Quoting or accepting an invalid value added tax (VAT) ID costs real money. An invalid supplier or customer VAT ID means you lose zero-rating on intra-EU supplies. It means input VAT deductions get denied. It means fines from national tax authorities.
Verify every EU VAT number free on the European Commission’s VIES tool, the VAT Information Exchange System (VIES). It returns valid or invalid in real time. This guide covers the formats, the walkthrough, and why a valid number can still show invalid.
What Is a VAT ID in the EU?
A VAT identification number (VATIN) is the unique number national tax authorities issue to entities registered for VAT. Article 214 of the EU VAT Directive (2006/112/EC) requires member states to identify every taxable person making deductible supplies. It appears on invoices, VAT returns, and official communications with tax authorities. It is not a general business registration number.
A VAT ID confers two distinct rights. First, the right to charge VAT on your sales. Second, the right to claim input VAT deductions on your purchases. It is also the gate to intra-EU business-to-business (B2B) treatment, meaning the reverse charge and zero-rated intra-community supplies. That is why you verify it before you invoice.
The terms “VAT ID,” “VAT number,” “VAT registration number,” and “EU tax registration number” are used interchangeably here. Standard VAT rates across the 27 EU member states run from 17% in Luxembourg to 27% in Hungary, per the European Commission’s Your Europe portal, and cannot fall below the 15% floor set by Article 97 of the VAT Directive.
Is a VAT ID the Same as a Domestic VAT Number?
No. Several countries issue a domestic VAT number separate from the intra-EU VAT ID, and only the intra-EU ID validates on VIES. Germany is the clearest example: the Steuernummer is the domestic number, and the USt-IdNr. is the intra-EU ID. This gap explains most “invalid on VIES” confusion.
If you trade with German counterparties, our guide on how to verify a German VAT ID walks through the Steuernummer versus USt-IdNr. distinction in detail.
What Is the VAT ID Number Format by Country?
Every EU VAT ID starts with an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code, then a country-specific block of roughly 2 to 13 digits or letters. Article 215 of the VAT Directive sets the prefix rule and lets Greece use EL instead of GR. The table below lists all 27 member-state prefixes and formats.
| Country | Prefix | Format | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | AT | ATU + 8 digits (U is fixed) | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Belgium | BE | BE + 10 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Bulgaria | BG | BG + 9 or 10 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Croatia | HR | HR + 11 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Cyprus | CY | CY + 8 digits + 1 letter | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Czech Republic | CZ | CZ + 8, 9, or 10 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Denmark | DK | DK + 8 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Estonia | EE | EE + 9 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Finland | FI | FI + 8 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| France | FR | FR + 2 check characters (can be letters) + 9 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Germany | DE | DE + 9 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Greece | EL | EL + 9 digits (EL, not GR) | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Hungary | HU | HU + 8 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Ireland | IE | IE + 8 or 9 characters (digits and letters) | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Italy | IT | IT + 11 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Latvia | LV | LV + 11 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Lithuania | LT | LT + 9 or 12 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Luxembourg | LU | LU + 8 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Malta | MT | MT + 8 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Netherlands | NL | NL + 12 characters (contains a letter) | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Poland | PL | PL + 10 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Portugal | PT | PT + 9 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Romania | RO | RO + 2 to 10 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Slovakia | SK | SK + 10 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Slovenia | SI | SI + 8 digits | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Spain | ES | ES + 1 character + 7 digits + 1 character | VAT Directive + national authority |
| Sweden | SE | SE + 12 digits (ends in 01) | VAT Directive + national authority |
Watch three quirks. Greece uses EL, not GR. Northern Ireland uses XI post-Brexit for goods trade, while Great Britain GB numbers no longer validate on VIES, per UK government guidance. France, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Cyprus include letters, not just digits.
How Do I Verify a VAT ID Online With VIES?
