EU business tax exemption base on VAT validation (VIES)

Accounting & Taxes
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Topic summary

EU merchants are frustrated by Shopify’s lack of native VAT number validation and automatic tax exemption for B2B customers during checkout, which is essential for EU regulatory compliance. Currently, businesses must rely on third-party apps or manual workarounds.

Core Issue:

  • No built-in field at checkout for customers to enter and validate their VAT ID via VIES (VAT Information Exchange System)
  • EU regulations require merchants to exempt VAT for validated business customers
  • Competitors (WooCommerce, PrestaShop, BigCommerce) offer this functionality natively

Current Workarounds:

  • Third-party apps like Exemptify, Sufio, and EUVAT.app (mentioned frequently)
  • Manual tax exemption in customer profiles (inefficient)
  • Forcing customers through cart page where apps can add VAT fields
  • Some merchants considering platform migration

Shopify’s Response:

  • Launched VAT Number Validation as part of Shopify Tax subscription
  • Feature only available to Shopify Tax users; no plans to support outside this paid service
  • VAT field appears in customer profiles or Company Locations (Plus plan), not at checkout

Community Reaction:

  • Merchants report losing 30-40% of B2B sales due to missing functionality
  • Multiple users calling this solution insufficient since customers cannot enter VAT during checkout
  • Ongoing frustration with Shopify’s approach of requiring expensive subscriptions or third-party apps for basic EU compliance
Summarized with AI on October 24. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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We contacted the Shopify Support again today and got this reply.
Everyone else here. Maybe it helps if you also open a request for this issue.

Hello Julian, this is Jenny.
I understand that you’re concerned about not having a feature for your EU based businesses to enter their VAT number for VAT exemption directly within the Shopify platform. I recognize that this is an important feature for your business, and I’d like to offer some alternative solutions that may help address this issue.

  1. Manual Tax Exemption: You can consider turning on/off tax exemption in your customer profiles as detailed in our help documentation on Edit customer profiles.
  2. Cart Notes: You can ask your customers to include their VAT number in the cart notes section before checking out. This way, you can manually adjust the tax exemption for each order/customers accordingly.
  3. Third-Party App: To automate the VAT exemption process, you may want to consider using the DIY Tax Exempt Checkout app available in the Shopify App Store. This app allows your customers to update their tax exemption status. You can reach out to the app developer via email: info@daxanema.com for better understanding if this app will help your store to achieve this.

Additionally, I have submitted your feedback regarding the VAT exemption feature to our Platform Development Team. While there is no specific timeline or guarantee that this will be implemented, your input is valuable to us, and we hope to see improvements in this area in the future. You can also stay updated on any platform changes through the Shopify Changelog.

Thank you!

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