Launch pricing: Lock in Pro at $79/yr before prices go up View pricing →
Pro feature

VAT rate importer

Overview

The VAT rate importer is a Pro feature that loads the standard VAT rate of every EU member state into your WooCommerce tax tables in a single click — no copying 26 rates out of a reference table by hand.

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

Running the import

  1. Go to WooCommerce → One Stop Shop → Settings.
  2. In the Tools section, click Import VAT rates.
  3. A summary appears when the import finishes, for example: “26 tax rates created, 0 skipped (already exist).”

The same import also runs automatically when you enable Auto-apply VAT rates and cross the threshold.

What gets imported

For each EU member state except your store’s home country, the importer creates one WooCommerce tax rate:

  • Name — VAT XX, where XX is the country code (for example VAT DE, VAT FR).
  • Rate — the country’s standard VAT rate, from the rate data bundled with the plugin (optionally refreshed from a remote source you configure under Settings → Tools).
  • Tax class — the standard class.
  • Shipping — the rate applies to shipping.

Your home country is skipped because your domestic rate is your own concern and is usually already configured.

Re-running the import

The import is safe to run again at any time:

  • Changed rates are updated in place. If a member state has changed its standard rate since the last import (for example Estonia moving from 22% to 24%), the existing VAT XX row is updated rather than a duplicate being inserted. WooCommerce never ends up with two competing standard rates for the same country.
  • Unchanged rates are skipped and counted in the result message.
  • Your own rates are never overwritten. If a country already has a merchant-created standard rate (any name other than VAT XX), that country is left untouched and reported separately: “N countries already had their own standard rates and were left untouched — review them manually.”

Configuration warnings

After an import, the result message warns you if your WooCommerce configuration would prevent the rates from being charged:

  • Taxes are disabled in WooCommerce — enable them under WooCommerce → Settings → General.
  • “Calculate tax based on” is set to your shop base address — destination-country rates can only apply when tax is calculated from the customer’s shipping or billing address (WooCommerce → Settings → Tax).

Removing imported rates

If destination rates stop being required (your totals fall below the threshold for both the current and previous year), the dashboard shows a notice with a one-click Remove VAT rates action that deletes all auto-imported VAT XX rates. See Auto-apply VAT rates. You can also delete or edit the rates manually at any time under WooCommerce → Settings → Tax → Standard rates — they are ordinary WooCommerce tax rates.

Limitations

  • Standard rates only. Reduced and zero rates for specific product categories are not imported — configure those manually if they apply to your catalog.