Use the European Commission’s VIES tool, free, at ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies. VIES is a real-time search engine, not a central database. It forwards each query to the relevant national tax authority and returns the answer. Select the member state, enter the number without the country prefix, then submit.
Entering the prefix inside the number field is a common user error, because the dropdown already sets the country. Whether the tool returns the associated name and address depends on each member state’s data protection rules, so some countries return them and some withhold them.
What Does the VIES Result Mean?
Valid means the number is currently registered for intra-EU transactions in that member state’s database. Invalid does not always mean fake. The European Commission’s Your Europe guidance names three official causes: the number does not exist, it is not activated for intra-EU transactions, or the registration is not yet finalised. “Service unavailable” means the national database is down, so retry later.
What Is the VIES Consultation Number?
VIES issues a unique consultation number as timestamped proof you ran the check. In the Commission’s VIES web service, this `requestIdentifier` returns only when you supply your own requester VAT number alongside the number you are checking. Record it. It is your audit defence when you apply zero-rating to intra-EU supplies.
Why Is My VAT Number Showing Invalid on VIES?
The most common reason is that the business holds only a domestic VAT registration and never activated an intra-EU VAT ID, so VIES has nothing to return. The European Commission’s Your Europe portal names three official causes: the number does not exist, it is not activated for intra-EU transactions, or the registration is not yet finalised. The table below covers the practical causes and fixes.
| Cause | What it looks like | Fix | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic-only registration | Valid nationally, invalid on VIES | Ask your national authority to add you to the intra-EU (VIES) register | EC Your Europe |
| Newly issued number, not yet propagated | Invalid right after registration | Wait, then re-check; changes are not always reflected immediately | EC Your Europe |
| Wrong or duplicated prefix (EL vs GR, XI vs GB) | Invalid or wrong-country result | Use EL for Greece and XI for Northern Ireland; enter the number without the prefix | UK gov / VAT Directive |
| Typos or missing digits | Invalid result | Recheck length and characters against the format table above | Format table |
| National database unavailable | “Service unavailable” message | Check the VIES availability dashboard, then retry | EC self-monitoring |
| Genuine deregistration | Previously valid, now invalid | Confirm current status with the counterparty or national authority | EC Your Europe |
You can confirm whether a specific country’s database is down on the VIES self-monitoring dashboard, which covers all 27 EU member states plus Northern Ireland (XI).
What Are the Consequences of Using an Invalid VAT ID?
An invalid VAT ID gets you denied zero-rating on intra-EU supplies, denied input VAT deductions, and fines from national tax authorities. A supplier that cannot validate a customer’s VAT ID may have to charge domestic VAT instead of zero-rating the cross-border supply, which raises the invoice and can lose the deal.
Penalty regimes differ by member state, so check your own national tax authority’s rules for exact penalty, fine, and interest amounts. Counterparty due-diligence policies matter too. Many partners run VAT ID validation before onboarding, so an invalid ID costs you deals and reputation on top of the tax exposure.
How Can Businesses Verify VAT IDs in Bulk?
VIES has no bulk upload in its web tool, so teams checking many counterparties use the VIES web-service application programming interface (API) directly, or a third-party service with comma-separated values (CSV) upload and API validation. Re-verify quarterly and before large payments. Log the consultation number from each check.
Commenda’s global indirect tax software validates VAT IDs in bulk by CSV and API, and its Global Tax ID Verification tool checks VAT and other tax IDs across countries in one place. That removes the one-by-one manual VIES lookup for a large vendor base.
How Commenda Helps With VAT ID Verification
Commenda’s global indirect tax software validates VAT IDs in bulk by CSV and API, and it tracks your VAT registrations and filings across countries so nothing lapses unnoticed. The Global Tax ID Verification tool checks VAT and other tax IDs across borders, and Commenda supports 100+ ERPs (enterprise resource planning systems), APIs, and custom integrations so validation runs inside your existing stack.
Book a demo call for a free walkthrough of automated VAT number validation across your entire vendor base.
