EU VAT For
Easy Digital Downloads

As soon as you activate your license key, the following features will be added to your Easy Digital Downloads store - no further configuration needed:

• When the customer selects an EU country at the checkout, the correct VAT for their country will be charged.
• A VAT number field appears on the EDD checkout when the customer selects an EU country (it remains hidden from non-EU customers). The customer can enter a VAT number, which will be checked against the European Commission's VIES central database of EU VAT numbers. If the VAT number is valid then this will reverse charge the VAT for customers, so no tax will be charged. (By default, the VAT will only be reverse charged for customers not in your base country - if your country allows you to reverse charge VAT for customers in your own country too, then there's an option to enable this.)
• The legally required EU VAT information will appear on the EDD order confirmation and payment details pages.
• A 'VAT Details' section will appear on the EDD payment record and in EDD payment exports, in addition to the location evidence already stored by EDD and your payment gateway. This makes it easy to check how the VAT for each sale was calculated and export data if you are ever audited.

The plugin comes with settings that allow you to control how it handles EU VAT, generate reports for your VAT MOSS returns, etc. It also comes with merge tags which allow you to convert your Easy Digital Downloads emails into full tax invoices (we've provided a template to make it easy for you).

If you’re switching to the Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin after previously using a different plugin, then it’s important to ensure that no data from the previous plugin is lost.

If you use the Pronamic plugin then all your data will be transferred automatically. If you use the WPRoute plugin or the standard Easy Digital Downloads tax settings then please see our guide on migrating your VAT data from other plugins.

Once set up, the plugin will take care of collecting the correct VAT from your European customers, providing invoices, and making sure you have access to the evidence you need. You will still need to:

• Register for EU VAT(one-off task) - this allows you to submit a single EU tax return and make a single payment which will be distributed to all the EU countries you have collected tax for (more information here).
• Generate the EU VAT report (every 3 months) - this is part of the Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin and contains all the data you need for your EU tax return, in the correct format (more information here).
• Submit an EU tax return (every 3 months) - this should take you a few minutes every 3 months.

We also recommend that you check that you are fully meeting your EU VAT requirements based on your individual situation - please see the disclaimer below.

The plugin comes complete with the correct standard VAT/IVA rate for all 28 EU countries, so you don't need to input or maintain the ever-changing rates manually!

When an EU country changes its VAT rate, we will add this to the plugin.

You can override the built-in VAT rates via the Easy Digital Downloads tax settings for each country, for example if you need to charge non-standard VAT rates for any EU countries. This gives you full control, without having to spend time adding tax rates manually.

European VAT law only requires you to charge EU VAT on sales direct to consumers. The plugin adds a VAT number field to the Easy Digital Downloads checkout so that businesses can have the VAT removed (reversed charged). The VAT number field integrates with the European Commission's central VAT number database (VIES), providing a reliable way to check which of your European customers are exempt from paying VAT.

The Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin automatically adds the required information to convert the EDD payment confirmation page into a full EU VAT tax invoice. This page appears after the customer completes their order, and is also available via the Account page.

The plugin also contains email merge tags that you can use to convert your Easy Digital Downloads purchase receipt invoices into valid tax invoices. (Or, if you use EDD’s Per Product Emails extension, then you can use these as tax invoices too.)

We’ve also integrated with the official Invoices extension (available separately), adding extra information to enable you to use the PDF invoice as a valid tax invoice.

The Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin compiles multiple pieces of evidence of your customers’ location - their address and IP address. It collates the evidence you need for EU VAT compliance and displays it in one handy location.

You can view the data that was used for VAT calculations on the EDD payment record, and you can also export it to generate reports if you are ever subject to a tax audit.

No, the plugin sets the VAT rate based on the country that the customer selects at the checkout. This is because geolocation is not always accurate, so the customer selects their country instead.

The plugin fully supports tax refunds - when you refund a payment in Easy Digital Downloads, the EU VAT that you collected is automatically refunded too. EDD changes the payment status to ‘Refunded’, so the VAT collected will not appear on reports. As a result, you won’t have to include it on your MOSS VAT returns.

Easy Digital Downloads already supports tax for non-EU countries. Our Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin extends this by adding support for European VAT, plus the UK. You can use it alongside charging tax for other non-EU countries - simply add the required tax rates in the Easy Digital Downloads tax settings.

The correct VAT will be charged for all EU countries, and doesn't affect any additional countries that you have added tax rates for (e.g. Russia or New Zealand).

Since the UK was part of the EU until recently, the plugin fully supports UK VAT. This includes automatically charging the correct rate of UK VAT, allowing customers with a UK VAT number to have their VAT reverse charged, and displaying your store's UK VAT number alongside your EU VAT number on invoices.

we have continued supporting UK VAT in the plugin wherever possible.

We have decided not to add a feature allowing you to prevent EU customers from buying from you. This is because our plugin is all about making it easy to accept sales from EU customers while complying with European VAT law.

Some e-commerce stores choose to prevent customers in the EU from purchasing at all, but that goes against the intention of EU law which is to make the internet equal wherever you live in the world, and isn’t fair on people in the EU. Instead, we recommend allowing EU residents to buy from you, and using the Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin to make complying as straightforward as possible.

We have designed Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT to work with multi-lingual and multi-currency plugins.

For example, if you wish to translate your website into other languages then you can use a plugin such as WeGlot, TranslatePress or WPML. All the text in the plugin (e.g. 'VAT Number') is added as internationalized strings in the code. As a result, you can use the string translations feature in your multilingual plugin to translate this text.

If you wish to allow your users to pay in multiple currencies then we recommend Aelia's Currency Switcher for Easy Digital Downloads plugin, which we have tested with (and use on our own site).

We have tested Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT with a range of free and premium themes and are confident it will look great with your theme. The styling of the VAT number field on the checkout will match the other checkout fields in your theme. Our plugin support includes helping with any theme-related conflicts.

The plugin is designed to work with all Easy Digital Downloads payment gateways, and other extensions such as Recurring Payments. It will integrate seamlessly with the rest of your store.

Clicking the Buy button above will take you to the purchase options. You can choose either a Lifetime or Annual software license.

• Lifetime licenses never expire. It's a one-time payment which includes all future plugin updates, new features and support, forever.
• Annual licenses are renewed once a year. As long as you have an active license, you will receive support, plugin updates and new features. If your license ever expires then you can continue using the plugin, but won't receive any further updates or support.

You can also choose the number of sites that you can use the plugin on.

The Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin is fully tested with the latest versions of WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads. We always recommend running the most up-to-date version of WordPress, but we also support older installations:

The Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin is designed to assist store owners with satisfying European tax law. It contains a range of features to assist with this, including displaying customer location and VAT evidence in an easily accessible location, applying the correct standard rate for each EU country, adding extra tax information to customer receipts, and providing a simple reporting facility to assist you in preparing your EU MOSS tax returns.

While we believe that implementing the plugin according to the guidance in our knowledge base will allow most Easy Downloads Stores to satisfy European VAT legislation, all stores and countries have different needs and we can’t offer any legal guarantees. The plugin documentation is provided for information purposes and does not constitute legal or financial advice.

As store owner, you remain responsible for complying with all taxation laws and regulations at all times; checking the data produced and collated by this plugin; ensuring the plugin and your tax settings are set up correctly according to your specific requirements; and submitting accurate and timely VAT returns as required. We recommend seeking legal advice to clarify your specific obligations and check your compliance.