Troubleshooting

Updated 15 September 2026

On this page

• The VAT field does not show
• The VAT always uses the same rate
• “This form has expired. Please reload the page and try again.”
• “Your VAT number validation has expired. Please validate it again.”
• “The EU VIES service is temporarily unavailable…”
• “Vat number not found in VIES Database”
• “Billing country mismatch” while testing
• “Submitted value (…) does not match expected value (…)” on the Total field
• The order summary shows the VAT as a product

Something not working as expected? Find your problem below. Still stuck? Turn on logging for the EU Vat Add-On under Forms > Settings > Logging, try again and contact support with the log file.

The VAT field does not show

• The field only shows for EU countries. Pick an EU country in the billing address, or turn on “Apply VAT worldwide” if you also charge VAT outside the EU.
• Check that an Address field is selected under “Select billing address field” and that the country box of that Address field is not hidden.
• Did you add your own conditional logic to the VAT field? Your rules and the EU rule both have to allow the field. See Billing address and EU countries.

The VAT always uses the same rate

That happens when no billing address is linked, when “Disable variable VAT” is on, or when the customer is outside the EU and “Apply VAT worldwide” is on. In all these cases the rate of your default tax country is used.

“This form has expired. Please reload the page and try again.”

Gravity Forms 3 checks that a form is not older than two days when it is submitted. A page cache that keeps the page with your form longer than that triggers this message. Exclude the page with your form from your cache, or clear it more often.

“Your VAT number validation has expired. Please validate it again.”

A validated VAT number stays valid for one hour. When your customer submits later, they have to press Validate again. You can make the hour longer with the gotreu_vies_transient_expiration filter.

“The EU VIES service is temporarily unavailable…”

The European VIES database relies on a service in every EU country, and those are sometimes down or busy. It’s not a problem with the VAT number or with your website. Ask your customer to try again a few minutes later.

“Vat number not found in VIES Database”

VIES doesn’t know the number. Check it for typos. Greek numbers start with EL, not GR. Some companies have a national VAT number that is not registered for trade within the EU; those don’t show up in VIES.

“Billing country mismatch” while testing

With “Validate Billing Country” on, the country of the visitor’s IP address has to match as well. On a local or staging website, behind some proxies and with a VPN, that country can’t be found or is wrong, so the check fails. Test this setting on your live website, or turn it off on your test site. Read more: Billing country and company name validation

“Submitted value (…) does not match expected value (…)” on the Total field

Gravity Forms 3 compares the total in the browser with the total it calculates itself. When they differ, usually a code snippet or another plugin changes a price only in the browser. The most common one: the old snippet to reverse charge VAT numbers from your own country, see Upgrading to 1.1. The Discount field of GP eCommerce Fields causes this as well, it is not supported together with EU VAT.

The order summary shows the VAT as a product

GP eCommerce Fields replaces the order summary of every form with its own version while it is active. The amounts and the total are still correct. Read more: Taxable products, shipping and coupons