# General Business Category > Accounting Forum >  VAT Rate Changes in Pastel

## cppgenius

Oh Sage lined themselves up for one great opportunity with the VAT rate change. I see that certain lines under General Tax Settings are grayed out, so you cannot change the VAT rate manually. One way to work around this is to create a new "Vat - Standard rated" entry and make that 15%

Is there any other more elegant way of doing this without forcing the client to upgrade to the latest version of Pastel?

As I see it, the new version of Pastel will anyway have two sets of VAT now, one for before 1 April on the old 14% and one new set for 15%. Only drawback is the new version you will be able to continue on tax code 01 for standard rate, but if you want to do it manually, all my clients will have to remember to use tax code 14 and onward from now on, because line 14 on the VAT settings screen is the first available line to enter custom VAT codes. 

This rate change is going to be one heck of a pain in the neck for accountants... mark my words... and we have only one month to assist our clients to get this in place. Ridiculous to say the least!

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## cppgenius

Now that I think of it, just set up the new rate on line 14 and make it the default tax type for financial lines in Setup->Customers Control

Problem solved....

No need to upgrade  :Cool:

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## Mike C

> This rate change is going to be one heck of a pain in the neck for accountants... mark my words...


One company has already pointed out, in a letter to all their clients, that any credit notes outstanding must be done before the 1 April otherwise the change in VAT is going to be a problem.

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## sydk

I entered a new 15% line starting 1 April and ending 2030 like all the others.
But when I tries an invoice was told...wring end date. Set another.

What is the problem??

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## Mike C

Did you set the end date for the 14% line?

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## sydk

> Did you set the end date for the 14% line?


I thought I did but checked again. This time it worked..

THKS

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## JanineH

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help me with this as well.  Our company uses Pastel Express as our invoicing system in our retail stores of which we have 14, not to mention as stock control in our head office.  Basically I have almost 20 Pastel Express and one Pastel Partner package that I need to sort out for the VAT increase next month.  So I want to make sure I have all my info correct to make this run as smoothly as possible.  

I did a quick test using a demo system of Pastel 14 and found where I can set the VAT to change under Setup -> Tax -> General Settings.  I had to add a new VAT type on line 11 and set that to be the default as of 1 April 2018 to 31 Dec 2050.  I also set the old VAT type on line 1 to end on 31 March 2018.  I also went to Customers -> Control and set the default VAT to be the new type that I entered.

What I want to know is:

I will need to do the same and set the new default tax under Supplier - Controls?
Will I need to go into Edit -> Customer -> Accounts and change the Tax setting for each customer?
Will I need to Edit the tax type for each Supplier Account too?
Will I need to Edit the tax type for each inventory Item on the system?

Will I need to do all that or will changing the default tax to set for 1 April do it automatically? Obviously with so many systems it is going to be very difficult to change all those customer, supplier and inventory items individually?  Is there a way that I can run a test to see that it will all work correctly?  And lastly have I forgotten anything else that would need to be changed before the deadline?

Thanks so much to anyone who can help.

Janine

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## Neville Bailey

> Hi,
> 
> I wonder if anyone can help me with this as well.  Our company uses Pastel Express as our invoicing system in our retail stores of which we have 14, not to mention as stock control in our head office.  Basically I have almost 20 Pastel Express and one Pastel Partner package that I need to sort out for the VAT increase next month.  So I want to make sure I have all my info correct to make this run as smoothly as possible.  
> 
> I did a quick test using a demo system of Pastel 14 and found where I can set the VAT to change under Setup -> Tax -> General Settings.  I had to add a new VAT type on line 11 and set that to be the default as of 1 April 2018 to 31 Dec 2050.  I also set the old VAT type on line 1 to end on 31 March 2018.  I also went to Customers -> Control and set the default VAT to be the new type that I entered.
> 
> What I want to know is:
> 
> I will need to do the same and set the new default tax under Supplier - Controls?
> ...


Hi Janine,

It seems that you have most of your ducks in order...

My colleagues and I are in the process of putting together a comprehensive plan of action that we can implement for our clients, but that has not yet been finalised yet.

