1. Using Tax
  2. Tax Determination

Tax Determination

Taxes are levied on transactions as per the legislations in a country or region. They are seldom uniformly applied on all transactions and tax legislation may seek differential levy, treatment, and administration of taxes based on various transaction attributes.

Configure Oracle Fusion Tax to evaluate transactions based on transaction attributes. The transaction attributes determine which taxes apply to a transaction and how to calculate tax amount for each tax that applies to the transaction.

The tax determination process evaluates transaction header and line information to derive tax lines for taxes applicable to the transactions. The evaluation process is subdivided into the following processes:

  • Determine Applicable Tax Regimes and Candidate Taxes

  • Determine Place of Supply and Tax Jurisdiction

  • Determine Tax Applicability

  • Determine Tax Registration

  • Determine Tax Status

  • Determine Tax Rate

  • Determine Taxable Basis

  • Determine Tax Calculation

  • Determine Tax Recovery

The tax determination process utilizes the tax foundation configuration in conjunction with configuration options and tax rules to process transactions for tax applicability and calculation. Tax configuration ranges from simple models to complex models. Simple models make use of default values without extensive processing while complex models consider each tax requirement related to a transaction before making the final calculation.

When setting up a tax, examine the regulations that govern the determination of the tax amount, from identifying applicability drivers to how the tax is calculated. Organize the regulations into one or more rule types for each tax. When the regulations indicate that more than one result is possible for a given rule type, you need to define rules within that rule type. Otherwise you can defer to a default value for that rule type associated to the tax.

The complexity of setup can be classified as follows:

  • No tax rules required: Oracle Fusion Tax uses the default tax status, tax rate, and tax recovery rate defined for the tax. Tax rules aren't required. However, tax rates can vary by:

    • Class of products set up using tax exceptions

    • Location set up using tax jurisdictions

    • Party set up using exemption definitions

    In addition, applicability can still be controlled without the use of tax rules such as through the party tax profile that you define for a supplier.

  • Simple tax rule regimes: The tax authority levies tax on your transactions at the same rate, with a simple set of identifiable exceptions. The exceptions either apply to:

    • One part of the transaction only, such as to certain parties

    • Combination of parties, products, and transaction processes that you can summarize in a simple way.

    In such cases, use a simple set of tax rules, for example, to identify place of supply and tax registration, and use default values for other processes.

  • Complex tax regimes: Tax regimes in certain countries require a complex logic to determine the applicable taxes and rates on a transaction. Both tax applicability and tax rates can vary. For example, by place of origin and place of destination, party registration, status, service, or a combination of factors. In some cases, the taxable amount of one tax may depend upon the amount of another tax on the same transaction. And in rare cases, the tax amount itself may depend on the tax amount of another tax. For all of these and similar situations, you set up tax rules to define the logic necessary to identify each step of the tax determination process.

Tax Determination Process Steps

The tax determination process evaluates transaction header and line information to derive tax lines for taxes applicable to the transactions. The first step of the determination process is to identify the first party of the transaction. The tax determination process looks to the business unit on the transaction. The process identifies whether its pointing to the configuration owner of the business unit or legal entity depending on the Use subscription of the legal entity option. The option is on the party tax profile definition of the business unit. The tax determination process determines if there are configuration owner tax options associated with this party or if the predefined event class option should be used.

The Determine Applicable Tax Regimes process can be the predefined TAXREGIME, STCC (standard tax classification code), or another user-defined regime determination set. TAXREGIME or user-defined regime determination sets derive the applicable tax regimes or tax regime through country or zone of the location. The country or zone of the location is identified in the processing of the regime determination determining factor set location values. STCC determination is typically used for purposes of migrated data and has a different processing logic driven by tax classification code. A third option of determination is third-party integration.

Determine Applicable Tax Regimes and Candidate Taxes

Tax regimes are considered based on geography and subscription. Either a country or zone associated with the tax regime definition must be the same as the country or zone identified through the location that evaluates to true on the regime determination set of the first party of the transaction. In addition, the tax regime must have a subscription to the applicable configuration owner. Once the tax determination process identifies the tax regimes the list of candidate taxes can be evaluated based on the configuration option setting of the first party in the tax regime subscription definition:

  • Common Configuration: Consider all taxes with the configuration owner of global configuration owner.

