Tax and GST on documents

How it's shown

• Australia (and NZ, UK) — invoices are Tax Invoices. Customer-facing figures include GST, with the GST content shown under the total. Staff screens label every figure "(inc GST)" or "(ex GST)" so it's never a guess, and money boxes lead with the inc GST figure.
• United States — line figures are before tax, sales tax is its own line above the total, and the document is an Invoice. Labels read "before tax" / "incl. tax".
• Your country (and so your currency and tax) is set when the business is created; changing it is a job for support.

Where the numbers come from

• Unit prices are entered ex GST (Unit (ex GST) on the line); the total beside it shows inc GST.
• The rate comes from Default Tax Rate (%) in Settings → Business details→ → Regional Settings.
• GST-free line: click the line and untick GST applies to this line.
• Tax-exempt customer: Edit Company → Tax exempt, with the certificate number and expiry. New documents for that company carry no tax; lines already on a document keep theirs; the exemption stops after the expiry date.
• Invoice totals are worked out once, the same way everywhere, so the screen, print, email PDF and Xero agree.

Accounting

• Xero gets each line's tax — set which Xero tax rates are used for taxable and GST-free sales under How sales are coded in Xero. See Xero→.
• QuickBooks gets each line as taxable or not; you choose the tax code. See QuickBooks→.
• Vehicle sales handle government charges (rego, stamp duty) as GST-free lines and LCT separately — see the Vehicles & DMS guides.

Currencies in Settings is for buying in foreign currencies (supplier costs). Invoices are always in your business's own currency.