Tax Exemption - Serious Flaw - Possibly Illegal Options

[responder]

Hi there,

OK, the title of the thread is somewhat dramatic but maybe I'm onto something here:

EU VAT registered suppliers can sell to other EU VAT registered customers with full tax exemption [so as long as the customer provides their VAT number]. However, if the customer and supplier are based in the same EU country, TAX must be applied.

Avactis allows for tax exemption during step 1. of checkout in the 'Billing and Shipping Addresses' section [you'll see a checkbox labeled]:

'I purchase for a tax-exempt organization or individual. Tax exemption number: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _'

My point is that EU based store owners should have the option of disabling the tax exemption checkbox in the following situations:

1). When the customers shipping address matches the country of the store owners address

2). When a customer orders from outside the EU where no tax applies anyways

To see this in action, go to https://shop.colourconfidence.com/ and add any product to the cart. Then, play around with the country dropdown boxes and you'll see how the tax exemption option toggles on/off based on the above 2 conditions.

Has someone noticed this or is it just me? One way around this is to change the checkbox text to something like this:

''I purchase for a tax-exempt organization or individual. My VAT or Tax Exemption number is: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Please ignore this if you are ordering from [STORE_OWNERS_COUNTRY] or outside the EU.'

[centurion]

Hi

I appreciate that this post is over a year old but we have just come up against the same problem. I'm loathe to enable the tax exemption check box globally as I feel it could (& would) be open to abuse and have contacted tech support for some help.

Has anyone else got this issue or have you just installed a different cart with a more sophisticated tax policy?

[DonH]

I'm not in the EU, but I have to have signed tax exempt documents on file or I am liable for the tax. I have not enabled the tax exempt checkbox and have only 1 small customer complain. I handle her orders manually. I see no need to spend money for a more complex set of rules. I have far more meaningful things to worry about!