EU VAT changes on downloadable goods

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I'm looking at how best to handle the forthcoming change in place of supply for downloadable goods. As a small business in the UK I'm under the VAT threshold and have no wish to add the administrative burden of VAT accounting until it becomes necessary. I sell a software product that is mostly bought by businesses (B2B) but on rare occasions I get the odd non-business customer. As of 1st Jan 2015 for this tiny minority of customers (B2C inside the EU) I'll be obliged to charge VAT at the rate of their particular country and account for this to the tax authorities. For the moment this is simply not worth getting into.

So my question is this: How can I block EU-based customers who do not have a valid VAT number?

Hello,
The solution will probably be to set the "VAT number" field to required, and then to check it.

If I was only trading in the EU then yes that would be a solution. If I make VAT number a required item and check thru VIES that will take care of the Europeans. But what about the rest of the world who do not have VAT numbers?

Hi Nicolas,

Since we already have the customer's address it seems a bit strange to ask her if she's in Europe... Could there be a workaround for this using shipping methods? From what I understand if I supply B2C orders across Europe using physical media the place of supply for VAT is then my country. It only changes to the customer's country if the product is supplied as an automatic digital delivery. So to specify this a bit more correctly, what I want is:

- IF customer has IP address outside EU AND physical address outside EU {
deliver software as download }
ELSE IF customer enters a VIES-checked VAT number {
deliver software as download }
ELSE { deliver software as physical media }

I guess the nub of the question is can the delivery method be made contingent on VAT number checking?

Hi Nicolas

A few days ago I downloaded your free/trial version of HikaShop, in order to see how it works. One of my immediate plans in my to-do list is to switch to HikaShop Business (I am currently using the services of a shopping cart provider in the US).

Meanwhile I was completely unaware of the VAT changes that would come into effect on January 1st! It all came as a shock yesterday. I subscribed to MOSS yesterday and changed my prices to reflect the new changes. I am now trying to read the articles with regard to Hikashop and the new VAT rules.

I have a question: why haven't you incorporated these changes on your sales system yet?
On the following page it is stills stated that "A tax rate of 20% will be added if your address is in the European Union and that you don't provide a valid VAT number or if your address is in France as per the European Union law."
www.hikashop.com/extensions/hika-business.html

I need to be 100% sure that everything works before switching my shopping cart and sales processing to HikaShop.

Thank you very much.
Panos

Thank you very much for your prompt reply and clarifications!

Panos