The problem: In the European Union, no matter the country, it is mandatory to issue VAT invoice if the customer is a “company”. VAT invoice means that you will have to collect and show the company name and VAT number on the invoice. It is not legal to issue invoice for a company without collecting and adding the VAT number on the invoice. Shopify only has the capability to collect “Company name” in the billing address section during checkout.
Existing workaround:
Apps that enable you to add tax number in the cart. This is not a proper solution, customers go directly into checkout and they skip cart. This is not simple and intuitive and creates a bad user experience.
Add custom code in the checkout. This means hiring a developer or use Sufio (40USD/month) + mandatory Shopify Plus plan to enable checkout customisation (2000 USD/month).
If you operate a standard Shopify store in the EU, you cannot sell and invoice to other companies, because you will not have their TAX/VAT number. This is a huge issue, as 15% of our customers are companies. I’m on talking about advanced features such as VAT validation, but only TAX/VAT number collection. This is such basic functionality that should work out of the box and this should not need custom code or workarounds.
Question
I’ve seen a post by @charlespeji mentioning that at some point Shopify released a feature to natively collect Tax/VAT field in checkout, see below:
Go to Settings > Checkout > Order Processing> > Tick the checkbox for “Enable fields for additional information”
We are on the Shopify Plus plan, but the feature is not visible in Settings. Does anyone know about this feature or has found a better solution?
Almost 2 months now and we are still researching for a fix. Some people suggested me to just rename the “Company” field in checkout with “VAT number”. I think this is just cutting corners and is not a solid approach, as all integration will get the VAT number instead of the company name, Moreover, company name will be missing. If you are a merchant from EU, let me know how did you solve this problem…
We store it as an order_note. Not ideal either since it is linked to an order instead of a customer. Working with invoices and Shopify is only possible with a workaround like this or changing the address2_field for example to a VAT field and map this field in your invoicing software.
Capturing VAT numbers is rather complex since you also need to charge VAT or subtract VAT based on the VAT country settings and the regulations in your country as an owner.
It is nice to see I’m not the only one struggling with VAT in Europe.
Yep, capturing VAT number in cart Notes or in the Address section is a quick fix but not a proper and solid solution and sellers should not be forced to apply this kind of solutions for a basic need, especially when using a big platform like Shopify.
Shopify should at least offer the posibility to capture the VAT number in a native field and assume the seller will calculate and handle VAT treatment according to local regulations.
By not putting the field out there, the VAT problem is ignored, meaning Shopify Stores don’t offer support to sell to companies in Europe, without workarounds.
Simply put: If you are selling in Europe, Shopify checkout does not support orders placed by companies, only individuals.
First step would be for Shopify to acknowledge this issue and to enable a native TAX Number field in checkout, without implementing TAX calculation and let the seller do his thing.
This is still better than letting sellers find their own way and collecting tax number in notes, address or who knows where.
We want to use sparklayer B2B app for a hybrid B2C/B2B shop. B2B customers can only buy with a b2b account. The shopify generated invoice pdf is created by order printer pro in conjunction with order printer templates, both from forsberg two Apps.
The forsberg two Apps grabs the order note field and uses it to display the VAT. But our customers can’t put that in every order, they will forget it and the “order note” field would have to be described as “VAT” but that would interfere with B2C.
My solution approach is to create another customer registration form field for the VAT with metafields and then edit the invoice template, to use that metafield instead. Newbie in shopify coding, but it is 100% doable. What do you guys think?
We have looked over the solution to rename and use the “notes” field in the cart, but reached the conclusion is not a solid solution.
As you said yourself, customers will not know they should enter the VAT number there prior to checkout and this will not work for consumers, and interfere with B2C.
The field should be located in checkout. To add a custom field into checkout, you need Shopify Plus, so this automatically excludes 90% of shopify stores. Even with Shopify plus, adding custom code will disable automatic updates from Shopify, meaning further updates need to be done manually.
However, bad as it is, I think is the only solid solution for the moment.
Permanent fix would be a native field from Shopify, similar with the one the Shopify team introduced for Brasil, as described in my previous posts.
I am asking myself why isn’t this standard functionality? Simply, it does not seem right to do checkout customisation just to be able to serve customers that want invoice for a company.
Maybe we are missing something? Any other thoughts are welcome.
That’s hugely disappointing that for so many years that Shopify has existed, there’s no solution for this thing. We need to manually edit orders, deduct VAT charges, and everything for hundreds of customers every month. That’s very frustrating.
@Shopify_77 PLEASE, do take a look a this. Never had I thought this should be an issue prior to setting up my shop. In my case 99% of customers are companies, so this is a huge problem.
This issue/bug has existed for all of years we have been on the platform.
This forum also has multiple threads on this exact topic because it affects so many merchants and is so extremely frustrating.
Unfortunately at present it really seems Shopify is
a) does not really and fully understand the problem.
b) want to protect 3rd party plugins and derived revenue
c) wants to force you into the Plus plan
If I had to set up a store for European B2B I would definitely not pick Shopify as the platform. Proper Vat handling is a standard feature in almost all other commerce solutions.
I agree with you in general but found a solution for our shop, because we differentiate between b2c and b2b customers.
B2B Customer uses our B2B contact form to ask for a b2b account/access. The form asks for VAT.
Then we create the account and can use the VAT from customer note.
And the customer NOTE field is even used by Order Printer Pro with Orderly Email Templates (Apps).
I know it is late and it is a big NO for medium-big companies.
I work in webflow and just added a big button on my product page for the clients to click if they need VAT number to be introduced and for it to appear in the invoice. It leads the client to a website page with a screenshot of the Shopify Checkout indicating that if they want their VAT number in the invoice to make the tax pay thing when it takes place in their country just write it in the “Company” space at checkout and Sufio make its thing and adds it to the invoice.
It is no automatic tax exemption, but they can do the right thing after.
After 14 days, the attributes on the Cart page work again. And honestly, and apart from the fact that I have spent a lot of time finding a cause, there have been no changes made to the shop. All tests are done at a test shop. Good that it works again…
Sorry to bother you!
Could you write step by step how to install the VAT number field into the checkout page so that this number is then saved in the client’s profile? Thank you!
Thanks for the code! We´re testing Shopify right now. This missing feature is an absolute deal breaker for us. The missing Stripe payment integration is less important (albeit very annoying).
This missing VAT feature is also an absolute deal breaker. I spend like one week for putting all informations and creating the shop. I add all integrations, and now I see that there is lack of VAT field. Cant we worse.
It does not work anymore. The metafields data on the cart pages is not transfered to the order. Have not made any change in the shop. Have been in contact with Shopify. No help. Does anybody had the same experience and maybe a solution. I would love to hearing from you.