  • Party Specific Configuration: Consider all taxes with the first party as configuration owner.

  • Common Configuration with Party Overrides: Consider all taxes with the first party and the global configuration owner as configuration owner. If a tax is defined by both the first party and the global configuration owner, the application only uses the tax defined by the first party.

  • Parent First-Party Configuration with Party Overrides: Consider all taxes with the first party and the parent first party as configuration owner. If a tax is defined by the first party and the parent first party, the application only uses the tax defined by the first party.

Determine Tax Applicability and Place of Supply and Tax Jurisdiction

This process determines the tax applicability of each candidate tax based on direct rate determination, place of supply, tax applicability, and tax jurisdiction. The first step in tax applicability is to process any direct rate rules defined for a tax regime, configuration owner, and candidate taxes. If a direct rate rule evaluates to true then place of supply is processed for this transaction tax. If successful the tax is applicable and the tax status and tax rate defined for the direct rate rule are used in the tax calculation. If a direct rate rule doesn't evaluate to true for this tax regime, configuration owner, and tax the tax applicability rules are processed next. After a tax is found applicable based on an applicability rule or a default value the process verifies the place of supply and associated tax jurisdiction. This is required except in the cases of migrated taxes.

The place of supply process identifies the applicable location type and associated tax jurisdiction where the supply of goods or services is deemed to have taken place for a specific tax. If the tax determination process can't find a tax jurisdiction for the location that corresponds to the place of supply location type, the tax doesn't apply. It is removed as a candidate tax for the transaction.

For example, the place of supply for UK value-added tax (VAT) on goods is generally the ship-from country. Thus, the place of supply of a sale or purchase within the UK is the UK itself. However, if a UK legal entity supplies goods from its French warehouse to a German customer, then the place of supply won't find a jurisdiction for UK VAT in France, and therefore UK VAT doesn't apply.

Determine Tax Registration

This process determines the party whose tax registration is used for each tax on the transaction, and, if available, derives the tax registration number.

Determine Tax Status

This process determines the tax status of each applicable tax on the transaction. If the process can't find a tax status for an applicable tax, then Tax raises an error.

Determine Tax Rate

This process determines the tax rate code for each tax and tax status derived from the previous process. First the application looks for a rate based on rate code and tax jurisdiction. If this isn't found then the application looks for a rate with no tax jurisdiction. If applicable, the tax rate is then modified by any exception rate or tax exemption that applies. The result of this process is a tax rate code and tax rate for each applicable tax.

Determine Taxable Basis

This process determines the taxable base for each tax rate code. Depending on the tax rate type the taxable basis is amount based or quantity based. The tax determination process typically determines the tax by applying the tax rate to the taxable base amount. In some cases, the taxable basis either can include another tax or is based on the tax amount of another tax. Define taxable basis formulas to manage these requirements.

Determine Tax Calculation

This process calculates the tax amount on the transaction. In most cases, the tax amount is computed by applying the derived tax rate to the derived taxable basis. In some exceptional cases, the tax amount is altered by adding or subtracting another tax. Define tax calculation formulas to manage these requirements.

Determine Tax Recovery

This process determines the recovery rate to use on procure-to-pay transactions when the tax allows for full or partial recovery of the tax amount. For example, for UK manufacturing companies VAT on normal purchases used for company business is 100% recoverable. However, if you're a financial institution which only makes VAT exempt on sales then you aren't allowed to recover any taxes and your recovery rate is zero percent on all purchases. The recovery process impacts the distribution level, tax amounts, and inclusiveness of taxes. The resulting distribution amounts are adjusted as a result of the recovery process. The recovery type is defined on the tax and identifies whether there are one or two recovery types; primary and secondary. For each tax and recovery type the application determines the recovery rate based on a tax rule or default value defined on the tax.

Related Topics