With regards to your queries, it will be safer to make those changes, but it does not mean that you will necessarily have to edit each masterfile record manually. You could export each masterfile as a CSV file, edit the changes there, and then import the masterfile back into Pastel. There are a number of issues that you need to be aware of, though, as the number format of certain fields can go awry after opening the CSV file for editing. However, it will still be a lot quicker than editing each record manually.

Be careful about changing the end date of the Tax Type 01 to 31 March 2018, as you might need to process Credit Notes after 31 March 2018, relating to Tax Invoices prior to 1 April 2018, which should carry the 14% VAT rate.

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## SS6711

Hi I can change the VAT as disccused above, but what happens with the VAT Report - I cannot amend the VAT to my new line item (in my case line 11).  Any advice

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## Ros Clark

I have attached a letter from Allan Gray with regard to commission. This complicates matters even more. Please can Neville Bailey assist.

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## Andromeda

Most vendors, to a more or lesser agree, will need to be able to levy and process both 14% and 15% initially. If your software cannot deal with it you are going to find your self being unable to be compliant.

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## bernproud

I've done everything on the thread, but i'm getting a message Tax Type you've selected (Vat-Standard Rate) has an expiry date set to 31/12/2020 and may not be used? What could I be doing wrong? Please if anyone has some advice.

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## wernerdp

I have a few clients still on 11 and 12 , and non of them have the R23 000 Pastel in quoting them for 18 , as the call centre says the must upgrade.

We have created a copy of the existing company , changed the vat in line 11 to 15% and run the adjust tax types , which change the master file entries ( no need to change individually ) 
and no problems on the test invoices

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## Jolandie

Hi, I have added the new "Vat - Standard rated" line and changed the defaults to that but I keep getting the following error message:

"The tax type you have selected (Vat- Standard rated) has an expiry date set to ... and may not be used. The tax type for this line will be set to 00 - No Tax.
Either choose a different tax type or set a new expiry date..."

Once I click on OK I can continue with my quotation but for each line I have to manually select the new Tax type.

Please can someone tell me what I am doing wrong and how I can fix this?

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## wernerdp

> Hi, I have added the new "Vat - Standard rated" line and changed the defaults to that but I keep getting the following error message:
> 
> "The tax type you have selected (Vat- Standard rated) has an expiry date set to ... and may not be used. The tax type for this line will be set to 00 - No Tax.
> Either choose a different tax type or set a new expiry date..."
> 
> Once I click on OK I can continue with my quotation but for each line I have to manually select the new Tax type.
> 
> Please can someone tell me what I am doing wrong and how I can fix this?


you have set the expiry date in 01 not to 31 March 2018 , but earlier

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## Gillian1

Hi. I am having the same problem with my VAT report not showing the entries with the new VAT Codes. Have you managed to solve this and do you have any advice?

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## cppgenius

> Hi. I am having the same problem with my VAT report not showing the entries with the new VAT Codes. Have you managed to solve this and do you have any advice?


Hi Gillian

I believe your tax boxes are not correctly set up for the new vat codes

See Tax Box setup on the following page (at the bottom):

http://www.liafin.co.za/pastel-vat-r...ange-guide.php

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## cppgenius

> Hi, I have added the new "Vat - Standard rated" line and changed the defaults to that but I keep getting the following error message:
> 
> "The tax type you have selected (Vat- Standard rated) has an expiry date set to ... and may not be used. The tax type for this line will be set to 00 - No Tax.
> Either choose a different tax type or set a new expiry date..."
> 
> Once I click on OK I can continue with my quotation but for each line I have to manually select the new Tax type.
> 
> Please can someone tell me what I am doing wrong and how I can fix this?


Jolandie, it is because your inventory items are still linked to 14%, best solution is to set a default tax type for the client. See the link I mentioned in my reply to Gillian, scroll down to Customer and Supplier Control where the error you are experiencing is discussed .

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## Dave A

> See Tax Box setup on the following page (at the bottom):


For some reason that link is not working.

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## cppgenius

Here is the link again, not sure what went wrong the first time.

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## Dave A

> Here is the link again, not sure what went wrong the first time.


Fixed.
The page was just hanging, and I tried at a couple of different times. Seems to be good right now though.

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