VAT Accounting in UK When Selling A Mixture 0% & 20% Rated Goods

[ovhrd2732]

Hi all, having some difficulty with our VAT accounting as we sell a mixture of zero rated and standard rated goods. Any help appreciated!

Currently we track this all on a spreadsheet which calculates the VAT on each order, and then I need to manually go into QuickBooks and add the VAT payable on each days payout which is very time consuming. Then there is the additional issue that VAT on shipping cost needs to be weighted too.

Does anyone have any experience sellinga mixture of 0% & 20% rated goods in the UK? How do you deal with your VAT accounting ? Any help would be appreciated. We only sell to the UK, so that makes things a little more simple...

[Rostislav]

Hi , 

The rule for the accounting is simple here- shipping is an accidental expense and it should be weighted against the items and then the rate applicable to the item should be applied to the shipping. Shopify offers zero solution here :(. There are 2 ways to handle the issue to avoid manual work

1. Increase prices of goods and ship them for "free" . In essence you "attach" shipping costs to the cost of items and VAT  will be applied properly. Of course this method is a bit simplistic and may only work if your business model allows for it.

2. Install "Link my books" application. If I remember correctly,  they have a mapping option that will allow for accounting of VAT for shipping rates properly (they will recalculate the order before it goes to your QuickBooks. 

And do start selling to the EU 🙂  We have thousands of UK clients that came back to the UE using IOSS VAT scheme. 

Yours , Rostislav