Tax settings live under Settings → Tax & Invoicing. There are three decisions to make and one of them changes what your customers are charged, so it is worth reading before you pick.
Your registration
Turn on VAT registered if you collect tax, choose your tax country, and enter your VAT or tax ID. The country decides two things: what the field is called — VAT, TVA, IVA, GST, sales tax — and what format your ID has to be in. Enter one that doesn't match your country's pattern and it is rejected at the point of typing, not discovered by an accountant later.
The label follows your country everywhere: on the settings page, on the order, on the estimate and on the invoice. A Romanian shop's documents say TVA.
Your rate
Default tax rate applies to every new line on every estimate and invoice. One rate per shop.
Individual lines can opt out — mark a line non-taxable and it drops out of the tax base entirely. That is the mechanism for a genuinely zero-rated part or an exempt service; it is not a way to give someone a discount.
The setting that changes the money
Tax on documents looks like a formatting choice. It is not.
Warning
Only one of the three modes adds tax on top of your prices. The other two treat your prices as already containing it. Pick the wrong one and every total in the shop is wrong by the tax rate.
| Mode | What your prices mean | What the customer pays | On the document |
|---|---|---|---|
| Added on top | Pre-tax | Line price plus tax | Tax on its own line |
| Included in the price | Tax-inclusive | The line price | Tax shown for information |
| Included, not shown | Tax-inclusive | The line price | No tax line at all |
Take a 100 line at 20%:
- Added on top — the customer pays 120. Twenty is tax.
- Included in the price — the customer pays 100. The document notes that 16.67 of it is tax.
- Included, not shown — the customer pays 100. The document says nothing about tax. You still owe the 16.67.
The settings page shows exactly this worked example under the three options, with your own rate in it.
Note
Included, not shown hides the tax from the customer, never from you. It is still calculated, still on the order, still in your reports and still owed. The only thing it changes is what gets printed.
Why "included" doesn't add the tax again
It is tempting to read the two inclusive modes as "charge tax but don't itemise it". It doesn't work: the lines and the total on a document have to reconcile, and a subtotal of 100 with a total of 120 and nothing in between is a document that looks wrong to everybody who reads it. So in the inclusive modes the tax is carved back out of your price rather than added to it, and the total is what you quoted.
What is in the tax base, and what isn't
The tax is calculated on the taxable line items of the work that is actually being billed. Three consequences worth knowing:
Lines marked non-taxable are excluded
Per line, on the order.
Discounts reduce the tax base
A discount line is signed, so it lowers the amount tax is charged on rather than being taxed itself. Percentage fees are taxed at their real resolved value, not at zero.
Unauthorized and declined work is outside it
Once an order is approved, only authorized work is billable — and only billable work is taxed. See the order workflow.
Warning
Shop supplies and shop-wide fees are added after tax, not inside it. They are charged to the customer in full but they do not enlarge the tax base. If your jurisdiction taxes them, price that into the percentage you charge.
A rate of zero
Set the rate to 0% and no tax is charged or displayed in any mode. Non-registered shops can leave it there and ignore this page entirely.
Troubleshooting
"Every total is 20% too high." You are on Added on top with tax-inclusive prices. Switch to Included in the price — your prices are already right.
"The invoice shows no tax line and I need one." You are on Included, not shown. Move to Included in the price to itemise it without changing what the customer pays.
"My VAT number won't save." It doesn't match the format for the tax country you selected. Check the country first — the expected format follows it.
"A part shouldn't be taxed." Mark that line non-taxable on the order. There is no second rate; there is taxable and not.
"The tax didn't change when I added a discount." It did — the discount reduces the amount tax is charged on, so the tax falls with the total rather than staying put.
"My shop supplies aren't being taxed." Correct, by design. They sit outside the tax base.