Managing tax rates

Tax rates are managed under Business settings → Taxes. The list is pre-populated with the standard rates for your country, and you can add, edit, deactivate, or delete rates from there.

Adding a tax rate

Click Add tax rate, then enter the name, percentage, and an optional internal ID. The ID is for your own bookkeeping, and customers don't see it.

You can also mark the new rate as the default for products. This affects products created afterwards. Existing products keep their current rate.

Active and inactive rates

By default the Taxes page shows only active rates. Toggle Show inactive to see the rest.

Deactivating a rate hides it from selectors for new products and documents. Documents and products that already use the rate keep it.

Editing and deleting

Click Edit to change any field on a tax rate, unless the rate is in use on an invoice, estimate, or product. In-use rates are locked to preserve the historical record. Built-in rates can also be edited, but the percentage stays fixed at the official value.

The actions menu next to each rate has a Delete option. Deletion is allowed for any rate that isn't in use, except for the tax-exempt rate (which Sliptree relies on as a fallback when taxes are switched off). See Why a tax rate can't be deleted for the full lock rules.

Mixing tax rates on a single document

Each line item on an invoice or estimate carries its own tax rate, so a single document can mix as many rates as the sale needs. A common case for businesses based in Estonia: you run a guesthouse with kayaking trips on the side, and your customer books both for the same weekend. Accommodation is taxed at 13% in Estonia, but the kayaking activity is taxed at the standard 24% rate. You issue one invoice, pick 13% on the accommodation line and 24% on the activity line, and the totals at the bottom break the tax down per rate.

The same applies to mixing 0% rates (intra-EU reverse charge, exports, exemptions) with normal-rated lines on the same document.

When an official rate changes

For example, Estonia raised VAT from 20% to 22% on 1 January 2024.

Don't edit the existing rate. Once a rate has been used, editing the percentage would rewrite historical totals. Add a new rate instead, and optionally deactivate the old one. Past documents keep the rate they were issued with, while new documents pick the current one. To shift your products onto the new rate, see Updating the tax rate on your products.