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Version: 1.x

Customer Tax IDs

WCPOS keeps a tax-ID field on your customers — a VAT number, ABN, CPF, GSTIN, NIF, and so on — for B2B sales where the buyer's tax identifier has to appear on the invoice. When an order is placed for a customer, WCPOS copies their tax ID onto the order so it can be printed on the receipt.

The Tax IDs section at WP Admin > POS > Settings > General controls how this field is detected and stored.

Plugins and field names​

Many WooCommerce plugins already add a VAT or tax-number field to customers, and they all use different database field names (meta keys) for it. So that your existing customer data keeps working — with no migration — WCPOS detects what you have installed and writes to the right field automatically.

WCPOS resolves the field name in this order:

  1. A recognised plugin is active — WCPOS writes back to that plugin's field. Detected plugins include:
    • WooCommerce EU VAT Number
    • Aelia EU VAT Assistant (including its verification status)
    • EU VAT for WooCommerce (WPFactory)
    • WooCommerce Germanized / Germanized Pro
    • Brazilian Market on WooCommerce / Extra Checkout Fields for Brazil
    • NIF/CIF Spain
  2. No recognised plugin — WCPOS scans recent orders for whatever VAT/CPF/etc. field is already in use and writes to that.
  3. Nothing found — WCPOS falls back to sensible defaults (_billing_vat_number for VAT-style IDs, _billing_cpf / _billing_cnpj for Brazil, _billing_gstin for India, and so on).

Choosing the field name yourself​

To override the detected field name, go to WP Admin > POS > Settings > General, open the Tax IDs section, and expand Advanced: use a different field name.

A banner there shows which plugin was auto-detected (or "no plugin detected", with the built-in defaults in use). The override input has a typeahead that suggests the meta keys other plugins commonly use. Clear the input to drop your override and go back to the automatic field name.

note

Only the customer-facing tax-ID types appear in this editor. Company-registry identifiers like the German USt-IdNr. or Dutch KVK number are store-level fields — see Store Tax IDs.

Tax IDs are copied onto orders​

When an order is placed, the customer's tax IDs are snapshotted onto the order — the order keeps the values that were on file at the moment of sale.

  • Editing a customer's tax ID later does not rewrite their past orders.
  • A tax ID a cashier enters at checkout overrides the value from the customer record for that order.
  • Editing an existing order only changes its tax IDs if the update explicitly includes them; WCPOS never re-copies from the customer record.

This keeps historical invoices accurate even after a customer's details change.

Supported types​

EU VAT, GB VAT, SA VAT, Australian ABN, Brazilian CPF / CNPJ, Indian GSTIN, Italian Codice Fiscale and Partita IVA, Spanish NIF, Argentine CUIT, Canadian GST/HST, and US EIN — plus a generic Tax ID for anything else.

Finding customers by tax ID​

Customer search in the POS also matches tax-ID values, including the older plugin field names, so a cashier can look a customer up by their VAT number, CPF, or NIF.

On receipts​

Customer tax IDs appear on receipts that show customer details, with the correct localised label for each type. VAT numbers are country-prefixed (for example DE123456789).

Store Tax IDsYour business's tax IDs on receipts
CustomersManaging customers in the POS
Receipt DataTemplate variable reference