can post line numbers and modifications, I would be grateful.

A quick look at ordersummary.php suggests that commenting out lines 222 to 284 should do the job in that file.
Now to delve into the others.

I cannot help feeling that this is not the right way to manage the issue!!

Julian

zanart wrote:

Now VAT is added at checkout on all goods and shipping, but no rate is displayed anywhere. VAT is calculated correctly at 17.5% for the total price.
I presume when people are mentioning about the software being illegal they are referring the the incorrect tax rate being displayed - In my set up the tax rate isn't displayed so does that make the software legal in the eyes of the Taxman??

Is there anything wrong with my set up??

Sure is.

From HMRC's website:

For each different type of item listed on the invoice, you must show:
    * the unit price or rate, excluding VAT
    * the quantity of goods or the extent of the services
    * the rate of VAT that applies to what's being sold
    * the total amount payable, excluding VAT
    * the rate of any cash discount
    * the total amount of VAT charged

Paul

Or just remove the "Actual Rate" column completely and change "European Union VAT Summary" to "VAT Summary (@ 17.5%)"

Paul

A quick fix for me below - NOTE: All products and delivery are vatable at 17.5% DO NOT HARD CODE THIS INTO YOUR XHTML FILES IF ANYTHING IN YOUR CART IS NOT 17.5% VAT

put this code into the checkout/order summary XHTML Includes:
place at top of file after include calls
// +------------------------------------------------------------------+
// | Function: number_round                                           |
// +------------------------------------------------------------------+

function number_round ($number = '0.00', $places = 2) {

// +--
// | Return a rounded number (to x decimals).
// +--

return sprintf("%.{$places}f",round($number,$places));

} // End of function.

then alter vat display code further down in file to:
print '<table id="TAX SUMMARY" class="regtable">' . $eol . $eol;

          print '<tr class="regtable">' . $eol;
          print '<th class="regtable">Item</td>' . $eol;
          print '<th class="regtable">Quantity</td>' . $eol;
          print '<th class="regtable">Total' . $text_excvat . '</td>' . $eol;
          print '<th class="regtable">VAT</td>' . $eol;
          print '<th class="regtable">Rate</td>' . $eol;         

          print '</tr>' . $eol;

further down change code to:
$itemvat = number_round($item['ordertotal'] * 0.175);

               $vatrate = $this->xhtml_encode('17.5%');

               print '<td class="regtable">£' . $itemvat . '</td>' . $eol;

               print '<td class="regtable">' . $vatrate . '</td>' . $eol;

               print '</tr>' . $eol;

          } // End of foreach statement.

This is a quick bodge fix as I don't have time to analyze the apps code properly.  But it does produce dsiplays that are acceptable - at least I hope so.

There is one issue with the above and that is that the order confirmation email Order Summary (XHTML Mail) will not show the Vat Rate, I think this is something to do with calling the number_round function for the display output while at the same time firing of an email.  My site is live so I haven't been able to fix this as I don't want to turn on the debugger with a live site.  If anyone with php skills can suggest how to fix this issue then please add it to this thread.

@zanart
Yes, I guess so!