Problems with Pro Version WooCommerce EU VAT Compliance

Additionally: the whole “radio button” manual confirmation seems not to be ready. The radiobutton currently only shows one country (the one that has been detected by IP) and is by default (mostly?) activated and always shown.

From what I would expect (and what is legally required) I would expect the radiobutton(s) to appear only when there is a contradiction in IP and Billing country to have then a 3rd evidence – in this case the radio buttons should show both, billing and ip country, be mandatory an not show any default selection!

I’m not sure if this will really meet the legal requirements, since Billing Country and the manual choice might be considered the same information, please check this back! In this case we would probably need another evidence, like a verified credit card number.

From what I would expect (and what is legally required) I would expect the radiobutton(s) to appear only when there is a contradiction in IP and Billing country to have then a 3rd evidence

This depends on your settings. What have you set, for when the self-certification should appear?

There are options for: always / never / in case of conflict.

Please can you also tell me the indicated IP address (check in the ‘edit order’ screen in your WordPress backend). Then I can try to reproduce the issue you are having, which sounds like a bug rather than intended behaviour.

I’m not sure if this will really meet the legal requirements, since Billing Country and the manual choice might be considered the same information, please check this back!

What evidence your local tax-man will accept can vary (we know this, having heard different people tell us what their local tax man has said). This is why we have added a setting to allow you to choose whether self-certification should be performed. As stated in the disclaimer, nothing in this product’s setup constitutes legal or accounting advice; users are entirely responsible for verifying compliance, and discussing with their local authorities. We are, however, intending to make *options* available to help people do *what they believe is best*.

David

I’ve selected: “Require the customer to indicate the correct country when there is a conflict”.
But the radio button always appear, and only one radiobutton, regardless of the country. I’ve tried to use a proxy via USA as well, same story, then USA is detected as country and I get one radiobutton with USA. If I tick it, I can check out without VAT, regardless, if the Billig country is Germany.

Hi gunther12,

Thanks… please don’t forget this information:

Please can you also tell me the indicated IP address (check in the ‘edit order’ screen in your WordPress backend).

I suspect that GeoIP lookup is failing for you, and that this is what happens when GeoIP lookup fails. That is an item on our to-do list; but, if I can get your IP address, then I can look it up via GeoIP and hopefully reproduce what is happening.

David

On my order, where I falsely entered Austria as Billing-Country I see:
Country used to calculate tax: ?sterreich (AT)
IP Country: Deutschland (DE)
Source: MaxMind GeoIP database

The Tooltip shows this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2088648/_temp_/tooltip.jpg

OK; you are testing on localhost (IP address = ::1).

Though I will test this, for completeness (I haven’t yet), this can’t occur on a live shop (which can’t be hosted on localhost). Are you able to reproduce it on a live shop? That information will help me with prioritising tasks.

David

It’s exactly the same happening on a Live IP.

This is what the checkout looks like:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2088648/_temp_/kasse_live.jpg

without activating the radiobutton, I can just check out.

And this is what I get in the backend:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2088648/_temp_/tooltip_live.jpg

I found something: I had the WC setting “Calculate Tax Based On” set to “Shop base adress” this causes the problem with the one radio button only.

If I set it to “customer billing adress”, both radiobuttons appear, but still – one is selected and thus there is no mandatory manual accepting, as legally required.

So one solution would be to add a “please confirm” radio button to the top that is checked by default and make a plausibility check that the user checke one of the other options before allowing him to check out.

Hi,

I found something: I had the WC setting “Calculate Tax Based On” set to “Shop base adress” this causes the problem with the one radio button only.

This is the cause. “Calculate tax based on: Shop base address” is a setting 100% incompatible with the new EU VAT law, as the new law requires taxes to be based upon the customer’s location, not the shop owner’s. That’s the main change in the new law. You absolutely must not set that setting, if selling digital goods to EU buyers.

This will be flagged up for you in the “Readiness Report” section of our control panel, once we get that ready. Currently we are focussing on the actual features as the #1 priority.

David

I’m going to mark this support thread as resolved now, as the cause has been identified. Please re-open it if you believe that the issue still remains, even with “”Calculate tax based on:” *not* set to “billing address” or “shipping address”, which are the only valid settings if you are selling digital goods to the EU from 1st Jan.

Best wishes,
David

Like I said: the main problem is not solved, because the customer can check out with contradictionary information set and he is not forced to make a choice, because the systems sets one as default. This is crucial!

Please can you give a description of the current problem, and screenshots of the issue? I want to make sure that I understand the current status – it is difficult to untangle in the above.

You ask the user to confirm the country he is living in. But there is no action for him to be taken, since one of the radio buttons is checked by default. There is no plausibility check, if the information contradict – the plugin has to prevent that!

My suggestion was:
Add a “please confirm” radio button to the top that is checked by default and requires the user to take action and make a choice. Then add a plausibility check for the 2 evidences that are needed. If they don’t match, don’t let the user check out!

IIRC, on the issue of customers deliberately lying, the only tax documentation I have seen that addressed the issue said that business owners could not be reasonably expected to prevent deliberate lying, or held liable for it. (I am not offering you legal or tax advice of any kind. Your own local tax man should be consulted, if in doubt).

Adding an extra click, which amounts to “yes, I’m *really* not lying” does not add anything useful. They could lie there also. This could lead to an infinite spiral… “Are you *really, really, really, really* not lying?”.

Neither of the other two existing WooCommerce EU VAT solutions uses the approach you suggest, so they appear to agree with my interpretation. (I am not a lawyer, etc…).

However, having said that, because it is only a small change, I have added a new possibility for you to the next release (not yet released, but it will be there). You can use a ‘wc_eu_vat_certify_form_field’ filter to prevent either radio button being selected by default; thus, requiring the customer to positively select one.

add_filter('wc_eu_vat_certify_form_field', 'my_wc_eu_vat_certify_form_field');
function my_wc_eu_vat_certify_form_field($fields) {
  unset($fields['default']);
  $fields['label'] = 'Please indicate your country of residence. If neither of the below options is accurate, then you cannot complete check-out (because we require two non-contradictory evidences of your location, under EU law).';
  return $fields;
}

David

Actually, this might be closer to what you want (works on next release, not current one):

<?php
add_filter('wc_eu_vat_certify_form_field', 'my_wc_eu_vat_certify_form_field');
function my_wc_eu_vat_certify_form_field($fields) {
  $fields['options']['none'] = 'Neither of the above; do not fulfil this order.';
  $fields['default'] = 'none';
  $fields['label'] = 'Please indicate your country of residence. If neither of the below options is accurate, then you cannot complete check-out (because we require two non-contradictory evidences of your location, under EU law).';
  return $fields;
}

Of course, you can use different words for your language; but, do not change the ‘none’; this is used internally, and is not displayed and should not be translated.