Come together with the global Drupal community in Rotterdam, 28 Sept – 1 Oct 2026. Sessions, contribution, connection, and Early Bird savings until 8 June.A cart with only product(s) in it showing prices inclusive of VAT using the European Union VAT plugin has the following three line items at the bottom
Subtotal
VAT
Total
The Subtotal amount is the same as the Total since it includes the VAT. It would be clearer and follow standard practice more closely if the lines were
Subtotal exclusive of VAT
VAT
Total
To illustrate with numbers, for a 25% VAT rate we currently get
Subtotal: 100
VAT: 20
Total: 100
whereas standard practice is
Subtotal exclusive of VAT: 80
VAT: 20
Total: 100
Of course this scenario doesn’t include things like shipping which would make having a subtotal including VAT more meaningful, but anytime you have a line for VAT you should have a line for amount exclusive of VAT. Anyone purchasing something for a business, for example, is focused on the VAT exclusive price because they will get a VAT refund. In this case an ideal arrangement would be
Subtotal
Shipping
Total exclusive of VAT
VAT
Total
where Subtotal, Shipping and Total all include VAT.
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| #6 | amazon.fr_.png | 23.35 KB | yonailo |
Comments
Comment #2
bojanz commentedThe subtotal must always include VAT if the prices themselves include VAT. The subtotal is the sum of the shown order item totals.
There is no requirement to show a non-tax-inclusive summary for B2C. Adding such a thing would be a site specific customization.
For B2B, it's more common that your prices wouldn't be displayed VAT-inclusive in the first place (making the subtotal automatically VAT free).
Comment #3
grabby commentedWell, my experience is different, though I admit it I’ve only built webshops utilizing VAT for Hungary. All ecommerce websites in the EU I’m aware of display the net price exclusive of VAT, the VAT amount, and the total including VAT on the cart or at least the payment confirmation page. In fact many specify the VAT percentage explicitly as well, another thing that is missing in Drupal Commerce. And the argument to distinguish between C2B and B2B doesn’t hold up. Take for example a site selling ink cartridges for printers. Private individuals are going to buy those, as are all kinds of businesses, so such a site would need to be buyer agnostic regarding their line item display. What there is NOT a rule about is that subtotal amounts have to include VAT if the individual purchase items include VAT. This I see treated all over the board. Maybe lots of people are breaking the rules? In any case, what I would love to see is clarity, i.e. this is how much without VAT, this is the VAT, this is the total including VAT, or at least some flexibility so site builders can tailor this extremely basic part of their displays to their needs with DC and not need a module or custom coding. Thanks by the way for the quick response!
Comment #4
bojanz commentedI stand by what I said. Open to reviewing patches that you think would improve this, but we've done a lot of research to justify the current defaults.
Comment #6
yonailo@bojanz : I understand your position. There is no legal requirement to show subtotal without taxes I agree with you. Nevertheless could you give us any clues in order to implement a simple subtotal without taxes like Amazon.fr does ?
THanks in advance.