Create and Manage Your VAT Settings
With Square, you can apply VAT to your in-person and online sales, and create custom VAT with specific rules. You can also enable your team members to edit VAT at the time of sale through your team permissions, and track your taxable and non-taxable sales from your Dashboard.
Note:Square’s fees are taken out of the total amount of each transaction (including VAT and tip).
Create In-Person Sales Taxes
Set up VAT rates for your in-person operations from either your Dashboard or Square app.
- From your Account & Settings page, go to Business Information > VAT.
- Click Create VAT.
- Under Details, enter the VAT rate and select the locations where the rate applies.
- Under ‘VAT application’, choose to apply the VAT to either All current and future taxable items at selected locations, or Select items to choose specific items to apply the rate to. You can also apply the VAT to custom amounts. Note: if an item is set as non-taxable, VAT won’t be auto-applied to the item on any orders across Square Online or Square Point of Sale.
- Under ‘VAT calculation’, choose either Additive VAT to have the VAT as a separate line item on customer receipts, or Inclusive tax to have the VAT included in the item price.
- Under ‘VAT exemption’, toggle Add exemption rule on to specify when this VAT shouldn’t be applied.
- Click Save when finished.
- From your Point of Sale, tap ≡ More > Settings > Checkout > VAT.
- Tap the VAT you’d like to modify or the button to create a new one.
- Enter the VAT name and rate.
- Under ‘VAT application’, choose to apply the VAT to either All items and services (current and future), or Select items to pick specific items to apply the rate to. You can also apply the VAT to custom amounts. Note: if an item is set as non-taxable, VAT won’t be auto-applied to the item on any orders across Square Online or Square Point of Sale.
- Under ‘Calculation method’, choose either Additive VAT to have the VAT as a separate line item on customer receipts, or Inclusive tax to have the VAT included in the item price.
- Tap Save when finished.
Note: the option to apply VAT to All items and services is currently available on the Square Point of Sale, Square Appointments and Square Invoices apps.
Create Online Sales Taxes
You can set up VAT rates for orders that come from your Square Online site directly in your Square Online Overview page. Learn about managing sales VAT settings for Square Online orders for more details.
Disable or Delete VAT
You can disable or delete your VAT rates at any time from either your Dashboard or POS. To start:
Disable: From the VAT tab, select the tax you wish to disable, then Actions > Disable VAT. By disabling, VAT will no longer be applied to purchases.
Delete: from the VAT tab, select the VAT you wish to delete, then Actions > Delete VAT. This action cannot be undone.
Manage Item-Level VAT
To manage item-level VAT:
from your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
under Details, select VAT.
Toggle Non-taxable item on if you don’t want the item to be taxed. Toggle it off to apply specific VAT rates you’ve created to the item. Click Done.
Click Save when finished.
If you’ve listed the item as non-taxable, VAT won’t be auto-applied to the item on any orders across Square Online or Square Point of Sale.
Note: VAT and custom taxes will automatically apply to sales where a custom amount is entered. To disable VAT for custom amounts, visit your VAT settings in the app.
Edit VAT at the Time of Sale
if you need to edit VAT at the time of sale:
From your Point of Sale, tap Checkout > Review sale.
Tap an item.
Under VAT, toggle applicable VAT rates on or off.
Note: from the ‘Current sale’ screen, you can also tap VAT to view all VAT rates applied to the current sale. Tap the X icon to remove a VAT rate from applicable items within the sale, then tap Save to return to checkout.
Create VAT Exemptions
You can create VAT exemption rules from Dashboard to apply them to sales across your devices. These rules can exempt specific items or categories from VAT. You can also create a VAT exemption rule for price thresholds. Learn how to create and manage VAT exemption rules with our Tax Exemption Guide.
Manage VAT with the Catalogue Import Tool
Once you’ve created a sales VAT, you can apply the VAT to your catalogue in bulk via the catalogue import tool. To start:
from your Square Item Library, click Actions > Export Library.
once your file has exported, tax columns will appear on the spreadsheet. from here, enter Y or N in each row to apply or not apply the VAT rate to the selected item in the catalogue. For large catalogues, items can be sorted by category. A formula can also be written to facilitate the bulk application of VAT rates.
once VAT rates have been assigned to items within the spreadsheet, go back to your Square Item Library and click Actions > Import Library to upload any changes.
Note: when editing any existing catalogue items from the spreadsheet, do not edit or remove the value in the Token column. Upon reimporting, the token is used to identify the existing item in the catalogue.
Learn more about item importing and exporting.
DISCLAIMER: although we’ve built a powerful VAT calculation system for Square, Square can’t offer any VAT advice or consultation services. VAT compliance is your responsibility. We do not guarantee the applicability or accuracy of our VAT tools. If you have any questions about your VAT obligations, consider consulting a professional tax adviser.