Evidence and returns
What the module keeps, and what it gives back
A tax-free sale has to be justified to the tax authorities: you must be able to show that the customer's VAT number was valid on the day of the order. The module keeps that evidence by itself, and prepares the statements your accountant asks for.
- Evidence on every order
When the order is validated, the customer's number is submitted to VIES together with yours: VIES then returns a consultation number, dated evidence that the number was valid. It is kept on the order, shown in the back-office order view and printed on the invoice. If VIES does not answer, the order still goes through and the check is resumed by the scheduled task.
- Consumer location evidence
For a consumer, the billing address country and the connection country (derived from the IP address) are recorded on the order. Two matching countries form the location evidence expected for sales of digital services within the European Union.
- Numbers that became invalid
Once a day, the scheduled task rechecks your customers' numbers. Those that are no longer valid are listed in the Checks tab: you can ask for an up-to-date number before the next order, instead of finding out during an audit.
- Statements for your returns
The Returns tab produces two CSV files: the quarterly statement of sales to consumers in other European Union countries, by country and by rate (OSS one-stop shop), and the monthly statement of tax-free sales to European Union businesses, by customer VAT number (European services declaration). Credit notes for the period appear as negative amounts.
Visitor country from the IP address
On the first visit, the country is derived from the IP address: it is preselected in the address form and displayed prices account for that country's VAT. The visitor remains free to choose another one.
The lookup runs on your server, with no paid service and no data sent to a third party. Three sources to choose from:
- The free DB-IP database (« IP to Country Lite »), downloaded when the option is enabled then updated every month by the scheduled task. Its licence (CC BY 4.0) requires crediting the source: a discreet mention appears while this database is installed, on a separate footer line or in the theme's copyright line, as chosen in the « Visitor country » tab.
- Your own database: upload an .mmdb file (MaxMind, IPinfo, DB-IP…), or its .mmdb.gz archive, in the same tab. The module then displays no mention and never replaces that file; comply with your provider's licence.
- Your CDN's header: behind Cloudflare, the country is read from the CF-IPCountry header, with no database to install and no mention to display. Disabled by default, to be enabled only behind that service.
Prices excluding VAT for businesses
As an option, a customer who saves a company address with a valid VAT number joins the « Businesses (prices excl. VAT) » group, created with the « Customer » group accesses. They then see prices excluding VAT, the ones they compare and book. A button adds in one go the customers who already have a company address.
Scheduled task
The Checks tab shows the address to call once a day, token included. It resumes pending VIES checks, rechecks customers' numbers, updates the DB-IP database and the OSS threshold tracking.
Your own VAT number — to be entered in the Businesses tab. Without it, VIES accepts the check but issues no consultation number: the timestamped evidence is missing.