Fiscal positions
Swap taxes and accounts automatically for export customers, registered businesses or any group of partners.
Before you begin
- The tax codes you want to swap exist (for example
SRandZR). - You have reference.manage. The list opens with company.view.
What a fiscal position does
A fiscal position is attached to a customer or supplier. When a document line is made for that partner, the position replaces one tax with another, or removes the tax, and can post revenue or expense to a different account.
Steps: create a position
- Choose Finance > Configuration > Fiscal positions.
- Press New position.
- Type the Code (up to 24 characters), for example
EXPORT. - Type the Position name, for example
Export customers. - Choose How it is applied: Automatically (by tax country) or Only where assigned to a customer.
- For an automatic position, type the Tax country, for example
SA. Empty means any country; a rule with a country beats an empty one. - Tick Registered only if the position should apply only to partners with a TRN.
- Save.
Steps: add substitutions
- In the position, under Tax substitutions, press Add a substitution (tax).
- In Instead of, choose the tax the document would use, for example
SR. - In Charge / post, choose the tax to use instead, for example
ZR. - To remove the tax completely, choose Nothing at all.
- For accounts, press Add a substitution (account) and choose the account to replace and the account to post to, for example 4000 to 4100.
- Save.
Use Remove to take a line out. You can add up to 200 of each.
What happens next
An invoice line for an export customer in Saudi Arabia with SR is charged ZR at 0 %: VAT 0.00. A UAE customer still gets SR at 5 %. If a customer has a position assigned directly, that position wins over any automatic one. A position with Registered only applies to the customer with a TRN but not to one without.
Choosing Nothing at all is not the same as zero rated. The line carries no tax code, and does not appear on the return. Zero rated lines appear on the return. Use Nothing at all only where the supply truly falls outside the VAT return.
Worked example
Position EXPORT: automatic, tax country SA, substitution SR to ZR.
| Customer | Tax country | Line | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riyadh Trading (test) | SA | 1,000.00 with SR | ZR, VAT 0.00, total 1,000.00 |
| Dubai Retail (test) | AE | 1,000.00 with SR | SR, VAT 50.00, total 1,050.00 |
Refusals
| Situation | Message |
|---|---|
| Code already used | 'EXPORT is already a fiscal position.' |
| Same source twice | 'SR is substituted twice. One rule per tax.' |
| Tax swapped for itself | 'SR cannot be substituted for itself.' |
| One side missing | 'A tax substitution names a source and a target.' |
| Same account twice | '<code> is substituted twice. One rule per account.' |
| Empty name | 'Enter valid text (maximum 120 characters).' |
Good to know
- Fiscal positions change only lines made afterwards. Posted documents keep their tax.
- Determination rules (Determination rules and the simulator) fill a line's tax code only when it is empty; a code picked by hand stays as picked.
- Positions are saved without a second approver. Review them before use.