EU VAT Check for WooCommerce — VIES validation of VAT numbers and reverse charge

EU VAT Check for WooCommerce adds a VAT number field (VAT ID, USt-IdNr.) to the checkout and checks it against the European Commission’s official VIES service. When a B2B customer from another EU country enters a valid number, the plugin removes VAT under the reverse-charge scheme and stores the VIES answer with its consultation number in the order as proof of the check. It is built as a successor to EU VAT Assistant, which is no longer developed: customer numbers and old orders are picked up automatically.

Honestly about the limits. The plugin decides whether to remove VAT by the general EU B2B scheme: the number is valid, its country matches the billing country, it is not a sale inside the shop’s own country and not a delivery into it. Triangulation, services with a different place of supply, special territories and IOSS are not covered — the decision and reporting stay with the shop and its tax adviser; this is not tax advice. The full checkout run used the European Commission’s official test service; check real customer numbers in the live VIES on your own shop during the trial.

What the customer sees

• An “EU VAT number” field in the address on the block checkout, under the billing address on the classic checkout and in My account.
• An answer right away: a green notice and VAT disappears from the total, red — the number is invalid, yellow — VIES is not answering right now. Remove the number and VAT comes back.
• The classic checkout hides the field for non-EU countries and shows it for Northern Ireland (XI prefix by the BT postcode).
• The reverse-charge note — on the thank-you page and in WooCommerce e-mails, and with PDF Invoices & Packing Slips also on the PDF invoice.

What the admin gets

• A box in the order (HPOS and legacy storage): number, status, name and address from VIES, consultation number, check time, and “Check in VIES now” with an order note about the result. The button does not recalculate taxes by itself.
• An “EU VAT” column in the order list, a field in the order’s billing details and in the user profile.
• A check log: every VIES answer with date, number, order and source, with filters.
• Policies: invalid number — stop the order or charge VAT; VIES not answering — charge VAT, or accept and re-check hourly for 3 more days.
• Moving from EU VAT Assistant: customer numbers are copied with a button and when the customer logs in, old orders are read by the box and the reports; EU VAT Assistant itself gets a notice to deactivate it.

Pro: location evidence, OSS, VAT rates

• Evidence of the customer’s location: billing, delivery, IP (WooCommerce geolocation, no external service) and number country — the order shows how many of them agree.
• OSS report per quarter by country and rate for sales to consumers in other EU countries and the EC Sales List by customer number for reverse-charge sales — with refunds and CSV. Working figures for preparing your return, not a filing.
• Standard VAT rates of 27 countries from the Commission’s TEDB: compared with the WooCommerce tax table, written with a button after review, checked weekly for changes.
• Company-name matching with VIES data and scheduled re-validation of saved customer numbers.

Works together with our other modules for Germany and the EU

• E-Invoice EN 16931 for WooCommerce puts the number verified by EU VAT Check into the ZUGFeRD / XRechnung invoice and sets the reverse-charge categories K / AE. There is one number field at checkout — E-Invoice switches its own field off.
• DATEV Export for WooCommerce (Pro) can take the verified customer number from EU VAT Check into the EU number field of the posting for reverse-charge sales — configured and tested that way in the joint run.
• Unit Price Grundpreis for WooCommerce — the price per 1 kg / 1 l in the shop for German stores.

How it works — step by step

1. Switch the field on, enter your shop’s own VAT number (for the consultation number) and click “Test the connection”.
2. Choose the policies for invalid numbers and an unavailable VIES.
3. A customer from another EU country enters a number at checkout — the plugin checks the format, then asks VIES.
4. The number is valid and the country matches — VAT is removed, the customer sees a green notice.
5. The order keeps the number, the VIES answer and the consultation number; the log gets a line.
6. With Pro — at quarter end, the OSS report and EC Sales List as CSV.

Under the hood

• The Commission’s official VIES REST API (check-vat-number, check-vat-test-service, check-status) — no scraping and no third-party middlemen.
• A local structure check first against the VIES table, so no request is wasted on an obvious typo; then an answer cache and one retry on MS_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQ / GLOBAL_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQ.
• Brute-force protection: no more than 15 different numbers per hour from one IP.
• Reverse charge through WooCommerce’s own mechanism (customer VAT exemption), so WooCommerce totals, taxes and reports stay consistent.
• Deleting the plugin removes the settings, the cached VIES answers and the cron jobs; the check log and order metadata stay as tax evidence (the log is removed only with the CCEUVAT_DELETE_DATA constant).

Installation

1. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin: choose catcode-eu-vat-check-for-woocommerce-1.0.0.zip and activate. If EU VAT Assistant or another VAT number plugin is active — deactivate it.
2. WooCommerce → EU VAT Check → Settings: field, your own VAT number, policies; “Test the connection”.
3. Moving from EU VAT Assistant — the button that copies customer numbers.
4. For Pro: paste the licence key from the e-mail after payment or start the 7-day trial in the Licence tab.