Set customers with a disability as VAT-exempt

In some countries, such as the UK, persons with a disability should not be charged VAT on certain products. 

Usually, the tax exemption applies to products designed or adapted for people with any kind of disability such as wheelchairs, medical appliances, and alarms.

If your Shopify store sells this kind of products, Sufio will help you automatically set customers with disabilities as tax-exempt so they are not charged VAT during checkout.

Add a disability field to the Customer Registration form

Sufio allows you to add an I am disabled checkbox to the Customer Registration form. This will allow your customers to declare themselves as disabled when they set up their customer accounts in your online store.

Shopify customer registration VAT-exempt disabled

Example of a Customer Registration form with the disability field

Such customers will then be tagged as disabled in your Shopify store and automatically set as tax-exempt.

To add the disability field to the Customer Registration form:

  1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Online Store → Themes page.
  2. Click the Actions button, then click Edit code.
  3. Select customers/register.liquid in the left sidebar. You might use the upper search bar for a faster search.
  4. Insert the following code snippet inside the <form>. A good place for the field is below the Password field.
<!-- Shopify customer registration -- checkbox for disabled customers. Used by Sufio for Shopify (www.sufio.com/shopify). -->
<p>
  <input type="checkbox" id="Disability" name="customer[tags]" value="disabled" />
  <label for="Disability" class="inline">I am disabled</label>
</p>
  1. Select index.liquid in the left sidebar.
  2. Insert the following code snippet at the end of this file.
{% if customer.tags contains 'disabled' %}
<!-- Shopify customer account -- set disabled customer as VAT exempt. Used by Sufio for Shopify (www.sufio.com/shopify). -->
<script type="text/javascript">
  function getCookieValue(a) { var b = document.cookie.match('(^|;)\\s*' + a + '\\s*=\\s*([^;]+)'); return b ? b.pop() : ''; }
  
  document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) {
    var email = "{{ customer.email }}";
    if (getCookieValue("sufio_vat_email_disabled") != email) {
      document.cookie = "sufio_vat_email_disabled="+email+";expires=Tue, 31 Dec 2030 00:00:00 GMT;path=/";
      $.ajax({
        type : "GET",
        dataType: "jsonp",
        url: "/apps/sufio/customer-vat/",
        data: { email: "{{ customer.email }}", force_tax_exempt: true }
      });
    };
  });
</script>
{% endif %}

Need help?

Do you need help with customizing your Shopify store theme? Please contact our experienced support team. We'll be happy to assist!

Caution

To make VAT exemptions work, you need to enable EU VAT exemptions in your Sufio account and correctly set up EU taxes in your Shopify store.

View VAT Exemptions

When your business customer enters a VAT registration number using the newly added VAT registration number field, a VAT exemption request will be listed on the View VAT Exemptions page in your Sufio account.

EU VAT Exemptions page in Sufio

An overview of VAT Exemption requests from the EU business customers

On this page, you can access all successful and unsuccessful exemption requests made on your Shopify store. The provided filtering options make it possible for you to quickly review and troubleshoot the VAT exemption requests when needed.

To access the View VAT Exemptions page:

  1. In your Sufio account, go to the Settings → Taxes page.
  2. Click on View VAT Exemptions.

See also

To learn more about its useful features and statuses, have a look at our View VAT Exemptions article.

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