Working with date formats

Ok this is really bugging me.

I am developing a web app and I need to work with dates. When a date is displayed in a view, or whenever a date is entered into a form I need the format to be dd/mm/yyyy.

What data type do I choose for my SQL database columns which contain dates. 'Date' doesn't seem to work, do I use varchar?

But If I use varchar how do I use java script to perform arithmetic with dates.

Do I do some conversions server-side?

Please advise the best practices.

Also Im using laravel if theres any useful stuff already built in.

via Chebli Mohamed