Is the sales report already built into WooCommerce core not sufficient?
Thread Starter
tufty
(@tufty)
Hi David,
No. It’s not too difficult to itemise gross sales to different countries and pick out countries that are non-UK-EU (although that’s not exactly automated) but the VAT return wants net data, which the report simply doesn’t do.
We sell a mixture of standard and zero rated goods mostly to the UK, but also to a multitude of EU and non-EU Europe, including the Channel Islands, so we can’t just take the VAT off.
There’s another function that stores selling physical goods round Europe need in relation to VAT, and that’s a simple way of setting up sales VAT. I’ve only just discovered that there’s a setting to make shipping VAT dependent on the contents of the basket. That’s a help for a tiny part of the issue.
As I understand VAT rules on shipping, the vat status of the delivery charge follows the VAT status of the goods being shipped. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-on-postage-delivery-and-direct-marketing-notice-70024#delivered-goods
WC follows this but only in a binary way. In other words, it does not vary the VAT between standard and zero based on the average rate in the order, which I think it probably should. It just uses the highest rate in the order. Minor issue.
But I’m really struggling to set up things so that VAT-inclusive prices in the store have VAT removed in the cart if the shipping address is in a non-VAT area like the Channel Islands. It must be possible, and many people must have the same issue.
