How to make BC to calculate the GST tax automatically?

Report · Jun 12, 2017

Hi there,

I'm adding the GST prices to the products. I created a TAX code in the ecommerce section. Then I've added it directly to the products in the 'Price' tab then selecting it from the Tax code dropdown.

The problem is that BC is calculating the tax on top of the retail price. So, when I sell the product for $327, this includes tax but BC add tax on top of this price ($327 + 10% = $359.7) but my prices are included GST so to me it becomes hard to calculate the tax.

e.g. I have a product that costs $327 including GST, now, to add it to my store I have to calculate how much it costs without GST, which makes it a bit difficult to get the correct price and it's hard work.

Is there a way I can add a price to a product including GST and BC just subtracts the tax amount for that product and discriminates it in the invoice?

Thank you

Report · Sep 27, 2017

I've just been running into this issue as well. As far as I can tell, BC only allows GST exclusive prices to be entered for products. This causes major problems in countries where all consumer pricing includes GST by default.

In New Zealand where I am based, this is the case - consumer products include GST and GST is calculated and paid by the merchant to the IRD. A $20 product costs $20. It includes GST of 15% which is calculated and rounded up to be $2.61 (not $2.60869565 - the actual result of 15% of 20).

In BC, if I create the above $20 product with a price of $17.39 and apply a Tax of 15%, the Online Shop calculations will work completely fine if I order only that product. The product price in the system is actually calculated as $19.9985 but will round up to $20.

However, if I add 4 of the $20 items to my cart the system will not calculate the total to be $80 as expected in NZ ($20 x 4) but $79.99 ($19.9985 x 4 = $79.994).

I am currently investigating workarounds but I don't think this will prove to be a fruitful exercise. The reality is that "including GST" is a fundamentally different way of approaching sales tax and the system doesn't support it.

Report · Sep 27, 2017

Further to my initial response, I am stoked to report that there is actually a solution to this.

Product prices can be entered including GST in the back end. Then, on the Shopping Cart and Invoice layouts there are two very useful tags that can be used to set and render GST.

{tag_producttaxpercentage,percentage}
{tag_totaltaxpercentage,percentage}

(BC Documentation here).

Enter the desired GST percentage in the percentage parameter and the above tags will render thus:

{tag_producttaxpercentage,percentage} - the tax portions for each product line in the Shopping Cart or Invoice (note that due to the New Taxation Engine's Error Compensation Mechanism, this list can look a bit weird)
{tag_totaltaxpercentage,percentage} - a total GST amount for the order

A couple of things to note:

The system will calculate the GST as a percentage of each product line and a percentage of the total order separately (as opposed to calculating the percentage for each product line and then adding them together to get the total). Depending on whether you have the New Taxation Engine enabled you may experience either of two possible anomalies:

Without the New Taxation Engine enabled, the GST for each product line generated by {tag_producttaxpercentage,percentage} added together may not equal the total GST generated by {tag_totaltaxpercentage,percentage}. For example, if I have four products in my cart priced at $20 each including GST, the system will calculate the GST for each item at $2.61, but the total GST for the order will be $10.43 (the correct GST for an $80 order but 1 cent less than the GST of each product combined).
With the New Taxation Engine enabled, the GST for each product line generated by {tag_producttaxpercentage,percentage} may not be individually correct, but when combined will equal the total GST calaculated on the value of the entire order. Following from the above example, with the New Taxation Engine enabled, the system will display the GST for three of the four $20 products in my cart as $2.61 but the fourth $20 product will show a GST portion of $2.60. This looks weird but means that they combine to equal $10.43 which is the correct GST on $80.

I hope that helps. Pumped that BC has a solution for this, even if it isn't 100% ideal.

Report · Sep 27, 2017

To much confusion in the above.

You basically have two options.

Put your prices less tax in on the products and have the tax amount in the system BC will add on the tax.

You have all the tags and liquid output data on products and invoices etc to show totals less tax and including tax etc.

Your other options is to not include the tax rate in the system and add prices inc tax.

- If you want to show less tax you can use the spare price field or custom field if you want

- You have all the tax calculation tags etc to hand

- The new tax options in the admin allow you to get better values then the original

- You can just liquid to do your own outputs to what you want.

If you are building new sites or doing new work - always try to use Liquid - More data, pure data, more you can do and going forward there will be Liquid stuff you just wont have in tags.