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Company Lookup and EU VAT: benefits ​

Registering a business account is where B2B signups stall. The buyer has to type a company name, a registration number, a VAT number, and a full address, and any typo in the VAT number turns into a tax problem later. This extension fills the form from the company register and then keeps the VAT status verified on its own.

Key business benefits ​

  • Business registration becomes one field - The buyer types a registration number and confirms a modal. Company name, address, region, postcode, registration number, and VAT number are all filled from the register.
  • No mistyped VAT or registration numbers - The values come from the source register rather than from the buyer's memory, so a wrong number does not surface later at invoicing.
  • VAT status stays current without anyone checking it - A VAT registration that lapses is caught by the nightly VIES check and the customer moves to the non-VAT group, so tax stops being calculated on stale information.
  • Reverse charge is applied automatically - Intra-EU B2B sales to a VAT-registered buyer are zero-rated without an admin deciding case by case.
  • Cross-border B2C gets destination VAT - Consumer sales into another member state are charged that country's standard rate, which is the treatment OSS reporting expects.
  • Latvian domestic reverse charge is supported - Product tax classes covered by Art. 143.1 are zero-rated for Latvian VAT-registered buyers.
  • No provider accounts to buy - Both DatReal and the EU VIES service are called without an API key, so there is no subscription and no quota to manage.

Example use cases ​

  • A Baltic wholesaler taking online orders - Trade customers self-register with a registration number, get verified against VIES, and land in the right tax group without an account manager touching anything.
  • A store selling to both businesses and consumers - The two customer groups keep the tax treatment separate, and the group assignment follows the VAT check rather than a checkbox the buyer ticked.
  • Cleaning up an existing B2B customer base - The nightly sync re-checks every customer's VAT number, which surfaces registrations that lapsed since the account was created.

What to weigh first ​

The tax engine is built around a Latvian supplier selling into the EU, and it changes core tax settings when it installs.

  • Installing creates customer groups and tax classes, repoints the core General group's tax class, creates a Latvian tax rule, and sets tax calculation to the shipping address. On a store with existing tax rules this needs review first.
  • The EU VAT rules are on by default, so tax behaviour changes as soon as the module is installed.
  • The nightly job moves every customer with no VAT ID into the non-VAT group, which overwrites manually assigned groups.
  • Company lookup covers Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland. VAT validation covers all 27 member states.
  • One standard VAT rate per country is supported, so a catalog with reduced rates needs a different approach for cross-border consumer sales.

The overview page lists these in full under What installation changes and Limits to check before going live. Read both before installing on a live store.