VAT and 5% Retail Excise Tax on ECR and PECR Receipts: How to Configure Them

If a store sells alcoholic beverages or other goods subject to the 5% retail excise tax, both VAT and excise tax must be displayed correctly on the fiscal receipt. In practice, three main questions arise: which amount should be used to calculate VAT, where to specify the excise tax and VAT rates in Torgsoft, and why a tax sometimes does not appear on the receipt. This is especially important when several Sole Proprietorships or businesses with different VAT payer statuses operate in the same Torgsoft database.

How VAT and the 5% Retail Excise Tax Are Related

For goods subject to the 5% retail excise tax, the excise tax is calculated on the value of the goods including VAT but excluding the retail excise tax itself. At the same time, this excise tax is not included in the VAT taxable base. This follows directly from paragraph 188.1 and subparagraph 214.1.4 of the Tax Code of Ukraine. ck.tax.gov.ua

Therefore, if a customer pays UAH 100 for a product and this final price already includes 20% VAT and 5% retail excise tax, VAT cannot simply be calculated as 100 × 20 / 120. First, the retail excise tax must be separated from the final price, and only then can VAT be calculated.

For a final price of UAH 100.00, the calculation is as follows:

Thus, the final price of UAH 100 includes UAH 4.76 in retail excise tax and UAH 15.87 in VAT.

The formula price × 5 / 105 for extracting the 5% retail excise tax follows the tax calculation rules: the excise tax base is the value including VAT but excluding the excise tax itself. The standard VAT rate is 20%. tax.gov.ua

Important Clarification About Tobacco Products

In 2026, retailers should not automatically apply this calculation to tobacco products, tobacco, manufactured tobacco substitutes, or liquids for electronic cigarettes. Since May 1, 2022, the 5% excise tax on their retail sales has been paid by manufacturers and importers. The transitional arrangements for retailers' old stock ended in 2022. Therefore, the following sections use alcoholic beverages and beer as typical examples of retail excise tax. tax.gov.ua

Where to Specify VAT and Excise Tax for a Product in Torgsoft

The taxes applicable to a specific product are configured through its product type.

Open Inventory Management → Product Type and select the required Product Type. It contains separate settings for «Subject to VAT» and «Excise Tax».

You must also specify the VAT percentage and rate code, as well as whether VAT applies to products of this type. The «Excise Tax» setting determines whether excise tax should be included in the fiscal receipt. The software can use the rate specified under Settings → Parameters → Accounting → Default Excise Tax %, or a separate rate can be specified for the product type. 

This is an important principle in Torgsoft: having a tax rate in the PECR settings does not mean that it will be applied to every product. For each sale, the software follows the corresponding product type settings.

For example, if an alcoholic product is subject to 20% VAT and 5% retail excise tax, the corresponding settings must be configured for the product type to which it belongs.

How to Configure Tax Groups for PECR

Open Settings → Software ECR. For each PECR, Torgsoft displays the list of taxes that the PECR can process.

The following details are specified for each tax:

• name;

• letter designation — one Cyrillic letter;

• percentage rate;

• tax type in Torgsoft — VAT or Excise Tax.

Torgsoft emphasizes that this list defines the taxes available for the PECR but does not automatically assign them to every product. The tax applied during a sale is determined by the settings of the corresponding product type. 

Therefore, letters such as А, Б, and В should not be treated as universal identifiers of specific taxes. They designate tax groups, and the letter, rate, and tax type must be configured consistently.

For a hardware ECR, tax group mapping also depends on the settings of the specific fiscal register model. PECR settings should not simply be copied to a hardware ECR. In this situation, it is advisable to contact Torgsoft technical support, as the result may depend on the configuration of the particular database.

If Several Sole Proprietorships or Businesses Use One Database

A separate scenario is when one Torgsoft database is used to maintain records for several businesses, for example, when one Sole Proprietorship is a VAT payer and another is not.

Open Settings → Enterprise and check the «VAT Payer» setting for the relevant business.

If set to «Yes», VAT is applied to fiscal receipts for that business's documents at the rate specified in the product type. If set to «No», VAT is not charged on that business's fiscal receipts. If no value is specified, the software determines whether VAT applies based on the product type settings. 

Therefore, if VAT is configured for a product but does not appear on the fiscal receipt, check not only the product but also the business under which the sale was recorded. This is especially important for databases used by several Sole Proprietorships simultaneously.

What the Customer Sees on the Fiscal Receipt

Fiscal receipt form No. ФКЧ-1 has the same content requirements for ECR and PECR. The current Regulation No. 13 requires a VAT payer's receipt to show the tax rate's letter designation, percentage, and total VAT amount separately. For retail excise taxpayers, the tax name, letter designation, rate, and total excise tax amount must likewise be indicated. Legislation of Ukraine

The VAT rate's letter designation is also one of the required details of each product line. Thus, the tax group letter is not merely a decorative element of the receipt: it links the product to the corresponding tax rate. If one receipt contains products subject to different rates, tax information is generated for the relevant groups. zak.tax.gov.ua

For excisable goods, the receipt must contain the product subcategory code according to the Ukrainian Classification of Goods for Foreign Economic Activity (UKT ZED). In September 2026, the State Tax Service separately reminded businesses that the product name, UKT ZED code, price, and quantity must be programmed in advance in ECR/PECR for excisable goods. zak.tax.gov.ua

For alcoholic beverages, where required by law, the receipt must also contain the numeric barcode value of the excise tax stamp or the details of the electronic stamp. The exact arrangement of receipt details may vary, as the statutory form primarily specifies the mandatory information to be included. zak.tax.gov.ua

Therefore, for an alcoholic product priced at UAH 100, including 20% VAT and 5% retail excise tax, the customer should see the final product price and the corresponding tax rates and amounts in the tax section of the receipt. In our example, these are UAH 15.87 in VAT and UAH 4.76 in retail excise tax. Rather than relying on the appearance of an old receipt template, check the actual required details and amounts.

Why VAT or Excise Tax May Not Appear on the Receipt

If a tax amount is missing or differs from the expected value, it is best to check the settings in sequence, starting with the business, then the product, and finally the cash register.

1. Business. Check which Sole Proprietorship or legal entity recorded the sale and the value of the «VAT Payer» setting.

2. Product type. Under Inventory Management → Product Type, check whether «Subject to VAT» is enabled, whether the correct rate is specified, and whether the «Excise Tax» setting is enabled for the relevant product.

3. PECR. Under Settings → Software ECR, check that the necessary taxes are available, along with their rates, letter designations, and correct types — VAT or Excise Tax.

4. Fiscal receipt. Check not only the total purchase amount but also the separate VAT and excise tax lines, tax group letters, and required details for excisable goods.

5. Hardware ECR. If the product and business settings are correct but the tax group on the hardware ECR receipt is not as expected, check the settings of the specific fiscal register.

For additional sales verification, Torgsoft provides Analysis → Fiscal Goods Sales Analysis. You can select a period and accounting center and filter sales by receipt type and other parameters. This mode helps locate the required sales and check how they were processed, but it does not replace checking the tax settings of the product and PECR. 

Summary

To display VAT and retail excise tax correctly in Torgsoft, check the sequence Enterprise → Product Type → PECR tax groups or ECR → fiscal receipt. If the price already includes 5% retail excise tax, the excise tax must first be separated from the final amount, and VAT is then calculated on the amount excluding retail excise tax. That is why, for a product priced at UAH 100 including 20% VAT and 5% retail excise tax, the tax amounts are UAH 15.87 in VAT and UAH 4.76 in excise tax.