Value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax on the value added to goods and services; in our case, digital products. Perfmatters is sold by forgemedia LLC, a business registered in the United States. However, we are still required to charge value-added tax (VAT) for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions to those in the EU and the UK. The VAT rate is set by each country.
For business-to-business transactions (B2B), we do what is called a reverse-charge VAT. If your business is registered in the EU or the UK and you a valid VAT number, you will be exempt from VAT. You simply need to enter a valid VAT number on checkout.
Troubleshooting
If you are getting an error when trying to check your VAT ID on checkout, follow the recommendations below.
Confirm correct VAT ID format
Make sure you are typing the VAT ID in the correct format, including the two-character country code. For example, a VAT ID for Germany will look something this: DE123456789.
Make sure you’re using a valid VAT ID number
Check that your VAT number is up to date and valid. If you are in the EU, you can do this on the European Commission’s website. This is a real-time system that checks the validity of VAT identification numbers against the databases maintained by member states.
If you are in the UK, you can do this on the GOV.UK website. This is a real-time system that checks the validity of VAT identification numbers against the databases maintained by businesses registered in the UK.
If your VAT number appears as invalid, unfortunately, there is nothing we can do. You would need to reach out to your own tax authority for assistance.
SOAP-ERROR
If you get the following error, it most likely means that the EU VIES database is down. They are quick to fix this. We recommend trying to purchase again in a few minutes.
SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn’t load from ‘http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl’: Premature end of data in tag html line 1
FAQs
If your billing address is registered outside of the EU or UK, you will not be charged VAT on checkout. This is automatically determined by the country you choose.
At this time, we only support reverse-charge on VAT for customers in the EU or UK with valid VAT numbers.
VAT is collected by us and submitted each quarter to its respective EU member state or UK tax authority.