@Kirsten for France it is definitely something that we will need to fix in the coming weeks and that is preventing users to use OFN. The first users were not subject to VAT and was not issuing invoices so it was ok, but if we want any serious player to use the system we need that to be fixed. We have a big buying group (700 families) who is starting to use OFN and they are subject to VAT so we need to sort that out now… we told them we would have to review that point with them, so they can be part of the defining the VAT process. I hope they can maybe chip in some money to solve that, I’m don’t know yet, we have just started the discussion.
I would add to the summary a third point, which for me is a “technical conflictual point” today:
- define the “included in price” process more clearly: for me, by default the tax category setup should not propose to include or not in price, as there is no way then for the user who add a product to know that it is set up that way! It needs to be configurable at the product level (see my proposal). Some users will naturally put a price including tax (like the farmer who sells on the farmers market, he uses only BtoC prices so he will naturally put that on the master price, and we can’t ask him to recalculate the price without VAT), some will not (those selling BtoB, we can’t ask them to put the price with VAT). And Rob’s solution doesn’t work as we need in France to display on the invoice one line per tax category (and it would be very rare to have two lines for VAT 5,5% (included in price) and VAT 5,5% (added to price), the client won’t understand what that means…)
So to sum up, to make the VAT configuration fits any international case, I would suggest this three step process:
1- delete the “included in price” button from tax category setup and add it at the product upload level. With the possibility for the instance to define what display by default (so in a country where all prices are without VAT, by default the case is not selected)
2- give the choice to user whether to display VAT in the shop or not at the OC level (in some countries like France, and I think most European countries, the prices need legally to include VAT for BtoC sales, but VAT is usually not displayed in BtoB shops, so if the hub sells to professionals like restaurants, the shop should display prices without VAT.) The info about "are the price in the shopfront with or without VAT should also be displayed.
3- and the invoice appearance should be configurable by each instance, as the rules differ from country to country. For example in France we have some specific mentions that need to appear on the invoice, and we need one line for the total VAT amount for each VAT rate.