Setting up taxes for Prestashop

This manual provides general guidelines for setting up taxes and tax rules in your PrestaShop (version 1.7.X.X).

PrestaShop provides standard tools for internalization and localization of your sales , in this manual we use only basic approach to the tax setting process available for all PrestaShops.

Normally EAS will make all necessary changes to the store during the supported installation. Still merchants need to understand the process especially if the scope of sold products includes products with reduced rates  

The process  is done in  3 stages.

Stage 1. Set up tax rates.

One needs to add all EU/UK rates that might be in use in the store, meaning that both standard and reduced rates are to be input as separate entries. It is determined by the products scope in the store if reduced rates are required or not. Mostly books and food products are subject to reduced VAT rates in the EU/UK. EAS will setup all required rates when supported installation is performed.  

For example for book shops reduced rates should be entered for all EU countries and UK apart from Denmark which (as of 2025) does not apply a reduced VAT rate to books.

Food products are more complicated and require further deliberation depending on the actual food products sold.

More on the applicable EU rates you can find here: https://help.easproject.com/hc/en-gb/articles/5025614209439-EU-VAT-rates

EU countries from time to time  Introduce changes to the VAT rates. EAS will notify you of upcoming changes.

To set up tax rates one has to access “Taxes” menu item from “International” section and add required tax rates by pressing “Add new tax”:

Input the name of the tax rate and the actual rate in the provided fields, enable the rate and press “Save” in the bottom right corner:

Newly input rate becomes visible in the list :

Repeat the process to make entries for all rates that you will use in your shop – both standard and reduced .

Stage 2. Set up tax rules.

The next step is to set up the tax rules applicable to the merchant’s  business model. One may need more than one tax rule to cover different products in the store.

Example 1.

For a book store selling merchandise (t-shirts) and books one has to create 2 tax rules (“Books” and “Merch”). Books tax rules would have to include all 26 EU reduced tax rates applicable to books (standard rate for Denmark should be used, since Denmark applies no reduced rates to books).  Merch tax rule would have to include all 27 standard rates.

Example 2.

Food store selling tea, chocolate and baked goods would require 3 tax rules. Tea tax rule shall  be set as follows:

Rules set for choleates and baked goods would slightly differ due to the fact that these products are not taxed in the same way as tea in the EU.  

To create a new tax rule go to “International” menu , followed by “Tax” menu and choose “Tax rule” tab. Then press “Add new tax rules group” :

Name the new tax group and enable it. Save the changes.

After the new tax rule group is created add rates applicable to the tax rule for all EU countries. In this example we started with Austria adding the reduced rate of 10 percent applicable to books . Description is optional . Save the settings after adding each rate :

Press “Add new tax rule” to add the tax rate for the next country :

Repeat the process until you have added all applicable EU rates to the tax rule group .  Every added   tax rule will be shown in the list at the bottom of the page :

Stage 3. Assigning tax rules to products .

Final stage is assigning the tax rules to your products. Choose your product and apply the applicable tax rule in the product basic settings:

All products in your store should be assigned with the tax rules.

Tax rules also can be assigned via product CSV upload (process is not described here)/