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How to Display VAT or Tax Details on Your WooCommerce PDF Invoices

23 threads Sep 17, 2025 Plugin → Pdf invoices & packing slips for woocommerce

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One of the most common questions for WooCommerce store owners using the 'PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce' plugin is how to get VAT or other taxes to display correctly on invoices. Users often need to show taxes per item, as a separate line item, or with a specific breakdown for their business or legal requirements.

This guide explains the most common reasons why your tax details might not be showing as expected and provides the standard solutions based on community support threads.

Why Your Tax Details Might Not Be Showing

The free version of the plugin is designed to follow your WooCommerce tax settings. This means the PDF invoice output is directly tied to how you have configured taxes in your WooCommerce store. If your tax details are missing or not displaying in a detailed format, it is likely due to one of the following WooCommerce settings.

Common Solutions with the Free Plugin

1. Display an Itemized Tax Summary

By default, the plugin might show a single total for all taxes. To break this down into individual tax rates (e.g., Standard VAT, Reduced VAT), you need to change a setting in WooCommerce.

How to do it:

  1. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Tax.
  2. Under the Display tax totals option, select Itemized instead of As a single total.
  3. Save your changes.

This change will cause the PDF invoice to list each tax rate and its corresponding amount in the totals section. Note: This change will only apply to new orders created after the setting was adjusted.

2. Show Prices Excluding Tax & Display Tax as a Separate Line

If your prices are entered including tax but you want the invoice to show subtotals without tax and then list the tax separately, you need to adjust another core WooCommerce setting.

How to do it:

  1. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Tax.
  2. Find the setting for Display prices during cart and checkout.
  3. Change this option from Including tax to Excluding tax.
  4. Save your changes.

This will change the display on both your cart/checkout pages and your PDF invoices. The product prices will show without tax, and the tax will be displayed as a separate line item before the total.

3. Remove the "(includes £X.XX VAT)" Line

Some users need to remove the line that appears after the total which states the included VAT amount. This can be achieved with a custom code snippet.

Warning: This requires adding code to your site. Always use a code snippets plugin or a child theme's functions.php file and test on a staging site first.

apply_filters( 'wpo_wcpdf_woocommerce_totals', function( $totals, $order, $document_type ) {
 $totals['order_total']['value'] = wc_price( $order->get_total(), array( 'currency' => $order->get_currency() ) );
 return $totals;
}, 10, 3 );

When the Free Version Isn't Enough

Based on the analyzed support threads, the free version has limitations. If you need to:

  • Show the tax amount or tax rate for each individual product line.
  • Add a custom VAT breakdown with net, tax, and gross columns.
  • Show shipping tax separately from product tax.
  • Have complete control over the layout of the totals section.

...then these advanced customizations typically require the Premium Templates extension. This add-on includes a drag-and-drop customizer tool that allows you to add columns for single product price (excluding tax), tax rate, VAT amount, and more without being dependent on the global WooCommerce display settings.

For issues specifically related to miscalculated tax totals (e.g., shipping totals adding up incorrectly), the problem is almost always rooted in the WooCommerce tax or shipping configuration itself, not the PDF invoice plugin. In these cases, you should double-check your tax settings for shipping costs and ensure your product tax classes are correctly assigned.

For further help, you can search the WordPress.org support forums for 'PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce' where many common issues are discussed.

Related Support Threads Support