UK VAT number check

This plugin checks the VAT numbers of your customers of the United Kingdom against the official "Check a UK VAT number" API of HMRC, so that a British business is recognised as a company with a valid VAT number on your shop, and is granted the VAT exemption your tax rules give them.

Since the United Kingdom left the European Union, the VIES service of the European Commission only answers for the businesses under the Northern Ireland protocol, whose numbers start with XI. A normal GB number cannot be verified there at all. This plugin fills that gap: GB numbers go to HMRC, and everything else keeps going to VIES as before.

• Verifies the VAT numbers starting with GB against the "Check a UK VAT number" API of HMRC, in real time, while your customer fills in their address.
• A number nobody is registered under is refused with a clear message, so your customer can correct it instead of ordering without the exemption they expected.
• The name and the address that HMRC holds for the number are written in the HikaShop log file, so you can check who you sold to afterwards.
• Optional proof of the check: enter the VAT number of your own business and HMRC returns a consultation number for every verification, which is your evidence that you did the check. It is written in the log file with the rest.
• You decide what happens when the check cannot be made at all, for instance if HMRC is down or your credentials expire: accept the number, or refuse it until the service is back.
• Nothing else changes. The numbers of the European Union and those of the Northern Ireland protocol keep being checked against VIES by HikaShop itself.
• The access token of HMRC is obtained once and reused until it expires, so a busy checkout does not multiply the calls, and a token revoked early is renewed on its own.
• Works against the sandbox of HMRC while you test, and against the production environment on your live shop.

• 1) Register an application on the Developer Hub of HMRC and subscribe it to the "Check a UK VAT number" API. Approval takes around two weeks, and you accept the terms of use of HMRC at that point.
• 2) Download the plugin on our website via the download link provided to you after the purchase.
• 3) Install it on your Joomla website (extension manager).
• 4) Enable the plugin "Hikashop - UK VAT check" in the Joomla plugin manager.
• 5) Enter the client ID and the client secret of your HMRC application in the settings of the plugin.
• 6) In the HikaShop configuration, make sure the "VAT check" setting is on "Check the VAT number online".
• Note: this plugin needs a HikaShop of the 26th of August 2026 or later, the version which lets a United Kingdom address carry a GB VAT number. Update HikaShop first if your shop is older than that.

Once the plugin is enabled and your credentials are entered, there is nothing to do. When a customer of the United Kingdom types a VAT number starting with GB, the plugin asks HMRC whether it is registered before HikaShop applies your tax rules. A number HMRC does not know is refused with a message asking your customer to check it.

Start on the sandbox environment with the test VAT numbers published by HMRC, confirm in the HikaShop log file that the answers arrive, then switch to production with your live credentials.

The plugin does not touch the numbers of any other country. The numbers of the European Union, and the XI numbers of the businesses under the Northern Ireland protocol, keep going to VIES as they always did.