VIESAC – Free VAT Validation for WooCommerce

VIESAC adds country-specific VAT validation to WooCommerce checkout. It checks VAT number formats locally for EU countries, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland. With a VIESAC API key, live checks use EU VIES for EU and Northern Ireland (XI) VAT numbers and the HMRC VAT API for Great Britain (GB). Eligible orders receive stored compliance proof for audit-ready B2B records.

Features

• Country-specific format checks – Validate VAT number formats locally without an API key
• Live VAT validation – Validate VAT numbers through VIESAC before applying 0% VAT
• UK VAT checks via HMRC – Validate Great Britain (GB) VAT numbers through the HMRC VAT API
• Clear plan usage – See monthly VAT checks, hourly live-check capacity, and stored-proof usage separately
• Stored proof allowance – Full audit records and VIES certificates use a separate plan allowance
• Status without proof – When the stored-proof allowance is exhausted, orders keep their VALID/INVALID status and clearly show that no proof was stored
• Lifetime storage – VIES certificates stored permanently
• EU VIES compliance – VAT number validation for EU businesses
• B2B tax exemption – Automatic WooCommerce tax removal only after live VAT validation succeeds
• Certificate download – PDF certificate available in order details
• Company and VAT fields – Adds company name and VAT number fields to checkout
• Checkout blocks support – Works with WooCommerce Blocks
• HPOS compatible – Compatible with WooCommerce Custom Order Tables
• Multilingual compatible – Works with WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress, and standard WordPress language packs

VAT number validation by country

VIESAC includes country-specific VAT number format validation for every jurisdiction below. Live validation uses EU VIES for EU member states and Northern Ireland, and the HMRC VAT API for Great Britain.

• Austria (AT) – Austrian VAT numbers
• Belgium (BE) – Belgian VAT numbers
• Bulgaria (BG) – Bulgarian VAT numbers
• Croatia (HR) – Croatian VAT numbers
• Cyprus (CY) – Cypriot VAT numbers
• Czechia (CZ) – Czech VAT numbers
• Denmark (DK) – Danish VAT numbers
• Estonia (EE) – Estonian VAT numbers
• Finland (FI) – Finnish VAT numbers
• France (FR) – French VAT numbers
• Germany (DE) – German VAT numbers
• Greece (EL/GR) – Greek VAT numbers
• Hungary (HU) – Hungarian VAT numbers
• Ireland (IE) – Irish VAT numbers
• Italy (IT) – Italian VAT numbers
• Latvia (LV) – Latvian VAT numbers
• Lithuania (LT) – Lithuanian VAT numbers
• Luxembourg (LU) – Luxembourg VAT numbers
• Malta (MT) – Maltese VAT numbers
• Netherlands (NL) – Dutch VAT numbers
• Poland (PL) – Polish VAT numbers
• Portugal (PT) – Portuguese VAT numbers
• Romania (RO) – Romanian VAT numbers
• Slovakia (SK) – Slovak VAT numbers
• Slovenia (SI) – Slovenian VAT numbers
• Spain (ES) – Spanish VAT numbers
• Sweden (SE) – Swedish VAT numbers
• Northern Ireland (XI) – Northern Irish VAT numbers through EU VIES
• Great Britain (GB) – UK VAT numbers through HMRC for England, Scotland, and Wales
• Norway (NO) – Norwegian VAT number format validation
• Switzerland (CH/CHE) – Swiss VAT number format validation

Getting started

1. Install and activate the plugin.
2. Go to WooCommerce -> VIESAC.
3. Get your free API key from https://viesac.eu/app/api.
4. Enter the API key and save.

Languages

VIESAC is available in 25+ languages: English, Norwegian Bokmål, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Romanian, Greek, Czech, Swedish, Hungarian, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Danish, Finnish, Slovak, Croatian, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Ukrainian.

Multilingual compatibility

VIESAC uses standard WordPress gettext for its interface and VAT validation messages, so it works with WordPress language packs and the Gettext translation tools in WPML, Polylang, and TranslatePress.

Custom VAT field label and VAT field placeholder values are supported too:

• WPML: translate them in WPML -> String Translation after saving the VIESAC settings.
• Polylang: translate them in Languages -> String translations after saving the VIESAC settings.
• TranslatePress: translate them as regular strings in its translation editor after visiting checkout in the target language.

External services

This plugin connects to the VIESAC API to validate VAT numbers, retrieve account usage information, and optionally create audit records with certificate storage.

It sends data to https://viesac.eu only when a store administrator enters an API key and the plugin performs one of these actions:

• Live VAT validation via https://viesac.eu/api/v1/validate
• VAT audit creation via https://viesac.eu/api/v1/audits
• Account and usage lookup via https://viesac.eu/api/v1/account

Depending on the action, the plugin may send:

• VAT country code and VAT number
• Company name
• Company address
• Order number
• Order audit details in XML format for certificate generation

Service provider documentation:

• Privacy Policy: https://viesac.eu/privacy-policy
• Terms of Service: https://viesac.eu/terms-of-service