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Finance

Tax Rates

Intermediate7 min read

Define reusable tax rates once in Settings, then apply them per line item on invoices and estimates -- with support for tax-inclusive pricing, tax-exempt customers, and reverse charge.

Key concepts

  • Tax Rate: A named percentage (e.g., "Standard VAT", "GST 10%") that you apply to individual line items. Each rate stores a name, a rate (a percentage between 0 and 100), and an optional description.
  • Per-line tax: QONE applies tax at the line-item level, not the document level. There is no single "tax %" field for an invoice or estimate -- instead, each line item can carry its own tax rate, so a single document can mix taxed, zero-rated, and untaxed lines.
  • Default tax rate: One rate can be marked as your workspace default. When set, it is pre-selected on new line items so you don't have to choose it every time.
  • Active / Inactive: A tax rate is either Active (available for selection on documents) or Inactive (hidden from dropdowns but preserved on historical documents that already use it).
  • Tax treatments: On a document you can switch the whole invoice/estimate between standard (tax-exclusive), tax-inclusive pricing, or reverse charge -- these change how the per-line tax is calculated and totalled.
How to

Step-by-step

Creating a Tax Rate

  1. Navigate to Settings > Tax.

  2. Click Add Tax Rate in the top-right corner.

  3. In the modal, fill in:

    • Name (required) -- e.g., "Standard VAT", "GST", "Sales Tax 8.25%"
    • Rate (required) -- the percentage, entered as a number between 0 and 100 (supports decimals, e.g., 8.25)
    • Description (optional) -- a short note about when this rate applies

  4. Click Create.

    New rates are created as Active. If a rate fails to save, the form shows the validation message (for example, the rate must be between 0 and 100, and the name cannot be empty).

Editing a Tax Rate

  1. In the tax rates list, click the edit icon on the row (or Edit on the mobile card).

  2. The modal opens with the current values pre-filled.

  3. Change the name, rate, or description as needed.

  4. When editing, an Active / Inactive toggle is also available -- use it to retire a rate without deleting it.

  5. Click Update.

    Editing a rate's percentage does not retroactively change tax amounts already saved on existing invoices or estimates -- those keep the values that were calculated when they were created.

Setting a Default Tax Rate

  1. On the Settings > Tax page, find the default-rate banner at the top.

  2. Click Change next to the current default.

  3. Pick a rate from the dropdown, or choose No tax rate to clear the default.

    Only active rates appear in the default picker. Once a default is set, it is pre-applied to new line items on invoices and estimates so you can start billing faster. The default is stored in your invoicing settings, so it is shared across the workspace.

Deleting a Tax Rate

  1. Click the delete icon on the row (or Delete on the mobile card).

  2. Confirm the deletion in the popup.

    Deletion is permanent. If you only want to stop offering a rate while keeping it on past documents, deactivate it instead of deleting it.

Searching and Filtering

  1. Use the filter tabs above the table to view All, Active, or Inactive rates -- each tab shows a count.

  2. Use the search bar to find rates by name or description.

How Tax Rates Apply to Documents

Tax rates flow into invoices and estimates the same way. When you create a document, QONE loads your active tax rates and exposes a per-line Tax dropdown:

  1. On the new invoice or estimate screen, each line item row has a Tax column (shown only when you have at least one active tax rate and the customer is not tax-exempt).
  2. Select a rate from the dropdown to apply it to that line, or choose No tax to leave the line untaxed.
  3. The tax amount for the line is calculated from the line's amount and the selected rate, and shown beneath the dropdown.
  4. If a workspace default tax rate is set, it is pre-selected on each new line.
  5. Items can carry their own default tax rate -- when you add such an item, its rate is applied to the line automatically (see Items).

[Screenshot: an invoice line-item row with the per-line Tax dropdown and the calculated tax amount shown below it]

Tax-Inclusive Pricing

By default, prices are tax-exclusive -- tax is added on top of the line amount to reach the total. You can flip the whole document to tax-inclusive, which means the prices you enter already contain tax:

  • The tax portion is extracted from the line amount instead of added to it (using rate / (100 + rate)).
  • The document total equals the subtotal (after discount) plus shipping -- tax is not added again on top.
  • The per-line tax note shows "incl." rather than "+" to reflect that the amount is already baked into the price.

The tax-inclusive toggle is only available when the document is not reverse-charge and the customer is not tax-exempt, and you have at least one active tax rate.

Tax-Exempt Customers

If a customer is marked as tax-exempt, the document recognizes this:

  • The per-line Tax column is hidden and no tax is charged on the lines.
  • A banner appears explaining the customer is tax-exempt, with a one-click action to clear any tax already applied to the lines.
  • Exempt lines are excluded from the document's tax total.

Note: for purely domestic Vietnam transactions the tax-exempt flag has no legal effect and is ignored, since both parties are in the same tax jurisdiction.

Reverse Charge

For cross-border B2B supplies where the buyer accounts for the tax, you can mark the document as reverse charge:

  • The tax shown per line becomes informational -- it is displayed for reference but not added to the total.
  • The total equals the subtotal (after discount) plus shipping.
  • Reverse charge and tax-inclusive are mutually exclusive -- turning one on turns the other off.

Tips & best practices

  • Set up your common tax rates before you start invoicing -- it makes line-item entry a single click.
  • Mark your most-used rate as the default so it auto-applies to new lines.
  • Give rates clear, specific names (e.g., "VAT 10%", "GST 5%", "Zero-rated export") -- the name and percentage both appear in the line-item dropdown.
  • Deactivate a rate instead of deleting it when a tax law changes but old documents still reference the old rate.
  • Set a default tax rate on individual Items for products that always carry a specific rate -- it overrides the manual selection step when that item is added.
  • Use per-line tax to handle mixed documents -- e.g., a taxable service line and a zero-rated export line on the same invoice.
  • The rate must be between 0 and 100. For zero-rated supplies, create a rate of 0 rather than leaving the field blank, so the document records the tax treatment explicitly.

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