[OFBiz] Users - Sales Tax / VAT

[Ray]

Hi,

Has anybody set up VAT (value added tax - basically sales tax in US
terms) in OFBiz using the UK principles? I'll outline the format we use
outside of OFBiz and would be interested in hearing if anybody has
already set it up or suggestions on modifications that could be made to
put support for it into the framework.

We deal with 3 VAT categories (I'm sure there are more for other
industries):
1) 0% - items like books are exempt
2) 13% - books with audio tapes would fall into this category
3) 17.5% - The normal VAT rate for all other products

In the UK nearly all retail sales include VAT on the quoted price. So if
I see a ball for sale at £10 then that's what it will cost me at
checkout and the VAT will be listed as the proportion of the cost -
£1.49, the cost of the goods without VAT being £8.51.

As an additional burden on the receipt the VAT will be shown for each
category, for example:
    1 x My Favorite Book                                    £5.99
    1 x My Favorite Book with audio reading       £8.99
    1 x Ball                                                          £10.00
/                                                   VAT             (
£2.52 )
/                                                  Total
£24.98

    VAT rates:
            0%       £0.0      of    £5.99
           13%      £1.03    of    £8.99
           17.5%   £1.49    of    £10.00

Different organisations can claim the VAT back when doing their accounts
so the information is essential for them to process those claims.
Obviously formats of receipts vary from place to place so this is only
for illustration of the principle.

I have tested that OFBiz can handle the different categories for
products and it works fine applying relevant rates to the products. The
problem (or question) is related to entering prices including or
excluding tax. We are using the price field types LIST and DEFAULT with
both values invariably set to the retail price i.e. £10.00  if the item
goes on sale we might change DEFAULT to say £8.00 or set up a price
rule. The important point is this value includes the VAT so any further
VAT figures should only be showing the proportional value of VAT in the
product price not adding it as VAT.

Would it be acceptable to add another flag to the SimpleSalesTaxLookup
entity that specified proportional only rates (prices include tax
already), then other changes above that to use the flag? Or would it
make more sense to have a something else on the price entity to indicate
including tax? I know I can change my system to get it working how I
want, but I'd rather do it with a view to adding it back into the
framework so others can make use of it.

For the separate rate reporting maybe a flag like the order item explode
could be used to turn it on and off?

Thanks,

Ray

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