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Pro feature

Auto-apply VAT rates

Overview

Knowing you crossed the EUR 10,000 threshold is only half the job — from that moment your store must actually charge VAT at each customer’s destination-country rate. Auto-apply VAT rates is a Pro feature that closes that gap: when the threshold is crossed, the plugin imports the standard VAT rates for every other EU member state into your WooCommerce tax tables automatically, with no manual data entry in between.

This feature requires a Pro license. See pricing and Licensing for details.

Enabling auto-apply

  1. Go to WooCommerce → One Stop Shop → Settings.
  2. Under Advanced, set Auto-apply VAT rates to Yes.
  3. Click Save settings.

This setting only appears when the Pro add-on is active. Your choice is preserved even if the license lapses temporarily — saving settings while Pro is inactive will not silently switch it off.

What happens when you cross the threshold

With auto-apply enabled, destination rates are imported the moment destination VAT becomes required:

  • Live tracking — when an incoming order pushes your cross-border B2C total past EUR 10,000, the rates are imported immediately, at exactly the same point the threshold-reached notification fires.
  • After a recalculation — if rebuilding the year from order history shows the threshold is exceeded, rates are imported then too.
  • Carry-over into the following year — under the OSS rules, exceeding the threshold in one year obligates destination VAT for the entire following year. The plugin carries the rates over into the new year automatically. This also covers stores that crossed the threshold before installing Pro: the obligation is read from the tracked sales data, not from whether Pro happened to be active at the time.

The import itself uses the same logic as the VAT rate importer: one standard rate per EU member state (excluding your home country), named VAT XX, in the standard tax class, applied to shipping. Rates are only imported once per year — re-checks will not duplicate anything.

Rate changes and your own rates

  • Changed rates are updated in place. Member states do change their standard rates between years. When a country’s rate differs from the one already imported, the existing VAT XX row is updated rather than a second rate being inserted, so WooCommerce never has two competing standard rates for the same country.
  • Your own rates are never touched. If you already created your own standard rate for a country (any rate not named VAT XX), the plugin leaves that country alone entirely and reports it so you can review it manually. It will not overwrite or compete with merchant-created rates.

Configuration warnings

Imported rates only take effect if WooCommerce is set up to use them. While destination VAT is required and auto-apply is enabled, the plugin shows a persistent warning on WooCommerce admin screens if either of these is true:

  • Taxes are disabled in WooCommerce (WooCommerce → Settings → General) — the imported rates exist but nothing is charged.
  • “Calculate tax based on” is set to the shop base address (WooCommerce → Settings → Tax) — every order is taxed at your home rate regardless of destination.

The warning stays until the configuration is fixed, so you cannot believe compliance is handled while home-rate (or no) tax keeps being charged.

When you fall back below the threshold

If your totals drop below EUR 10,000 for both the current and the previous year (for example after refunds or a recalculation), destination rates are no longer required. The plugin then:

  • Sends a “rates no longer required” email alert (this alert is part of the free plugin).
  • Shows a dismissible notice on the dashboard — “Destination VAT rates may no longer be required” — with two one-click actions:
    • Remove VAT rates — deletes all auto-imported VAT XX rates from the WooCommerce tax tables. Rates you created yourself are not touched.
    • Disable auto-apply — turns the auto-apply setting off.

Limitations

  • Standard rates only. The plugin imports each member state’s standard VAT rate. Reduced and zero rates for specific product categories are not handled — configure those manually if they apply to your catalog.
  • Not tax advice. Whether and when destination VAT applies to your business should be confirmed with a qualified tax professional.