How can customers add their VAT number during checkout?

[GP__2014]

Hi

Some customers would like VAT number to be contained in their Invoice

The problem is, as I know it is only possible for customers  to add VAT number when they register

but I don't support and has no plan to support Login function for simple payment processing

Is there someway for customers to fill out their own VAT number in cart page, save somewhere and

contain the info in invoice? or alternative way.

Thank you.

[HudsonAtlantic]

We are having a developer create a new task within the Mechanic app to make it work

[MixedWorlds]

That's NOT the answer... why pay an external developer, to do something that Shopify should be doing...!!! 

we all pay for a service... that's NOT being provided...

Shopify, just want to push us to 'their' external 'payable' 3rd. party sites (which don't even work correctly)

[MixedWorlds]

Elias

Your answer does not answer the question, or deal with the issue.

Constantly Fobbing Us (your clients) Off with "I’m happy to send this over as a feature request to our developers" [sic] or pushing us to buy external app's, that don't 100% fulfil our requirements, is NOT a conclusive answer.

Stating the VAT identification number on a European B2B invoice is a LEGAL requirement.

Our monthly European B2B invoices received from you, Shopify Ireland, states both parties VAT identification numbers, as is required by European law, making 'your' invoices compliant, but you don't offer the same facility to your paying clients... 

It can't be 'rocket science' for Shopify to add this legally required field, making us all legally compliant.

Why can't it just be dealt with and done...!!!

Remember Shopify is NOT the only e-commerce platform available!!! 

Rgds.

Sylvester Henry

www.mixed-worlds.com

[JHKCreate]

Hi Everyone,

You can use Shopify's free Order Printer app to print and edit invoices. We've solved this issue for many of our clients based in Europe & the Middle East. It requires some HTML coding on the template but nothing else.

Let me know if that is an acceptable solution for you, I assume you print the regular Shopify invoice correct?

Thanks!

[MixedWorlds]

Hi JHKC

So if its been solved... why can I NOT see a VAT ID Number field on the Customer information page...???

I would appreciate a complete copy of the HTML coding for the free Order Printer app, as I've messed up the version i have and have had to download, Simplio: Simple Invoice

Thnx

Mixed Worlds

[JHKCreate]

You misunderstood me, what I meant to say was that there is a way to solve it but nothing official yet. There is no code that fixes this other than going into the template and manually adding something like that:

<span>VAT Number: 93847</span>

This is how we've solved it with our VAT enabled clients, I do not speak for Shopify here. 

[MixedWorlds]

Hi JHKC,



Could you help me with this.

I would appreciate a complete copy of the HTML coding including the VAT
line, for the free Order Printer app, as I've messed up the version i have
and have had to download, Simplio: Simple Invoice

Thnx

Sylvester henry

Mixed Worlds

[JHKCreate]

I can't specifically paste any invoice template here since they are meant to be bought, what I can share is this resource:

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/apps/apps-by-shopify/order-printer/customizing-order-templates#ex...

And should you want to buy a template that you can customize you can use this: https://apps.shopify.com/order-printer-templates?surface_detail=printer&surface_inter_position=1&sur...

You will then be able to follow what I have pasted above and paste it anywhere in the code where you want it to show.

[Bram_VD]

What is this nonsense talk about templates and order printer. This things are seperate issues.

Capturing the VAT number of a customer during checkout by having Shopify add an extra field to it is the only proper solution for this.

It is beyond comprehension why this is not there.

I just use the notes field as my way of letting customers type in their VAT number, but as I stated, most costumers just overlook this as they expect to see this on the checkout page, not the cart page.

[JHKCreate]

Seems I got confused between the issues mentioned above here, thought you wanted to show your VAT number on the invoice. 

There could be a workaround in that sense. You could repurpose the Address Line 2 to serve this need perhaps by changing its label & placeholder to say "VAT Number". What do you think?

The issue here lies more in the fact that Shopify is more of a B2C system, Shopify Plus is made to handle B2B and B2C alike with more advanced features on that. 

[FC1]

Hello JHKC,

Actually, in B2C costumers this can be a good workaround. The only problem is autofill from browsers that will detected as address 2. However, its a good idea, since most costumers will double check it anyway and correct with the number. 

Shopify should really implement a field for VAT, at least for B2C business. This is really a most have feature for European countries.

Cheers,

FC1

[TheoGR]

Hello @Elias & @Tira ,

  Do you have any updates on this manner? Should we contact or write to a supervisor of yours to speed things up? How can we reach a higher authority of support? 

  All the folks that are located in Europe like me in Greece, feel left out. Like there is a party and we are not invited. 

  All the online stores in Greece have two options when a customer checks out. 1.Receipt 2. Invoice. 

option 1. a customer chooses a receipt to buy the goods we offer without any tax requirements. The fields are exactly the same with the ones you provide. A normal receipt is being send to the customer with a tax % on it.

option 2. a customer with a professional tax id will have a slightly different form. Will have:

- company name 

- company’s profession 

- company address 

- tax id

- tax office 

- phone number 

The customer will receive an invoice that can use for tax deduction for their company. 

It’s super simple and you will make all of your people happy by simply adding this little feature.

Now, when a customer wants an invoice he has to contact my through email or phone number and go back and forth with few emails until we grand an invoice. My customers aren’t that happy going back and forth with emails. We fight so much for this customer satisfaction day and night and it’s a pity Shopify it’s not giving us a hand. 

  Unfortunately, my store is not that profitable yet and moving to the Shopify’s Business Plan will sink my boat faster! Imagine If I am able to move to Shopify Business Plan in two years, how many unhappy business customers will have until then? A lot! 

 All the folks here in this thread do not need an invoice printing app or any third party help. There is a huge misunderstanding. We need Shopify’s help and love by adding 2 options on checkout 1.receipt 2.invoice. Then it’s up to each one to choose how to modify and print their invoices by other third party apps. 

  Please Shopify experts, forward our request to a higher authority. I personally do not want to move to another platform because Shopify it’s like a university for me. You educate me, teach me, evolution me and my skills. 

  We all need a happier customer at the end like us and you. Please make us happier to make our clients happier too! 

Best regards,

Theo

[skraloupak]

Hello Elias, do you have any updates on this issue? Sorry, but this is very importat for EU sales. Buttons in cart are realy confusing.

Thanks

[Bram_VD]

Well it is 100% clear that it is not a technical issue or something they cannot do, it is something they do not want to add, for some reason. Why though, just why.

[davideross]

this is INCREDIBLE and not accettable.... september 2021 and the same problem still here?

You just want to promote your plus plan? baaah!

[Bram_VD]

If only there was a way to get access to some PLUS features without needing a store that does millions in revenue, but nope.

We'll be here in 2022 with the same issue, and probably still in 2025 etc..

[davideross]

my god... so frustrating! Can i ask you how you solved? 

I was thinking about adding this field in cart section.. but to add it in the invoice? do i have to do it all manually?

[Bram_VD]

You either repurpose the address2 field if you want to add it on the actual checkout page OR you repurpose the NOTES field on the cart page and capture the VAT number that way.

You can add this on the invoice via the usual fields/liquid code etc..

None of these are good solutions, but clumsy workarounds.

[JHKCreate]

Actually it is possible to create a "VAT" field on the Cart just before checkout and ask customers to fill it if they need it (Logic can be created as well for a tickbox), then you would use this as an Order attribute which allows you to add it to the physical invoice and order confirmation. While it would be much simpler for Shopify to add this field on checkout, the workaround is pretty elegant. Cheers!

[Bram_VD]

Yes, we are all aware of that, has been constantly stated as the solution, it sucks. It's a rubbish solution and gets missed by so many customers as they do not expect the field to be on the cart page, but on the checkout page, like any normal webshop.

[Sufio]

Hi all,

as Elias from Shopify has mentioned above, the Sufio app can help with this!

Sufio allows you to capture and validate EU VAT registration numbers from your business customers and, when applicable, automatically set them as tax-exempt.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at support@sufio.com, we will be happy to help!

Good luck,

Lenka from Sufio Team 

[OneSumo]

So is this issue solved? Is there in 2022 a solution for this?

[vanillamt]

And now we're in 2023 and we still do not have a solution for us to be legally compliant.

[UKPreppingShop]

Yep....buy they have shareholders to keep there spending to a minimum....

[Bram_VD]

It's not a technical issue, this is fully possible. It's just one of the main reasons to switch to a PLUS plan. They should offer a higher tier in between Advanced and Plus that allows this.

[GordonKihn]

Hello everyone, I'm an experienced Shopify app developer. I understand the pain of not being able to collect VAT numbers during the checkout process. With a deep understanding and full utilization of Shopify's current capabilities, I developed a Checkout field validation app: King Checkout Validation.

This app extensively validates the Company field on the Checkout page. If the customer does not include a VAT number when entering the Company information, it triggers an error message immediately, clearly displaying this below the Company field. More user-friendly, these error messages can be customized according to your needs.

Our app works for all Shopify merchants, effectively solving the problem of VAT number collection. If you are interested, please reply to me. For the first 10 respondents, we will provide them with a free use of our app. Looking forward to your response!

[Rufy_78]

Hello, is there any solution for collecting customers' VAT numbers? I have a small business in Portugal, and it's mandatory to issue an invoice with a VAT number if the customer demands it. Currently, I use the solution of putting the fiscal number in the "Notes" field for the customer. However, this solution doesn't allow me to migrate to the new customer accounts.

[Jakob2]

There is a few apps that work as workarounds. They do not integrate properly on the checkout page though because Shopify limitations. Hence, users need to input EU VAT on the cart page. Also, there is no proper recording and tracking of the information. There is many threads about this lacking feature here on the forums, but so far Shopify has not taken action. 

[Meterdiscount]

We finally found a solution, and we were imbiciles for not doing it sooner. 

Shopify is a bad design, poor indexing, poor support and it lacks really all necessary and even legal features in Europe. 

Let alone you have a mulitlingual shop, you cant even translate the urls so forget about it.

We moved to lightspeed, it comes complete with everything you need and want for a real decent website that doesnt look like it costs 10 USD. 

yes you pay a little more, but you make that up in no time. Shopify is only useful if you are in 1 local market, not for Europe. let it go! 

[OneSumo]

Hey, i have the same feeling with our shopify store.
Was it hard to change your store to a LightSpeed shop?
Can you easily export product from Shopify to Lightspeed?

Thanks in advance.