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I'm using a fairly new Magento 1.8.0.0 installation, with no changes to the core. When trying to make a tax rate at 0%, Magento returns the following error upon save: Rate Percent should be a positive number.

I'm recreating a Magento webshop, based on a Magento 1.4.2.0 installation, in which the exact same values have been set.

Is this just a bug in Magento 1.8, keeping me from setting a tax rate with 0% tax, or am I missing something?

Any help would be appreciated.

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  • In Magento 1.7 and 1.8, we developed the MagetSetup module from the Firegento which generate Taxes for different country. We have some of them set to 0%. It is done programmatically , so it may be not an issue. However I don't know if it is a restriction in the user interface – Sylvain Rayé Oct 10 '13 at 12:16
  • My solution would be changing it in the database. That doesn't differ much from a module, i think. However, I don't want someone less technical running into trouble when they try to change it. That's why I ask. I want it to work in a way that everybody can change it. – Sander Koedood Oct 10 '13 at 12:37
  • Mzeis tweeted about it (twitter.com/mzeis/status/389344796575158272) and I think it is "only" a frontend issue. So creating them programmatically is no problem. – Fabian Blechschmidt Oct 13 '13 at 20:15
  • I'm curious as I haven't had to use 0% tax before - in what scenario would you use this? – jharrison.au Oct 13 '13 at 22:47
  • @jharrison.au The shipping is from Holland to Belgium. When selling from Holland and shipping to Belgian companies, you do not need to deduct taxes. I don't know the exact rules, as I just build websites, and don't sell products, but this is the short of it. – Sander Koedood Oct 14 '13 at 13:38
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I asked Piotr Kaminski (Magento product manager) on Twitter:

@piotrekkaminski For B2B customers you create tax rates with a 0% rate. That's not possible anymore in CE 1.8 (see Can't set 0% tax rate …).

His response was:

@mzeis oh I think this will be fixed in next version, will try to check

So it seems that this behaviour (introduced in CE 1.8.0.0 - it works as expected in CE 1.7.0.2) will be removed again.

In the meantime you could try to rewrite app/code/core/Mage/Tax/Model/Calculation/Rate.php and remove these lines:

    if (!is_numeric($this->getRate()) || $this->getRate() <= 0) {
        Mage::throwException(Mage::helper('tax')->__('Rate Percent should be a positive number.'));
    }

Instead you also could change the code to test for $this->getRate() < 0 instead of $this->getRate() <= 0.

I didn't test it so I don't know if this does brake anything. The tax module had a major rewrite in CE 1.8.

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  • Thank you for taking the time to look into it, and writing such a complete answer. I just changed the line $this->getRate() <= 0 to $this->getRate() < 0 since that already does exactly what is necessary. Normally I'd change that in the local folder, but since they are going to fix it, I don't really think that is necessary, since it will be overwritten in the update. Again, thank you :) – Sander Koedood Oct 15 '13 at 10:34
  • If you have the ability to limit tax rules to customer groups, and tax rates to countries, why do you need to create a 0% rate for B2B customers? – jharrison.au Oct 15 '13 at 23:58
  • Originally that's what we intended. However most users just upload flat file of tax rates and not accepting 0% rates causes some usability issues. We've reversed that in CE 1.8.1 / EE 1.13.1 – Chuck Jan 21 '14 at 23:02
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I may be over simplifying things here, but I believe Magento is pushing us to avoid having 0% tax rules because it doesn't really make sense to do so. When editing tax rules you can choose which country the rule applies to, so if you have a situation where shipping from one country to another is free of tax, you simply remove the tax rule for that specific country.

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Originally that's what we intended. However most users just upload flat file of tax rates and not accepting 0% rates causes some usability issues. We've reversed that in CE 1.8.1 / EE 1.13.1

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