EU Tax Compliance Features
If your business is based in the EU, you can now manage VAT obligations for your affiliate program directly from your dashboard — including VAT validation, automatic calculations, self-billing invoices, and tax exports.
What's new
Require Tax Information Before Payout
You can now require affiliates to provide their invoice and tax details before they can complete registration or receive payouts. When enabled, affiliates must fill in their legal entity information, address, and — for EU-based businesses — a valid VAT number.
To enable this, go to your campaign settings and toggle on Require Invoice Information from Affiliates. Affiliates who haven't completed their tax details will be unable to access the dashboard until they do, and they'll be excluded from payout batches.
VAT Number Validation via VIES
VAT numbers entered by affiliates (or by you on their behalf) are validated in real-time against the EU VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) registry. As they type, the system checks the number format and verifies it against VIES, showing a status indicator (checking, valid, or invalid).
Validation is resilient — if the VIES registry is temporarily unavailable, affiliates can still save their details. The system retries with exponential backoff and caches successful validations.
Automatic VAT Zone Classification
Every affiliate is automatically classified into one of three VAT zones based on their country, entity type, and your business location:
- Domestic — Affiliate is in the same EU member state as your business
- Intra-EU — Affiliate is in a different EU member state
- Non-EU — Affiliate is outside the EU
This classification drives all downstream tax calculations and reporting.
VAT Auto-Calculations on Payouts
VAT is automatically calculated when payouts are processed:
- Domestic (same EU country, B2B): Standard VAT rate applied (e.g. 21% for Netherlands). Invoice note: "Incl. 21% BTW" (NL) or "Incl. X% VAT"
- Intra-EU (different EU country, B2B): Reverse charge at 0%. Invoice note: "VAT reverse charged - Article 196 VAT Directive"
- Non-EU: Outside scope of EU VAT, 0%
- Individual affiliates: No VAT applied regardless of location
The calculated VAT amount, rate, and zone are stored with each payout and visible in the payout details.
Self-Billing Invoice Generation
Self-billing invoices are automatically generated for payouts, complete with:
- Sequential invoice numbers with customizable prefix
- Commission subtotal and VAT breakdown
- Correct VAT treatment based on the affiliate's zone classification
- Reverse charge notes for intra-EU transactions (Article 196 VAT Directive)
- Footer note: "This invoice was issued by the customer (self-billing) under prior agreement"
- Affiliate VAT number display where applicable
Tax Exports (Netherlands)
For businesses registered in the Netherlands, two CSV exports are available:
ICP Report — Lists all intra-EU B2B payouts for a selected period, with country code, affiliate VAT number, and total commission amount. Ready for your ICP (Intracommunautaire Prestaties) filing.
BTW Summary — Aggregates payouts into the standard Dutch BTW rubrics:
- 1a: Output VAT (21%)
- 2a: Reverse charge
- 4a/4b: Intra-EU and non-EU services
- 5b: Reclaimable VAT totals
Both exports are available under Tax management in your invoice settings, with preview and CSV download.
Setup
- Go to your campaign settings and enable Require Invoice Information from Affiliates (optional but recommended)
- Fill in your business legal entity details under Tax management in invoice settings, including your VAT number
- VAT zone classification, calculations, and invoice generation happen automatically from there
Important notes
- VAT auto-calculations only apply when the merchant is an EU-based business
- Individual affiliates (non-business) are not charged VAT
- Intra-EU B2B affiliates without a VAT number may be flagged for manual tax review
- ICP and BTW exports are currently available for Netherlands-based businesses