Tax Exemption: when VAT numbers can’t be checked

Tax Exemption checks EU VAT numbers with VIES, the European Commission’s VAT service, over HTTPS at ec.europa.eu. When a number can’t be checked, the shopper pays VAT for now and can still place the order. Store managers then see a notice on the Dashboard and WooCommerce pages.

What the notice means

• “VIES … refused Tax Exemption’s checks from this server.” VIES has blocked your server’s outgoing address, often after many checks from it (VIES codes IP_BLOCKED or INVALID_REQUESTER_INFO). Ask your host whether the address is blocked or can be changed.
• “VIES … was busy or down.” VIES, or one country’s own service behind it, is overloaded or down. This usually clears up within minutes, and you don’t need to do anything.
• “Tax Exemption could not reach VIES.” Your server got no answer at all. Ask your host to allow outgoing HTTPS to ec.europa.eu. If wp-config.php sets WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL, add ec.europa.eu to WP_ACCESSIBLE_HOSTS. Proxy settings in wp-config.php apply to the check too.

How long the notice stays

The notice goes away as soon as VIES answers a check again, or after 7 days without a new failed check. “Remind me tomorrow” hides it for you for one day.

Tax numbers and the billing country

Since 1.1.9 a tax number must come from the billing country: EL for Greece, XI for Northern Ireland, FR numbers for Monaco and FI numbers for the Aland Islands. Developers can turn this off with the wte_tax_number_must_match_billing_country filter.