Configuration

Installation

• • General installation instructions can be found here

• • Within System->Configuration->Tax->Blue Jalappeno Vat Checker you should find the extensions settings.

  • Ensure you have enabled the TAX/VAT field under System>Configuration> Customer Configuration >Name and Address Options

• • In Magento CE v1.7 and Enterprise/Professional v1.12, Magento have introduced some VAT validation via another VAT number field. This should be disabled if you intend to use Blue Jalappeno EU VAT Checker.

Tax Configuration

Before configuring the extension up you will need to configure your tax settings and customer group settings.

Tax Class

You will need to make a customer tax class under "sales->tax->customer tax classes" for your tax exempt customers. Do not apply any tax rules to this customer tax class.

Customer Group

You will need to make a customer group for your tax exempt customers, you can do this by navigating to "Customers->Customer groups" and creating a new one called, for example, EU Tax Exempt Customers. You should choose the tax class you have just created for this customer group.

Now anyone in that customer group won't get charged tax as there's no associated tax rules with that new customer group/customer tax class.

If you are enabling the feature to recheck customers VAT details if the VIES system is unavailable, you will need ANOTHER customer group to hold these customers e.g. EU Business Unchecked. During registration or checkout, if the VIES system is unavailable, customers are saved to this group and checkout will complete without errors. The next time the customer logs in, their VAT number will be rechecked and their customer group membership will be updated. You can choose to tax these customers by making the customer tax class of EU Business Unchecked to be a taxable class e.g. Retail. If you wish to assume their VAT number is valid, then assign the same tax class as EU Tax Exempt Customers.

Extension Configuration

Checking your configuration

Once you've installed and configured EU VAT Checker, to check your setup ensure you have:

• 1. Enabled the extension in the configuration panel

  2. Specified your new customer group only for EU exempt customers

  3. Selected countries that will be validated in the configuration

Once you have confirmed the above, edit an existing customer or create a new customer from the admin panel, specifying a valid EU VAT number from a country you selected in 3 above. Once saved, they should be moved to the customer group you specified in 2 above.

Handling VIES Service Unavailability

As mentioned previously, EU VAT Checker is dependent upon the EU VIES service to validate customer's VAT numbers. This service has frequent down time and as such we have included several options to handle this situation. The following are some example configurations depending on your requirements.

When VIES is down, I want the customer to contact me directly to validate their VAT number

Use the following settings:

When VIES is down, I want the customer to checkout anyway and their VAT number to be validated next time they log in

You will need to create a second customer group to hold the customers until they are revalidated e.g. EU Business VAT Exempt UNVALIDATED. If you wish to apply tax to this customer group, ensure you set a taxable customer tax class. If you do not wish to charge them tax then apply the customer tax class you created earlier with no tax applied.

Use the following settings:

When VIES is down, I want to assume the number is valid and assign to the valid group

Use the following settings: