Help Ubercart sort out it's VAT issues (MwSt)

@Robert:
Jahrelang BWL in Schule und Studium gehabt und meine Buchhaltung mache ich auch selbst, aber mit so einer einfachen Frage, wie eigentlich korrekt (laut hiesigen Gesetzen) gerundet wird, hast du mich in dem Thread nun echt erwischt: http://drupal.org/node/399586#comment-1443806

Can't even squeeze out some hard facts with Google, so I guess curious me is gonna phone his accountant tomorrow. Stuff I read a moment ago was that usually you go with display prices including VAT for end customers => "gross / (1 + tax_rate) = net". So you make sure you don't have to turn to your calculator just set up new "fancy" prices like the famous 0.99ers.
For commercial customers you start with net prices as VAT gets carried away by the government anyway and calculate gross prices with "net * (1 + tax_rate) = gross".

Let me think about it for a moment...
... looking at some bills ...

In the end each bill has only one total amount to pay. That's the point where the included tax is calculated. For end customers you have gross total and calculate included tax from there, while for business customers you have a net total and add the tax for that value.

So in the end I'd say you have two prices attached to each product. You give one value and the other may be automatically calculated. What type of customer gets the bill then decides how totals are calculated and that it may make some little difference when comparing the two possibilities .. well.. it's the way things are I guess.

But okay, I'm gonna phone tomorrow and the questions still up and I'm backed up by my accountant I'll post it on D.org, too.

P.S.:
If in doubt, the gov's gonna tell the business how much it owes, not the other way around ;-)

--
mortendk: everytime you use contemplate... Thor is striking down from above with his mighty hammer - crushing and killing a kitten!

webseiter.de

Hi,

my understanding is as follows. As I am not a tax expert but rather a well informed laymen, I suggest you try to get a second (third ...) opinion.

It is important that comsumers ALLWAYS see the gross price. If there is ever a situation where a consumer can not see the gross price, the shop owner may have to pay a serious penalty. Showing solely net prices is legal only in B2B situations. However, net price, tax rate, tax amount and gross price must appear on the receipt for a B2B business.

You are always on the save side, if you show all the information at all occasions.

For consumers net price, tax rate, tax amount and gross price must appear on checkout page, review page and receipt. I think net price, tax rate and tax amount may appear on product page and cart page, but do not have to. For business customers net price, tax rate, tax amount and gross price must appear on the receipt, but need not appear on the other pages. I am not sure about B2B checkout page and review page.

Again, you are on the save side, if you show all the information at all occasions.

For consumers '(product * qty) * tax' could result in rounding errors, because gross prices are shown on the product pages. Therefore only '(product * tax) * qty' makes sense. Again, in B2B it is different. Here '(product * qty) * tax' is acceptable.

I think you can assume the customer is in Germany if you don't know the location. In doubt, treating the customer as if s/he is in the same country as the shop should be unproblematic.

Sorry, I have no idea.

There are two different tax rates, depending on the type of article. Hence, there can be articles with different tax rates in the same shopping cart. If this is the case, wherever the tax is shown, there must be both tax rates and tax amounts stated separately.