You can change the tax rate on individual lines of a transaction in the Point of Sale. This is useful when some items in a sale need a different tax rate from the one set on the item. For example, you might sell to an organization that is exempt from tax on some items but not others.

This article covers the following topics:

• Changing the tax rate on a line
• Changing the tax rate on several lines at once
• Lines you can't change
• Orders, quotes and returns

Changing the tax rate on a line

1) On the Point of Sale screen, click the drop-down arrow on the left of the item line to expand it:

2) Click the Tax value. The Change Line Tax Rate window opens.

3) Click the drop-down and choose the new tax rate. You can type in the search box to find a rate more quickly. To use the default tax rate for your store, choose Store Default:

4) If the transaction has more than one line, you'll also see Apply to all lines. Tick this if you want to use the same rate on every line.

5) Click Apply.

The tax on the line updates straight away. How the line total changes depends on how your prices are set up:

• If your prices include tax (such as VAT in the UK), the line total stays the same and only the tax amount changes.
• If tax is added on top of your prices (such as US sales tax), the line total goes up or down with the tax.

A revert icon appears next to the tax value of any line you've changed. To put the line back to its original tax rate, click the revert icon:

Changing the tax rate on several lines at once

If you need to change the rate on several lines, you can do it all from one panel.

1) On the Point of Sale screen, expand any item line and click its Tax value, as described in the previous section.

2) In the Change Line Tax Rate window, click Change All Lines. The Change Tax On All Lines panel opens and lists every line in the transaction:

3) Choose the lines to change:

• To change every line, choose a rate from Choose a New Tax Rate and click Set All.
• To change some lines, tick them, choose a rate from Choose a New Tax Rate and click Set Selected. You can use Select All and Clear Selection to speed this up.
• To change a single line, choose a rate from the drop-down in that line's Tax Rate column.
• To undo all changes, click Revert All.

4) Click Apply to save your changes.

Your changes only take effect when you click Apply. If you close the panel without clicking it, your changes won't be saved.

Lines you can't change

You can't change the tax rate on the following lines. In the Change Tax On All Lines panel, these lines show the reason instead of a drop-down:

• gift vouchers
• lines from an Ecommerce order where tax was calculated by your website
• return lines
• order lines that have already been collected in an earlier transaction
• lines with luxury tax applied

If you set a tax-exempt customer on the transaction, the customer's tax exemption applies to every line. You won't be able to change the tax rate on any line while that customer is set.

Orders, quotes and returns

A changed tax rate stays with the line when you:

• save the transaction as an order or quote, including when you later convert a quote into an order
• suspend the transaction and recall it later
• create a Cloud POS Workshop payment link for the line

The changed rate also shows on receipts and invoices. If the transaction is later returned, the refund uses the changed rate, so it matches what the customer paid. Any discount you apply to the line is calculated using the changed rate.

Frequently Asked Questions