Summary

In Brixx you can set up one of three different types of tax - VAT, Sales Tax and GST. These all follow the same rules - in the examples below we will use VAT, but all of these rules apply to GST, and most apply to Sales Tax.


VAT eligible components have a VAT switch to turn on their VAT calculation. VAT payments to and from HMRC are handled automatically and are timed to match the plan's financial year end.


VAT in Settings


There are two default VAT rates which are set in Settings. By default these are 20% and 5% but you can edit these as you wish.




VAT in Components


Each component eligible for VAT (Income, Operational Cost, Cost of Sales, Inventory, Asset) has a switch at the bottom of their component form to turn on VAT. You can set VAT to be automatically turned on in Settings (this will affect new components, but not existing ones). 


If you do not want to apply VAT to a component, simply turn the VAT toggle to the 'off' position in that component - VAT will no longer be applied to that component.


The VAT option in components allows you to select which of the two VAT rates set in Settings to apply to the component. You can also select 'Custom' if you need to enter a VAT rate different to either VAT rate in Settings. 


VAT in Operational Cost


VAT in Income



VAT 'On top of' and VAT 'included in'


VAT can either be set up as 'on top of' the values entered in the component, or 'included in' them. 


For example, if I had an income component generating £100, then added VAT 'on top of' this - I would see £100 income and £20 VAT in my reports. 


If I instead add VAT 'included in' this income, I am assuming that the figure I enter in income of £100 already includes VAT. In this case, I will see £83.33 income and £16.67 VAT in my reports.


Payments to/from HMRC


Brixx handles VAT payments to HMRC, so any payment or refund will happen automatically every three months. The timing of this payment is based on the plan's financial year end. Financial year end is set in General Settings and defaults to the end month of the plan.


How VAT is calculated in Brixx


If you look in the Cash Flow Report, there are 4 Lines for VAT and a total Taxation line(which can also include Corporation Tax)
For more information about the Cash Flow Report, click here


If a plan is connected to Xero it will show VAT/tax included in lines like Cash Received, rather than split out.




VAT Paid on Goods and Services - this is the VAT you pay when you buy an asset, or pay on top of a cost, a bill for example

VAT Received from Sales - this is VAT you receive from your customers

VAT Paid to Government - every quarter, by default, this amount is paid to the government. It is equal to the VAT Received in that quarter, minus the VAT paid in that quarter.

VAT Received from Government - If you paid more VAT on costs in a quarter than you received from sales, you will see an amount on the VAT Received from Government line to represent the VAT claimed back from the government. 

The VAT Paid on Goods and Services and VAT Received from Sales lines take into account when you receive or pay this VAT(in cash), rather than when you invoice for VAT.


In contrast, the two lines for VAT that are paid or received from the Government calculate what must be paid/received based on when VAT is invoiced. This payment can be delayed a number of months in Settings.

This means that if you have a delay set on say, a Cost component that has VAT applied to it, VAT Paid on Goods and Services will display this VAT when you pay for the cost + VAT, while VAT Received from Government will calculate the refund (if any) from when the cost appears on the P&L, rather than the delayed point at which the cash is paid on the Cash Flow.

You can see the current VAT Liability on the balance sheet report.


Practical example


I have set up an example to further showcase how VAT is calculated. 


There is one Income component set up like so :

  1. £1000 pounds per month income.
  2. 1 Month delay from Invoicing to when the cash flows in.
  3. 20% VAT(That is £200 per month)


Now, if we take a look at the Cash Flow Report, it will look like this:



You will notice how the January column is empty on all of the rows, even the VAT ones, and on February and March on the VAT Received from Sales row you see £200 on each month.


That means that at the end of March, when I need to pay the tax man the due VAT, it will be only £400...right?

No, because if you look at the VAT Paid to Government row, it will be £600...that is 3 months worth of VAT.


Why do I have to pay 3 months worth of VAT if I only started to get cash income in February?


To simply answer this, let's go to the Balance report sheet.



As you can see, while yes, we didn't get any cash in until February, we did sign the invoice in January, which will be taxed, which mean 200£ worth of VAT.


And why is that March is an empty month? It's because at the end of the month, the Balance sheet assumes you will pay all of the accrued VAT through that Quarter.


I hope this further demystified the mysterious ways of how VAT works.