Changing Tax Rates

Sales tax rates generally change over time. WHMCS allows you to manage these VAT changes easily.

WHMCS cannot provide tax advice or substitute for a tax expert. We strongly recommend seeking appropriate advice from your local tax and VAT authorities.

Changing the Tax Rate

Make sure to change tax rates at midnight or at the latest time possible before the cron job runs on the day of the change (for the below example, January 3rd).

Any invoices that the system generates after this change will use the new tax rate, but any existing invoices will keep the old tax rate.

In the examples below, the tax rate is increasing from 17.5% to 20% effective January 4th.

In the Admin Area

To update tax rates in the Admin Area:

1. Go to Configuration > System Settings > Tax Configuration (prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Payments > Tax Configuration).

2. Choose the Tax Rules tab:

Click the Tax Rules tab

3. Delete the original tax rule by clicking the corresponding red delete icon:

Delte the Current Rule

4. Create a new tax rule with exactly the same name, country, and state.

5. Enter the new tax rate:

Add the new Tax Rule

6. Click Add Rule.

Bulk (SQL) Tax Rate Changes

Advanced users can also use SQL to update tax rates. This is useful and can save time if you are updating multiple rules.

To do this, run an SQL update query on the WHMCS database using a tool like phpMyAdmin:

UPDATE tbltax SET taxrate=20 WHERE taxrate=17.5;
Click to copy

Updating Existing Invoices

If you want to use SQL to update existing but unpaid invoices that are due on or after the change date, you could use this query:

UPDATE tblinvoices SET taxrate=20,tax=subtotal*0.2,total=subtotal+tax-credit WHERE status='Unpaid'
AND taxrate=17.5 AND duedate>='2023-01-01';
Click to copy

Subscriptions and Tax Rate Changes

If you have selected Exclusive Tax or enabled Deduct Tax Amount, VAT rate changes may result in a new invoice total compared with the previous invoice. This will have an impact for those clients paying via a fixed amount subscription agreement via gateways like PayPal® and 2Checkout.

This will require manual steps to ensure that clients are paying the correct amount. If you anticipate this issue for your clients, cancel the existing subscription and create a new subscription from the next issued invoice to avoid overpayments or interruptions in service.