Charge VAT and issue tax invoices

Niblr calculates VAT on every order, shows it in the cart before payment, and prints it on a sequential tax invoice carrying your TRN. You turn it on in Settings → Tax. Niblr never files or pays anything on your behalf — the arithmetic and the paperwork are ours, the return is yours.

Do I need to charge VAT?

That depends on where you trade and how much you sell, and it is a question for your accountant or your tax authority — not for this page. In the UAE, registration becomes mandatory once taxable supplies and imports pass AED 375,000 a year; the official UAE government VAT page is the authoritative source.

VAT is off by default in Niblr, which is the correct setting for a business that isn't registered. While it's off, orders carry no tax and invoices show no VAT line at all — not a zero VAT line, none. Don't switch it on because it looks more professional; an unregistered business charging VAT has a real problem.

How do I turn VAT on?

Go to Settings → Tax in your admin and work down the tab:

1. Tick I am registered for VAT. The remaining fields appear only once this is on.
2. Enter your Tax registration number (TRN). This is required — Niblr won't let you save a registered store without one, because a UAE tax invoice isn't compliant without it.
3. Set the Rate (%). It defaults to 5 for the UAE; use 15 for Saudi Arabia, and so on. Fractional rates like 7.5 are fine.
4. Decide whether My product prices already include VAT. This is on by default. It's the most consequential setting on the page — see below.

Save. From that moment, new orders carry tax. Orders already placed are untouched.

Do my prices include VAT, or does it get added on top?

This is the setting people get wrong, so it's worth being precise. Inclusive tax is extraction, not addition.

With My product prices already include VAT on — the norm in the UAE and India, and the default here — a product listed at AED 100 still costs the shopper AED 100. The VAT is the portion contained within that price:

Setting	Listed price	VAT at 5%	Net	Shopper pays
Prices include VAT (default)	AED 100.00	AED 4.76	AED 95.24	AED 100.00
Prices exclude VAT	AED 100.00	AED 5.00	AED 100.00	AED 105.00

Inclusive VAT is 100 × 5 ÷ 105 = 4.76, and the total never moves from what you listed. Exclusive VAT is 100 × 5 ÷ 100 = 5.00 on top, and the shopper pays more than the sticker price. If you switch this setting off, every price on your storefront effectively rises by the rate — check your product prices before you do.

All of this runs in integer minor units (fils, paise, cents). There is no floating-point arithmetic anywhere in the calculation, and net + tax always equals gross exactly.

What does a shopper see before they pay?

The cart shows the tax line before checkout, labelled to match your setting:

• Prices include VAT → Includes VAT (5%), with the total unchanged.
• Prices exclude VAT → VAT (5%), added to the total.

The figure in the cart is an estimate calculated on the line total, because shipping and discounts aren't known yet. The authoritative amount is computed again when the order is actually placed, on the subtotal minus discount plus shipping. Your payment gateway plays no part in any of this — it captures the amount the cart hands it and computes nothing, which is exactly why the number has to be right before it gets there. See accepting payments.

What's on the tax invoice?

Every order gets a PDF invoice, numbered sequentially per store and emailed to the customer. When the order carried a TRN, that document is issued as a Tax Invoice and includes:

• The words "Tax Invoice" as the heading
• Your TRN, as it stood on the day of the order
• A sequential invoice number for your store
• A rate-labelled VAT row — VAT (5%) — and the taxable amount
• The gross total the customer paid

The TRN is what promotes the document. Without one, Niblr issues a plain invoice instead of printing a "Tax Invoice" heading it can't back up — printing the heading without the number would itself be non-compliant.

What happens if I change my rate later?

Nothing happens to invoices you've already issued, by design.

The rate, the inclusive/exclusive choice and your TRN are snapshotted onto each order when it's placed, and the invoice reads the order rather than your current settings. Change your rate, or deregister entirely, and every historical invoice still shows what was actually charged on the day. A tax invoice that silently restates itself months later is a compliance problem, not a convenience.

Does Niblr file or pay my VAT?

No, and this is not a limitation we plan to remove. Niblr calculates and documents; you file.

We are never in your payment flow — money settles directly to you through your own gateway keys — so we never hold the tax you collect and could not remit it if we wanted to. What we owe you is a correct invoice, because we're the one issuing it under your name. Filing the return, paying the authority, and keeping records for the required period (five years in the UAE) are yours. Your order and invoice history exports as spreadsheets on any plan, including Free.

Does this work for Indian GST?

Not yet. What ships today is a single-rate, UAE-shaped implementation: one rate, one registration number, inclusive or exclusive.

That is not GST. An Indian merchant using it would get a single "VAT" line, with no CGST/SGST/IGST split, no HSN codes, no place-of-supply logic and no GSTIN handling. Don't use it as a GST invoice. If you're selling in India, keep VAT switched off and issue GST invoices through your accounting software until this ships.

What this doesn't do

Stated plainly, so nothing here surprises you at audit time:

• One rate per store. There's no per-product or per-category rate, and no way to mark individual items zero-rated or exempt.
• Simplified invoices only. Niblr doesn't capture a buyer's TRN, so it can't produce a full B2B tax invoice — the form the UAE requires for supplies above AED 10,000 to another registered business. For those, add the buyer's details yourself.
• No reverse charge, and no handling of cross-border or out-of-scope supplies.
• No returns or filing. Niblr produces no VAT return, and submits nothing anywhere.

Related: accept payments · export your records