Reverse charge and VAT ID check

If a business from another country buys with a valid VAT ID, Consho invoices without VAT: the recipient owes the tax (reverse charge).

Reverse charge only applies if all four are true:

1. The customer's VAT ID was confirmed as valid through VIES, the EU's system.
2. Your shop has a VAT ID of its own: shop configuration, “VAT” section, Own VAT ID. Without it there is never a reverse charge, because only with it does Consho receive the evidence (the consultation number).
3. The shop, the billing address and the delivery address are in the EU, and billing and delivery address are in a country other than the shop's home country.
4. The VAT ID was issued by the country of the billing address – for Greece with the prefix EL.

The rule is deliberately narrow: where a condition is missing, the order carries tax. Checkout, order and invoice apply the same rule.

The customer enters their VAT ID in the Address part; Consho checks it right away. If VIES does not answer in time, it says “The VAT ID could not be checked just now. You can order with tax or try the check again.” – with the button “Check VAT ID again”. An invalid VAT ID holds the order up until the customer corrects or removes it.

The review then shows “Reverse charge — VAT to be accounted for by the recipient”.

The result is kept on the member: check result, time, consultation number, the VAT ID that was checked and the shop's VAT ID the query was made with. Registration, “Personal data” and the back end check the VAT ID as well. A result for the same VAT ID and the same shop VAT ID holds twelve months, a changed VAT ID is checked again; the checkout reuses it for the member's own VAT ID.

Reverse charge needs a result from the day of the purchase, for guests as well. Consho checks an older one again on the next step or on the buy click; where the answer changes the amounts, the buy click returns to the review. A fresh check in the checkout or in subscription billing is written back to the member. An account created from a guest order takes over the order's result without a time – the next check that needs one asks VIES again.

From the front end – checkout, registration, “Personal data” – Consho checks at most ten VAT IDs per IP address in 15 minutes; each check is a VIES query in your shop's name. Over the limit the check counts as unavailable just now: the order carries tax and “Check VAT ID again” stays open. The back end and subscription billing are not counted.

Where the member state gives out the name, the order shows it in the “VAT” section as Name at VIES, next to the consultation number. Consho does not compare it with the billing address – that check stays yours: VIES confirms that a number exists, not that it belongs to the buyer.

How a verified VAT ID unlocks net prices automatically is described under Prices, customer groups and currencies.

In the shop configuration, in the “Invoice sender” section, you enter the Reverse charge note. It only appears on such invoices and is frozen when the invoice is issued. You are responsible for the wording.

• No reverse charge note (warning): such an invoice would go out without the note.
• The same VAT ID in two shop configurations (note): if this is one shop in several languages, it belongs on one configuration – otherwise two separate invoice number sequences are running.
• Subscription customer has changed country (warning): the customer account names a different country than the last invoice. Consho changes nothing, follow-up invoices keep going to the previous address. Clarify the change with the customer; for the new country they take out the subscription anew.

← Guest or customer account Age verification →