Change to VAT rate from 17.5% to 15% causes headache for UK online traders

Following the pre-budget report from the chancellor Alistair Darling, which included a cut to the rate of VAT from 17.5% to 15% for 13 months from the 1st December 2008, many online traders will be faced with the challenege of updating their website to reflect the change.

Traders using off the shelf software should be able to make the change relatively swiftly using the site’s administrative facilities. However, traders with bespoke or legacy shopping carts may not be so lucky.

On a typical ecommerce site, the following issues may be raised by the changes:

• Net/Gross product pricing
• Automatic VAT calculation in the shopping basket and at the checkout
• Integrity of data relating to historic orders i.e. whether the value of an order placed before the change in VAT will be affected by updating the rate on the site
• Calculated totals on order receipts/invoices

Kudos Web Solutions has worked on many ecommerce projects for a wide variety of businesses over the past 5 years and can advise and assist with all of the above issues.

If you are concerned about whether or not your site is built to cope with the change, please get in touch with us on 0845 058 0404, email info@kudoswebsolutions.com or request a callback using the form below. We will be able to put your mind at ease or else help you to implement any necessary changes.