Set up tax withholdings
A withholding is subtracted from the total your client pays you: they pay it to the authority on your behalf. In Cord, withholdings live in your organization’s tax catalog and apply to the whole document, not line by line.
In short:
- Where: Settings › Quotes › Taxes. Your catalog already includes your country’s standard withholdings.
- How they apply: mark the withholding profile you use as the default and it applies to every new quote and invoice while it stays marked.
- Base: each profile says whether it is calculated on the subtotal, the taxable subtotal (without exempt items) or the tax charged.
- Tax documents: the CFDI and the Facturae declare them; Factur-X, XRechnung and Peppol have nowhere to, so an invoice with a withholding has no such versions.
Which withholdings your catalog includes
| Country | Seeded withholdings | Calculated on |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico | Retención IVA 10.6667%, Retención ISR 1.25%, Retención IVA 4% (autotransporte), Retención IVA 6% (servicios de personal) | VAT: the taxable subtotal. ISR: the subtotal. |
| Colombia | ReteIVA 15%, ReteFuente 2,5% | ReteIVA: the VAT. ReteFuente: the subtotal. |
| Spain | Retención IRPF 15%, Retención IRPF 7% (nuevo autónomo) | The subtotal. |
| Chile | Retención honorarios 15,25% (not default) | The subtotal. |
| Peru | None, on purpose | IGV withholding is applied by your client if they are a withholding agent, not by your invoice. |
| Elsewhere | None | You can create one with + New tax. |
Mexico’s VAT withholding is two thirds of 16% (10.6667%, not 10.667%) and is only calculated on items that charge VAT: an exempt item is not part of its base. Colombia’s ReteIVA is 15% of the VAT, not of the subtotal.
Turn on a withholding
- Go to Settings › Quotes › Taxes.
- Review the withholding profile. When creating one with + New tax, choose the Type, the Rate (%), Calculated on and, in Mexico, the Tax withheld on the CFDI (VAT or ISR).
- Mark the profile as Default (or turn on Default for this type when creating it).
- From then on, every new quote or invoice applies that withholding and the editor summary shows it subtracted from the total.
Cord does not detect your tax regime or your client’s to decide whether a withholding applies: it applies because you marked a profile as the default. Since it is a whole-document policy, a default profile applies to every new quote or invoice. If you mix sales that carry a withholding with others that do not, remove the default before entering the ones that do not and mark it again afterwards.
What each document does with a withholding
| Document | Withholdings |
|---|---|
| CFDI 4.0 (Mexico) | Declares each VAT and ISR withholding per item. Sales with withholdings do not enter the global invoice: the SAT requires one invoice per transaction. |
| Facturae (Spain) | Declares IRPF. It is the only electronic version of an invoice with IRPF. |
| Factur-X, XRechnung, Peppol | Have nowhere to declare a withholding: that invoice has no electronic version. |
| Verifactu (Spain, in beta) | Declares the total amount without subtracting IRPF; the PDF shows the invoice total and the amount to pay separately. |
| DIAN (Colombia, being turned on) | Reports ReteIVA and ReteRenta (your ReteFuente). A withholding that cannot be classified with certainty is not reported, but still reduces the total in Cord. |
| NFS-e (Brazil, being turned on) | Only ISS withheld by the client, if you mark that profile as ISS in the NFS-e section. |
| ARCA, SII and NF-e (being turned on) | Not issued with withholdings: the invoice is rejected before being sent. |
| SUNAT (Peru, being turned on) | Does not use the catalog: IGV withholding is set up with the list of your clients that are withholding agents in the SUNAT section. |
| Commercial invoice | Shows each withholding subtracted from the total. |