Change Invoice Tax Rates

Sometimes, governments change the sales tax rates. When this occurs, you must also update your rates accordingly.

  • When you change the tax rate, make certain to do this at midnight or at the latest time possible before the cron job runs on the day of the change (for 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.

The instructions below use an example in which the tax rate is increasing from 17.5% to 20% on January 4th.

In the Admin Area

To change the tax rate in WHMCS:

  1. Go to Configuration () > System Settings > Tax Configuration.
  2. Delete the original tax rule.
  3. Create a new tax rule using the same country and state with the new tax rate. New orders and invoices will use this higher rate.

SQL Update Query

If you have multiple separate rules, using the interface may become time-consuming. You can do this in bulk by running an SQL update query on your WHMCS database using a tool like phpMyAdmin:

UPDATE tbltax SET taxrate=20 WHERE taxrate=17.5;

This won’t affect existing invoices. They will retain the 17.5% tax rates that they had when the system generated them. However, any invoices that the system generates after the change will use the new 20% tax rate.

Update Unpaid Invoices

If you also wish to update existing but unpaid invoices from before the 4th that are due on or after it, 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>='2011-01-04';

Last modified: June 14, 2024