VAT - Option to remove VAT Total from standard invoice template
Recommendation to enable users to remove the VAT lines from a standard invoice template.
It's not possible to edit or remove the Total VAT line on standard invoice templates in Xero. The VAT total line is a fixed element that appears on invoices when using the standard templates. Non-VAT registered businesses therefore have to use an advanced invoice template (DOCX) which for less IT-literate, is quite complicated to set up.
Claire Borg
shared this idea
🌟 Thanks so much for sharing this idea with us.
We can see why having more flexibility around how VAT shows on invoices would be useful, especially for businesses that need their invoice layout to better reflect their tax setup and how they present this to customers.
We’ve now moved your idea to Gaining Support so other customers can add their vote and share how this would help them too. This helps our product team better understand the level of interest and the impact this change could have.
While we can’t confirm if or when this may be developed, we really appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. Ideas like this are valuable in helping shape future improvements.
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Andrew Crook
commented
Absolutely ridiculous that you cannot remove the VAT line, when Xero is positioning itself for small businesses it needs to actually understand small businesses. Please give us the ability to remove the VAT from standard invoice template. NOW, not in the future.
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Bee Hesketh
commented
Seeing as the new Invoice Templates are set to eventually replace the current ones, it would be good if this could be removed before we are forced to use it.
We are non-VAT (like a lot of other businesses) so this is a real pain, we will also never need the 'view online' option on our invoices, but that can't be removed either.
Why implement this if it wasn't ready to be rolled out? Doesn't seem to have been tested by anyone.
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Jacqueline .
commented
No idea why you cannot remove the VAT line, must be able to do this.
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Tom David
commented
For anyone following this thread — we ran into the same limitation in Xero around showing detailed line items to clients, as well as turning off specific fields - like "Total VAT" - so we built a tool to work around it called Invoice Polish
It reads your existing invoices and lets you group or summarise line items (manually or automatically), preview a cleaner client-facing version, export it as a PDF, and optionally attach that PDF back onto the original invoice in Xero.
Important point: it doesn’t modify any accounting data in Xero. Your detailed line items stay exactly as they are for reporting, and this just creates a cleaner version for clients.
Typical workflow is: connect your Xero org, select an invoice, group/summarise the line items, then export or attach the revised version.
We’ve found it useful where you need detailed breakdowns internally but only want to present a high-level summary to clients, and remove specific fields like GST or VAT.
If that sounds useful, more info here: https://invoicepolish.com
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Daniel Minnick
commented
Many of us are forced to use DOCX just to get a clean layout, but then Xero ‘obliterates’ our branding by stripping fonts and flattening high-res logos into blurry bitmaps. This happens because the server-side parser is stuck in 2007 and only supports the 1996 'Core Web Font' set (Arial/Verdana). Let’s push Xero to support modern font-embedding and SVG fidelity by updating the document engine. See the technical breakdown and vote for the fix here: https://productideas.xero.com/forums/967115-invoices-quotes/suggestions/51245914-modernize-advanced-templates-full-support-for-mod
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Cindy Schaller
commented
I agree with the previous comments; the VAT line should be a removable option as not all businesses charge VAT. In its current form, I cannot use the invoice template.
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Aaron Willcock
commented
A few customers and a accountant have queried why VAT is on my invoices, when I'm not a VAT registered business. It would cause a lot less confusion if i could just remove it.
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Sam Ferguson
commented
I want to hide the VAT line from below the subtotal on the 'Invoice email' template. I can hide it on the 'Invoice PDF' but not on the 'Invoice Email'. I'm not VAT registered so it currently says VAT 0%. But thus may look confusing to my customers. I would rather it was either hidden or removed.