How can I deliver VAT exempt webshop orders?

An order can be delivered free of VAT in a few ways:

- It is delivered to a debtor with a valid VAT number in another EU country (intra-community delivery)

- It is delivered to a non-EU country

- There is a local exception (e.g. exemption for foreign ambassadors)

From the ecommerce environment or webshop integration, the VAT exemption can be assigned by indicating in the message that no VAT should be charged (VatFree property).

During the processing of the order, the above conditions are checked.

If it concerns a delivery to another country within the EU, it is mandatory to also include a VAT number.

RetailVista then checks if there is already a debtor for this VAT number. If that is the case, it is applied, if not, one is created based on the provided information. Such debtors are always created as cash-paying debtors.

If necessary, the debtor administration may decide to make it a credit debtor after the necessary checks, but RetailVista will not do this by default for security reasons.

When creating the debtor, a VIES check is performed, which is a legal requirement for EU countries. If this check returns a different trade name or VAT number, an error message will occur and the message will be rejected.

Sometimes too many requests are made to the VIES environment of a member state, causing a timeout. This specific error is caught to prevent the order flow from stagnating due to the unavailability of the VIES environment.

If everything is correct, the sales order will be marked as VAT exempt.

For non-EU countries, all orders may be delivered VAT exempt. If the delivery address belongs to a country that is not classified as an EU country in RetailVista, this is allowed. For these types of shipments, it is also important that the product file is provided with so-called HS codes (https://www.kvk.nl/en/international/what-are-hs-codes-and-how-do-you-find-the-right-one/).

The HS code is a new attribute at the product level.

It is important to enter a correct HS code for all products offered through the webshop. This code is sent in the message to SendCloud so that customs worldwide know what goods are in the package. Unfortunately, at this moment, SendCloud does not support MultiCollo shipments in combination with HS codes.