VAT¶
A shop whose prices include VAT can have Badger work out the VAT in every order, show it to shoppers, put it on the order email as a VAT receipt and total it for the VAT return. It's off until a shop turns it on.
Turning it on¶
Settings > Checkout > Tax:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tax | Off records no VAT. Inclusive: your prices include VAT. The shopper pays the price shown, and checkout works out how much of it is VAT. |
| Tax home country | Where your business is established (GB, IE, DE...). Blank uses the shop's country. |
| Registered for VAT in | Every country you're registered in. With the EU One Stop Shop, list each EU country you sell to. Empty means just your home country. |
| Default tax rate | The rate for products that don't set their own (normally standard). |
| Exports | What a shopper pays for an order going where you aren't registered: keep-price (the price shown, no VAT) or remove-tax (the price shown less your home country's VAT). |
Tax rates on products¶
Each product (and, if it differs, each variant) has a Tax rate under its price in the product editor: standard, reduced, second reduced, zero, exempt or outside the scope of VAT. What each means as a percentage depends on where the order goes: standard is 20% in the UK and 23% in Ireland. Badger carries the rates for the UK and every EU country.
A delivery option can have its own rate. Normally it follows the goods, the UK rule: its VAT is split across the rates of what's in the order, in proportion to their value.
The same settings are available to AI agents through the shop's MCP connection
(manageProducts, manageVariants and manageDeliveryOptions take taxCode) and to the REST API
(taxCode on a product).
Where an order is taxed¶
- Click and collect: where the store is.
- Delivery: the delivery address's country.
- Nothing to deliver (donations, tickets, digital), or no address yet: your home country.
- In person (POS): where the till is.
An order going to a country you aren't registered in is an export and carries no VAT.
What shoppers and you see¶
- Basket, checkout and order confirmation: an "Includes VAT" line under the total.
- Product pages: "Prices include VAT" beside the price (Atelier, Brock, Depot, Pop and Spec), unless you've written your own note.
- Order email: the VAT, a line per rate when an order has several, and your business's legal name, registered address and VAT number (Settings > Store > Legal entity), so it works as a VAT receipt for a retail sale.
- Admin order view: the VAT, each rate and country with the amount taxed, or that it was an export.
- Reports > VAT: VAT by country and rate for any period (this quarter by default), with the sales with and without VAT, and exports.
Good to know¶
- VAT is worked out per line and rounded to the nearest penny.
- An order keeps the country and rates it was placed under, even if a rate later changes.
- The VAT report counts orders when they're placed and doesn't yet take refunds or returns off.
- Prices that exclude VAT (VAT added at checkout, as trade suppliers often show) and US sales tax aren't supported yet.
- Check your VAT treatment with your accountant: Badger applies the rates you choose; it doesn't decide which goods are zero-rated or where you must register.