This update details confirmed VAT rate changes and reduced rate adjustments for specific products in selected EU countries, effective 2026, based on official sources.
Only listed EU countries are affected. Changes concern E-commerce sales; services not usually sold online are excluded.
Important dates:
How to apply changes:
VAT changes applying 1st of January:
Austria:
0% VAT applies to women sanitary products products and contraceptives.
Finland
Reduced VAT rate decreases from 14% to 13.5%. This change applied to books (both printed and e-books/audio books)
Lithuania
Reduced rate of 9 percent is removed , new reduced rate of 12 percent is introduced . Selected goods and services move from 9% to 12%. Certain categories of food and printed/electronic/audio books move to the 5% reduced rate.
There shall a be an official list of foods to which the reduced rate will apply. Currently proposed scope of such products is:
Fresh fruits, vegetables, and berries (sold in Lithuania)
Fresh vegetables — HS Chapter 07 (e.g., potatoes 0701, tomatoes 0702, onions 0703, etc.)
Fresh fruit & nuts — HS Chapter 08 (e.g., apples/pears/quince 0808, citrus 0805, grapes 0806, etc.)
Berries (typical HS examples) — 0810 (strawberries, raspberries, currants, etc.), plus some berries can fall under other 08 headings depending on type
Organic products (and “national food quality system” products) when used in specified public-sector catering/meal provision)
Please , refer to https://finmin.lrv.lt/ for further information.
Slovakia
Selected ‘unhealthy’ food products move from 19% to 23%.
VAT changes applying 1st of April:
Sweden (Temporary until December 2027)
VAT on food is temporarily reduced to 6%.
Applying VAT rate changes in Shopify:
Shopify applies changes to standard VAT rates automatically. However, based on past experience, there may be a short delay before new VAT rates become active. Any tax overrides configured in your store must be checked and amended manually.
Overrides can be found in Shopify admin under Settings → Taxes and duties → European Union. Overrides may apply to products or shipping. All existing overrides must be reviewed and corrected.
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In the EU Section, you can view any configured overrides in your store. Overrides may apply to products (with multiple sequences possible) or shipping rates. All existing overrides should be reviewed and corrected.
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Shopify Based Book Stores:
In a bookstore, there may be up to four sets or sequences of overrides: one for shipping and up to three for products (Printed books, E-books, Audio books). It is necessary to review all sets of overrides and adjust the 5 percent rate for Romania to 11 percent.
Find Finland in the list , press 3 dots and choose “Edit”:
Edit the override by changing 14 to 13.5 and pressing “Save”:
Repeat the operation on all Finland entries found in the overrides section (you may have up to 4 sets of overrides for Finland – for printed books, E-books, Audio books and (shipping if you don't sell anything else physical than books).
Repeat the process for Lithuania changing 9 to 5 percent.
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WooCommerce:
Most VAT rate changes will be applied automatically if the EAS EU Compliance plugin is set to auto-update. Nevertheless, merchants are advised to verify VAT rates in WooCommerce settings.
Note that not all the WooCommerce stores are configured to have the VAT rates set in the tax options section.
Before 01.01.2026.
To enable automatic updates, go to your WooCommerce admin menu, select “Plugins” “Installed plugins”, find the “EAS EU compliance” plugin, and ensure the auto update option says “Disable auto update”. This indicates that auto update is enabled.