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.

Reduced rates per tax class

With reduced VAT rates by product class enabled and tax classes mapped to OSS categories, the importer also creates one VAT XX row per mapped tax class, using each country’s reduced (or super-reduced) rate for that category. Products in a mapped WooCommerce tax class are then charged the destination country’s reduced rate at checkout, while everything else stays on the standard rate. With the feature disabled (the default), only standard rates are imported.

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 by default. Reduced and super-reduced rates are only imported for tax classes you have explicitly mapped with the reduced-rates option enabled; zero rates are never imported. Confirm with your tax advisor which of your products qualify for a reduced rate in each destination country.
• Conflicts skip the whole country. When a country is left untouched because you have your own standard rate there, its reduced-rate rows are skipped too, so a country’s rates are never half-imported.