Method of Calculation

There are four methods of calculating a duty.

Tax or Duty Based on Items Rate (or Excise Duty)

This type of account is suitable in cases where there are differential rates of duty/tax on items. In India, excise duty accounts would normally adopt this method. In the UK, VAT accounts would do likewise. When creating your Inventory item masters, you might specify Rate of Duty for each item. In your account books, you would open a ledger for the duty, possibly by the name VAT 17.5% or Excise Duty 12.5%. You will select this method to instruct Tally to pick up the Rate of Duty specified in your Inventory item master during invoice entry. If one or more items exist with the same rate of duty, then the amount is calculated using the total. Otherwise, it is calculated on total sales. For example,

Your invoice lists:

Item A (Rate 10%) for 10000/-

Item B (Rate 12%) for 15000/-

Item C (Rate 10%) for 18000/-

Duty (VAT or Excise) will be calculated as follows:

Additional Duty

When excise duty is not enabled for invoicing purposes in Company Features [F11] (as applicable for many products in India), Additional Duty and Surcharge function alike. In case it is enabled, then Additional Duty is added to the 'Duty Based on Items' in the invoice to reflect the 'Total Duty payable'. Its method of calculation is explained under 'Surcharge'.

On Total Sales

As the type suggests, duty will be calculated on the total of individual values of the items. It does not consider the Rate of Duty specified for each item in your inventory masters.

It does not calculate duty on the current sub-total unless you have specifically opted for it in the company features. Hence, the two scenarios could be as follows:

When you have not opted for calculation on current sub-total:

Assuming that there are two items in the invoice:

Item A 10000/-

Item B 15000/-

Tax 2% will be calculated at 2% on total sales of 25000/- = 500/- tax amount following which you obtain a current sub-total of 25500/-.

If you now add another line, Tax 4%, it will calculate 4% also on 25000/- (on total sales) giving another 1000/- as tax.

If you opt for calculating on current sub-total:

The above Tax 4% will be calculated on 25500/- (25000+500) giving 1020/- .

Surcharge on Tax

Surcharge and Additional Duty are charged on the immediately preceding entry. A surcharge is treated as a percentage of the duty levied. Tally expects the preceding line in the invoice to be the duty on which surcharge is to be calculated.

Hence, in the above example if you have added a line Surcharge 10% it will appear as:

If your invoice is as below:

During invoice creation, this figure is used to calculate tax amount based on the method of calculation as well as specified in invoicing configuration.

( [F12] configure > Invoice Entry > Calculate tax on current sub-total?).

Though invoicing has been discussed separately in greater detail, we shall touch upon relevant aspects here.

Calculate tax on current sub-total: (Yes/No)

Tax here refers to VAT or sales tax. During voucher entry in Invoicing mode, you may enter additional ledger accounts after giving the list of items in the invoice. Typically, the ledgers would pertain to duties, taxes, delivery charges, other charges and discounts. Sales Tax may be calculated on the total of item values, viz., Inventory sub-total, or you may specify it to calculate on the immediately preceding sub-total. In the latter case, the immediately preceding sub-total could include any entry that you may have passed, e.g. Delivery Charges. Tally does not make any presumptions and would not verify its appropriateness or otherwise.

Normally, you would not answer Yes to this option. The facility of Surcharge being available, the need to calculate on current sub-total is fulfilled by it. Hence, use it sparingly, maybe only when you have both Excise Duty and Sales Tax (on Excise Duty) applicable on an item.