Proper TAX identification

André Daus That solution sounds great 👍

My concern is more on the core behavior and compliance side. In several jurisdictions (especially for B2B sales), showing taxes as “Tax Estimate” can be problematic and confusing for customers, as it suggests the final tax amount is not legally determined at checkout.

When I last tested FluentCart (December), there was also no native field for a proper national tax ID separate from the EU VAT number (e.g. ES VAT vs. other domestic identifiers), and the current approach -deriving it from the billing address as a separate field-made us hesitant to use it in production (this last, is just a matter of choice. Nothing wrong with that :) ).

I’ve just noticed the “Tax Estimate” wording is still mentioned in the official docs, which is why I raised the question so as to confirm if it's still the default wording. If your plugin already avoids that label in the UI, that’s definitely interesting!

Can you confirm that "Tax estimate" is no longer the official wording. Or it's just a customization from the plugin you mention?

Thank you André!

Jorge de los Reyes I checked again, but was unable to spot a "Tax Estimate" anymore. In Germany, we do not have the need for a national tax ID or number. I'd prefer a more customizable forms element in the checkout. With that, we could add whatever we needed, including styling, order, etc.

André Daus thank you for confirming this!

About customization: totally agree!

More flexibility on checkout fields is much needed. Also, custom forms (like in surecart) could make the difference for having different approaches, thank you pages, fields, etc

André Daus Nice workaround for the Tax Estimate issue.

But, proper identification I think is still missing.

I’ve checked some stores using FluentCart, and their EU VAT is not showing properly.

Eg.: German store does not show DE VAT, French one does not show FR VAT, Spanish ES VAT, etc.

Have you find a way to fix that too?

this should be core, but I think your solution could be handy in the meanwhile for this too!

Jorge de los Reyes What do you mean? The plugin also lets you change the name of the tax. And you can even make them appear in the native character set like cyrillic or greek. It’s the EU Tax Name Format in above’s screenshot 😎

So:

• “DE Regular Tax” becomes “USt. 19%”
• “PT Regular Tax” becomes “IVA 23%”
• “GR Regular Tax” becomes “ΦΠΑ 24%”

Or is there something else I missed?

André Daus Oh! Okey.

So this change in the naming, happens automatically?

What I have seen in some ecommerce using FluentCart is something like "DE Standard tax" instead of DE VAT reference.

So my main concern is, that when someone from the EU sets their location, they can see the VAT being charged (the one from the local store, when applicable; or the one from the customer's country, when applicable). With specific reference to the country VAT applied.

I am used to have this automatically approached, with no need of granular-country changes. So any clarification here I am sure could be pretty handy!

--
I guess that your plugin project is precisely addressing this, and it's not the native FluentCart core behaviour, isn't it? :) (reference: your screenshot)

Jorge de los Reyes It depends on how you set up the store. You can choose between OSS, local VAT only, and every EU country (not sure how exactly the options are named). I never tried OSS, but if you set to local only, (in my case) only German VAT would be calculated. If you set it to each EU country, the VAT changes depending on the setting how you calculate the VAT (I set it to billing address - is the only correct option here). But these settings are not a preference, each store owner should know what to select here. 🤷‍♂️

André Daus Yes, I get that part 🙂
My question is not about how VAT is calculated, but about how it is identified and displayed.

What I’m seeing in live stores using FluentCart is that only generic labels like Standard / Reduced or Tax Estimate are shown. The actual VAT being applied (e.g. DE VAT, FR VAT, local store VAT) is not clearly identified. Either the tax reverse notice, that is also compulsory in B2B and a basic tax rule on e-com plugins operating in the EU.

If OSS is used, or the store is under a volume-based exclusion regime, the VAT shown should clearly match the store VAT.
If OSS is not used, the VAT of each EU country should be identified accordingly. Most e-commerce software does this automatically once the correct regime is selected.

In FluentCart (at least in the stores I’ve reviewed), this identification is missing - even when billing country equals store country (where local VAT must apply). Showing only Tax Estimate or generic tax categories can be problematic from a tax-information standpoint.

That’s why I see this as a core issue, not something to be solved via Loco Translate or custom tweaks. It’s basic VAT identification and helps avoid potential compliance questions later.

That being said, keep us updated on your project. If this is skipped on the core, I am sure, many will be looking for your solution!

At least, those who want to avoid information requirements from the tax authorities...