Taxes
The Taxes catalog is where you define every tax your company charges or pays on its transactions: VAT/sales tax, excise tax, legal tip, customs duties or any other tax specific to your country. Once created, the tax becomes available to assign to your Items, Customers and Vendors, and to pick line by line on your invoices, quotes, sales orders and other purchase and sales documents.
This screen specifically manages taxes that are charged (for example, the VAT on a sale or on a purchase). Tax withholdings (income-tax withholding, VAT withholding, etc.) are managed separately in the Tax Withholdings module, which shares the same form but is documented on its own.
What it is and what it's for
Each record in this catalog represents a tax with its percentage and its calculation type: VAT/sales tax, Income Tax, Excise Tax, Legal Tip, Customs Duty or Other. AdmCloud uses this information to automatically calculate the tax amount on each sales or purchase line, to post it to the correct ledger account, and, in countries that require it, to include it on the fiscal document and on fiscal reports.
Taxes you create here are then offered as an option on the Items record (default sales and purchase tax), on Customers and Vendors, and can be grouped into Tax Schedules to assign several taxes together at once (for example, VAT plus an excise tax on the same item).
Screens in this area
| Screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| List | Shows your taxes with their name and percentage, split into Active and Inactive tabs. From here you add a new one, check several to delete them in bulk, or open one to view or edit it. |
| New Tax / Edit Tax | Form to capture the tax's name, percentage, calculation type and ledger accounts. The percentage and calculation type can only be set when the record is created; once saved, they can no longer be changed. |
| Details | Read-only view with the full tax configuration, including the Tax Schedules it belongs to, with shortcuts to edit or delete it. |
How to create a tax
- Open the Taxes module and click Add.
- Enter a descriptive Name (for example "VAT 18%" or "Reduced Sales Tax"). The name is required and must be unique: it can't be repeated on another tax or on an existing withholding.
- Enter the tax's Percent. Double-check it: once the record is saved, the percentage can no longer be changed.
- Select the Tax Type: VAT/sales tax, Income Tax, Excise Tax, Legal Tip, Customs Duty or Other. This field is required and, like the percentage, cannot be changed after the tax is created.
- Assign the Sales Tax Account and the Purchase Tax Account: the ledger accounts where the collected or paid tax amount will accumulate. Both must be in the same currency as your company.
- If your company recognizes taxes on a cash basis instead of an accrual basis, also fill in the sales and purchase Transfer Accounts; these fields only appear in that case.
- Add any internal Notes you need and click Save.
Key capabilities
- Automatic calculation on transactions: picking a tax on an invoice, quote, sales order or purchase document line has AdmCloud calculate the corresponding amount using the configured percentage.
- Dedicated posting: each tax posts its amount to the sales or purchase ledger account you assign it, kept separate from the rest of the transaction.
- Cash-basis transfer: if your company recognizes taxes on a cash basis, AdmCloud automatically reclassifies the corresponding tax portion from the tax account to the transfer account at the moment of collection or payment.
- Default tax on Items, Customers and Vendors: you can pre-assign a sales and a purchase tax on an item, customer or vendor record so you don't have to pick it every time.
- Tax Schedules: group several taxes under one schedule when an item or transaction needs to carry more than one tax at once.
- Active and inactive: mark a tax as inactive to stop offering it on new transactions or when assigning it to records, without losing the history of transactions that already used it.
Key fields
| Field | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Name | Descriptive name of the tax. Required and unique across every tax and withholding in the company. |
| Fiscal Name and Code | Additional identifiers used by some of your country's fiscal reports and documents. |
| Percent | The tax rate applied on the amount of each line. Cannot be changed once the record is created. |
| Tax Type | VAT/sales tax, Income Tax, Excise Tax, Legal Tip, Customs Duty or Other; determines how the tax is classified on fiscal reports. Cannot be changed once the record is created. |
| Sales Tax Account | Ledger account where the tax collected on your sales accumulates. |
| Purchase Tax Account | Ledger account where the tax paid on your purchases accumulates. |
| Transfer Account (sales and purchases) | Only visible if your company recognizes taxes on a cash basis; receives the tax reclassification at the moment of collection or payment. |
| Notes | Free text for internal remarks about the tax. |
| Inactive | Hides the tax when creating new transactions or assigning it to records, while keeping its existing history. |
Validations when saving
- The name is required and must be unique, both among taxes and against existing withholdings.
- The percentage cannot be negative.
- The percentage and the tax type cannot be changed once the record is created; if you made a mistake, you'll need to create a new tax instead.
- The sales and purchase tax accounts must exist and be in the same currency as your company, or AdmCloud rejects the save.
- A tax cannot be deleted while it's included in a Tax Schedule, assigned to an Item, or used on an item or account line of an existing transaction; you must remove it from those places first.
Availability and permissions
- Access to this module is controlled by the "Taxes" (SA_TAXES) permission on your user group, with separate levels for viewing, adding, editing and deleting.
- The Transfer Accounts only show up on the form when your company is configured to recognize taxes on a cash basis; if your company recognizes taxes on an accrual basis, these fields stay hidden.
Tips and common issues
Need several taxes on the same item? Instead of trying to combine them into a single record, create each tax separately and group them into a Tax Schedule, which you can then assign in a single step.
Can't change the percentage or type of an existing tax? That's intentional: both stay fixed so they don't alter the history of transactions already recorded with that tax. Create a new tax with the correct percentage or type and, if it applies, mark the old one as Inactive.
Can't delete a tax? AdmCloud blocks it if it's still assigned to a Tax Schedule, to an Item, or if it appears on any existing transaction. In that case, it's safer to deactivate it (mark it as Inactive) instead of trying to delete it.
Looking to set up a tax withholding (income-tax withholding, VAT withholding)? That's configured in the Tax Withholdings module, not in this Taxes catalog.