About this plugin
VAT Sentinel adds a VAT number field to your WooCommerce checkout for EU/EEA business buyers, validates it against the European Commission’s official VIES service, and applies the cross-border B2B reverse charge when the number is valid. Every check is recorded with a UTC timestamp.
The difference: when VIES is unavailable (which happens regularly and is outside any vendor’s control), VAT Sentinel does not break your checkout. It accepts the order, flags it as “VAT pending verification”, and lets you re-check it once VIES recovers.
VAT Sentinel is a validation and record-keeping tool. It is NOT tax advice and does not guarantee tax compliance. Always consult your own tax advisor.
9 or newer). The VAT number field does not currently appear on the legacy classic (shortcode) checkout — if your store still uses the classic checkout, switch to the block checkout to use VAT Sentinel.
Free
- VAT number field at checkout (shown for EU/EEA, taxable carts)
- Live VIES validation with basic format checks
- Reverse-charge zero-rating for valid cross-border EU B2B carts, recorded with an internal order note (invoices/PDFs are not modified)
- Accept + flag orders when VIES is down, with a manual re-check button
- Live per-country VIES status panel
- On-screen log of recent checks, including the business name and address VIES returns (when the member state provides them)
Pro (planned)
A paid Pro version is planned for the future. It is not available yet, and this free version is complete and usable on its own.
External services
This plugin connects to the European Commission’s VAT Information Exchange System (VIES), a third-party service operated by the European Commission (a separate data controller). It is used to validate VAT numbers. eu/taxation_customs/vies/rest-api/ to confirm whether the number is valid and to obtain a consultation reference.
The plugin also makes a periodic request to the VIES /check-status endpoint to display per-country availability; no personal data is sent on that call. No data is sent to VIES except what is required to perform the validation. eu/taxation_customs/vies/.
The VIES “consultation number” is evidence that a validation was performed at a given date and time. It is proof that you checked. It is not proof of tax compliance or of the order’s correct VAT treatment.
Privacy
VAT numbers and validation results are stored locally in your own WordPress database as part of your order/tax records. You (the site owner) are the data controller for this data; the plugin and its author do not receive it.
A VAT number can be personal data (for example for a sole trader), so: the lawful basis for keeping it is your legal obligation to retain VAT evidence, commonly for 7 to 10 years depending on your country. Because the validation log is kept as tax evidence, records are retained for that period and are not deleted automatically on uninstall.
To act on a data-subject erasure request you can remove the relevant rows from the database; note that your legal obligation to retain VAT evidence may justify keeping a record despite an erasure request. Document your own retention policy in your store’s privacy notice.
This free version sends no usage statistics or telemetry of any kind.
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