EU VAT checker. Shoppers can fool checker into not charging VAT

[stephenhare]

Hi,

I have come across a problem with the EU VAT checker extension that is sold on this site, and I guess used by many people. I wonder if anyone else has come across this and can suggest any answers?

This applies to any standard site using this extension. If you use it, try this and see if it happens to you!

It seems that any customer can easily fool the checkout into not charging VAT.
There are 2 scenarios where this can happen:

Scenario 1
A registered customer with an address in the EU who should be paying vat can easily avoid doing so. All he needs to do is to add a shipping address in in the cart that is outside the EU and the VAT is removed from the amount that he has to pay.

Then he just needs to click the"Use bill to for ship to address" box immediately before clicking "checkout now" and the order is placed with delivery to the billing address in the EU (where vat should be paid) but no vat is charged!

Scenario 2
This is similar to to Scenario 1 in that a shipping address outside Europe is added and an order is completed for shipment out of the EU (correctly without VAT). Then another order is created whilst still logged in. The second order will display the shipping address for the first order, but the customer wants to direct the shipment to his billing address. He clicks the "Use bill to for ship to address" box and then click Checkout Now. Again VAT is not charged.

Both these scenarios can occur by accident, or on purpose by someone with knowledge of this problem.

Suggestion on overcoming this would be appreciated.

Thanks, Stephen

[Milbo]

Thank you for pointing this out. I will write a fix to prevent this.

But you can also prevent it using the option "use BT address", which is imho anyway safer (also for the tax itself).