Description¶ ↑

Use this plugin to validate VAT numbers for european countries as well as to get the tax rate depending on the country of the buyer.

Basic Usage¶ ↑

To validate a model field as a valid intracom VAT number :

validates :vat_number, :vat => true

It may be optional like this :

validates :vat_number, :vat => true, :allow_blank => true

If you want the VAT number’s country to match another kind of country field, use the ‘country_method’ option :

validates :vat_number, :vat => { :country_method => :my_method }

where it is supposed that your model has a method named ‘my_method’ which returns the country ISO code you want to match. The available country codes available for Europa are: DE, AT, BE, BG, CY, DK, ES, EE, FI, FR, EL, HU, IE, IT, LV, LT, LU, MT, NL, PL, PT, GB, RO, SK, SI, SE and CZ.

Example :

class Invoice < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates :vat_number, :vat => { :country_method => :country_code }

  # Logic to return the country code
  def country_code
    case country.downcase
      when 'belgium' then 'BE'
      when 'france'  then 'FR'
      when 'sweden'  then 'SE'
      # ...
      else nil
    end
  end
end

Validating the Number at VIES¶ ↑

It’s also possible to have the VAT number validated against Europa’s VIES webservice. Simply use the :vies option like this :

validates :vat_number, :vat => { :vies => true }

Keep in mind that the webservice might be offline at some time for some countries. Check the VIES FAQ for more information about that.

Getting the tax rate¶ ↑

First set the country of the seller in your config/application.rb file

config.vta_applied_for = 'FR' # or 'BE', etc....

Note: by default, the value of the vta_applied_for option is set to ‘FR’

Let’s review the different cases for a seller in France:

1. the seller is outside Europe

VatHelpers::Rate.get('US') # returns 0.0

1. the buyer is in France

VatHelpers::Rate.get('FR') # returns 19.6

1. the buyer is in Europe without a vat number

VatHelpers::Rate.get('BE') # returns 19.6

1. the buyer is in Europe with a vat number

VatHelpers::Rate.get('BE', { :vat_number => 'a_valid_vat_number' }) # returns 0.0

1. the buyer is in Martinique, Guadeloupe or la Réunion

VatHelpers::Rate.get('MQ') # returns 8.5

1. the buyer is in French Guyana

VatHelpers::Rate.get('GF') # returns 0.0

Installation¶ ↑

In your project’s Gemfile :

gem ‘vat_helpers’, :git => ‘git://github.com/did/vat_helpers.git’

Tests¶ ↑

If you want to run the specs :

rake spec

Credits¶ ↑

This plugin in released under MIT license by Aurélien Malisart (see MIT-LICENSE file).

Enhanced by Didier Lafforgue (didier@nocoffee.fr)

© aurelien.malisart.be