thread Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK) in Payments Troubleshooting

Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

MrsJ2021 — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 11:48:36 GMT

Hi,

I am looking at setting up the online Square store as we have a Square POS system instore.

One of the issues I can't seem to find a solution to is VAT.

We sell clothing, so kids sizes are exempt but adults are not.

On woocommerce (current site), I can have all the sizes listed as an option and toggle the tax/VAT on the adult sizes.

So far all I can seem to do on Square online is have all the sizes either exempt or taxable. Can I not have a mixture?

Is there a way around this? Thank you

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

nika — Wed, 19 May 2021 22:39:12 GMT

Thanks for writing in @MrsJ2021! I'm going to call on my friend @tranguyen for some help on this one. 👀

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

tranguyen — Thu, 20 May 2021 11:41:25 GMT

Thanks for tagging me in @nika! I'll do my best to help with this @MrsJ2021.

It is possible to set multiple tax rates with the Square Point of Sale app. You can do so from your Square Dashboard > Items > Sale taxes. From here, the setup can depend on whether you wish to track zero-rated VAT.

If you don't need to track zero-rated VAT that apply to children's clothings, you can create only once tax rate and apply it to all items. To note, the tax will applied to all item variations so when you are selling the kid variation of an item, you can manually toggle this off at checkout.
If you'd like to track zero-rated VAT that apply to children's clothings, you can create a separate tax call Zero VAT. This does mean you'd need to recreate all the kids' sizes as separate items in order to apply this tax. You can find more information about creating and managing your tax settings for the Square Point of Sale app in our Support Centre.

If you are looking to set up taxes for the Square Online site, this is a bit different. Within Settings > Sales Taxes, you can only set one tax rate for each destination country at the moment. As such, the normal tax rate will apply to all items.

However, you are able to mark certain items as being tax-exempted. This would require that kids' clothings have been create a separate items to the adults ones. To mark items as tax exempted, please follow the steps below:

Head to your Square Online site overview > Items > Site Items
Click into the item you wish to mark as being exempted
Scroll down to Fulfilment > Tax and tick this box
Click Save

All items with this box checked will not have tax applied at checkout.

I hope this will help!

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

MrsJ2021 — Thu, 20 May 2021 15:17:01 GMT

Hi Tranguyen,

Thanks for the help above.

For Square Online, the issue I have is I would prefer to have ONE listing with both Zero Tax (childrens) and Taxed (adults) items.

For example, say the listing is for a t-shirt and I want to offer it in children's sizes and adult sizes, using the options section on Square Online. Within these options can I toggle the children's sizes Tax exempt? Or will I need to create to listings?

Thanks

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

tranguyen — Thu, 20 May 2021 16:39:44 GMT

Thanks for your reply @MrsJ2021! At the moment, the tax exempt feature on Square Online site applies at an item level rather than to specific variation or option. In order to have the correct tax apply to adult and children's sizes, you'd need to create separate listings for them.

I'll definitely share this with our Product team as a feature request as well, as I can definitely see how this would be helpful for businesses with the same inventory setup!

VAT on new items on Square register

Gossip14 — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 16:55:55 GMT

We are just going VAT registered and have set up our VAT schemes and have 4 bands.

However, I notice when we create new items, all 4 are applied (All VAT).

How can I configure the system to only add 1 Default VAT band to a product and NOT all 4?

it is getting very annoying to find that new items are being double or wrongly VAT'ed because of this.

Re: VAT on new items on Square register

_Violet — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 17:32:25 GMT

Hi @Gossip14 - I'm sorry to hear that this issue has brought you to the Seller Community

This does sound off, but it's difficult to pinpoint what may be happening without looking at your account and settings with you, which we aren't able to do via the Seller Community. For this type of issue, I suggest that you get in touch with our Support Team. If you haven't already, please reach out to Support directly by logging into your Square account and heading here.

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

Gossip14 — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 15:44:29 GMT

I would have thought this would have been an easy configuration issue.

Once again, I have created 4 VAT bands. However, when a new item is created, the default is to apply ALL 4 TAX bands at once. I want to be able to change the "VAT" band that are applied by default and only have 1 items listed NOT all 4

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

Gossip14 — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 16:13:00 GMT

I am having the same issue and have been told to raise a complaint.

Square will automatically apply ALL taxes to any new ITEM created. It is up to the user to "Unselect" the Taxes that are NOT applicable. (the excuse is Square does not know which tax to apply, so it will suggest all).

I am suggesting as many UK folks as possible, petition Square to fix this bug and allow a "Default" tax to be applied not ALL taxes available.

Also, it would be nice to have a facililty to list ALL Items that have more than ONE tax code. (other than downloading the inventory and perfroing excel magic)

Disabling a TaX will cause that band not to be tax calculated.

This is wasting me time and effort and have to check everything that is created and sold to validate the taxation being applied.

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

Gossip14 — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 16:16:11 GMT

This is what I have been told :-

I am suggesting as many UK folks as possible, petition Square to fix this bug and allow a "Default" tax to be applied not ALL taxes available.

Also, it would be nice to have a facililty to list ALL Items that have more than ONE tax code. (other than downloading the inventory and performing excel magic)

Disabling a Tax will cause that band not to be tax calculated.

This is wasting me time and effort and have to check everything that is created and sold to validate the taxation being applied.

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

Breffni — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 09:26:16 GMT

Hi @Gossip14 - I understand the frustration here, and I appreciate your feedback.

As our support team confirmed, the exact set-up you are looking for would be a feature request at the moment which I would suggest you raise here when you have a chance.

One potential workaround would be to use Rule-Based Taxes. This would allow you to create an exempt tax option which would work if you have dining options, or if the item price is below a certain amount

With Rule-Based Taxes, you can set up tax rules to automatically exclude taxes for purchases that are applicable to your region.

Visit Accounts & Settings in your online Square Dashboard > Business information > Sales taxes.
Click Create a tax.
Details: Enter the tax name, rate and locations where the tax applies.
Apply Tax: Apply the tax to all taxable items in your library or select specific items. You can also apply the tax to Custom Amounts and include a Service Charge.
Exempt Tax: Click Add exemption rule to specify when the tax should not be applied. Choose one condition: if item price is below an amount, if total price is below an amount or if dining option is used. You can also apply the exemption to custom amounts.
- Note: Dining options must be turned on prior to using the dining option as a tax exemption rule. To customise your dining options, navigate to Items > Settings > Dining Options to edit, add or remove.

I understand that this may not be an ideal soultion. If I have any product updates around this topic in future, I'll be sure to let you know here.

Re: Sales Tac (VAT for UK)

Gossip14 — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 14:40:33 GMT

the fix I am looking for is to be able to have a configurable DEFAULT tax association for any NEW item created NOT the entire list of taxes available.