EU digital VAT in WooCommerce

EU VAT Assistant Premium extends the WooCommerce checkout and order workflow for stores selling digital goods and services to customers in the European Union. For the EU digital-sales rules it works with, it calculates VAT using the customer's country of consumption. Once activated, it records customer-location evidence and the details used to determine each new order's VAT treatment.

Product status

The product listing states that the EU VAT Assistant reached end of life on June 30, 2022. It remains functional, but is no longer maintained or supported. It is intended for existing visitors whose developers can handle maintenance and troubleshooting.

Checkout and sales controls

EU business customers can enter a VAT number at checkout for validation through the European Commission's VIES service. A valid number can prompt WooCommerce to apply a VAT exemption. Options for accepting VAT numbers when VIES is unavailable or overloaded are disabled by default.

Merchants can configure the checkout to require valid EU VAT numbers for B2B sales or prevent VAT number entry for B2C sales. They can also exclude specific countries. A self-certification option lets customers confirm their selected country as additional location evidence.

Order records and VAT reports

The plugin keeps location and sale details with each new order. These records can support preparation of VAT and MOSS reports. Merchants can choose a dedicated currency for VAT reporting even when the shop sells in another currency, and VAT amounts are converted for the reports. VAT MOSS reports can use the exchange rate saved with an order or a European Central Bank rate.

• The EU VAT by Country report groups VAT applied and refunded by country and rate, including items and shipping, and can export the data as CSV.
• The VIES report summarizes supplies to B2B customers.
• The INTRASTAT report lists sales made to the EU.
• The plugin can retrieve and populate VAT rates for EU countries.

For stores combining digital products with services involving human intervention, merchants can set a payable-to country for each VAT rate. Reports can then help distinguish where the collected tax is due.

Scope and setup

The plugin was designed primarily for digital products under the EU VAT MOSS rules. It does not include physical-goods shipping features specific to VAT OSS.

Install and activate the plugin in WordPress, then review its options for checkout behavior, VAT validation, reporting currency, sales controls, VAT rates and other options before processing orders.