VIES VAT check: free live EU VAT number validation

What a VIES VAT check tells you

VIES is the VAT Information Exchange System of the European Commission. It works as a search tool. Each check goes to the tax office of the EU country in the number, and that tax office gives the answer. Each EU country keeps its own register of VAT numbers.

The answer is valid or invalid. Valid means the tax office has registered the number for trade with other EU countries. Where the country allows it, you also see the company name and address. Germany, for example, confirms only whether the number is valid. That result is still a full check.

Why a VAT number shows as invalid

An invalid result means the tax office of that country reports the number as unknown or inactive for trade with other EU countries. The usual reasons:

• A typing error. Check the country code and the number of characters. Greece uses the code EL, and Austrian numbers start with ATU.
• A domestic registration only. Some countries register a company for VAT at home first, and for trade with other EU countries in a separate step.
• A new or changed registration. Only the tax office of that country updates its data in VIES.
• An ended registration. The company stopped its VAT registration, or the tax office ended it.

Ask your customer to confirm the number. If the result stays the same, your customer asks its own tax office to update the VIES data. Until the number is valid, you invoice with VAT.

A message that VIES is busy means something else: the service of that country is offline for a moment. Try again a few minutes later.

How up to date VIES is

VIES answers in real time. Each check asks the tax office of the country in the number at that moment. Only that tax office can change its data, for example for a new registration or a new address.

This tool keeps a valid result for one hour and an invalid result for 15 minutes, to spare the VIES service. The result always shows the date of the check at VIES. With your own VAT number added, every check is live.

What a valid VAT number means for your 0% invoice

Goods to a business in another EU country. You invoice at 0% VAT, as an intra-Community supply, when three things are true. Your customer is registered for VAT in another EU country. Your customer has given you that VAT number. And you send the goods from the Netherlands to another EU country. Since 1 January 2020, EU law also links the 0% rate to your EU sales list (ICP declaration), so report every such sale there.

Services to a business in another EU country. For most services, your customer pays the VAT in its own country. This is the reverse charge. On the invoice, you leave out the VAT, write “VAT reversed” (in Dutch: btw verlegd) and add your customer’s VAT number. You usually report these services in your EU sales list as well.

An invalid number. Then the sale counts as a domestic sale. You charge VAT at the rate of your own country: in the Netherlands, usually 21%. If you send a 0% invoice anyway, the tax office can claim the VAT from your company.

More detail: intra-Community supplies and the EU sales list, the reverse charge in the Netherlands and invoices under the reverse charge.

How to keep proof of your VIES check

Save the result on the day of the check, together with the invoice. Print the result or save it as a PDF. It shows the VAT number, the result, the name and address where the country shares them, and the date.

For the strongest proof, add your own EU VAT number in the tool. VIES then returns a consultation number: a unique number that shows your company checked this VAT number on this date. The European Commission advises you to keep it in your archives.

The check is one part of your proof. For goods, also keep proof of the transport to another EU country, such as a signed transport document.

How often to check a VAT number

• Before the first 0% invoice to a new customer.
• When a customer changes its name, address or legal form.
• Every quarter for regular customers, at the same time as your EU sales list (ICP declaration).

EU VAT number formats

Greece uses the code EL in VIES. For Austria, type the U after AT. Source: VIES, European Commission.

UK and Northern Ireland VAT numbers

VIES covers the 27 EU countries and, for trade in goods, Northern Ireland: those numbers start with XI. Since 1 January 2021, UK numbers that start with GB are checked with the UK tax office, HMRC, through the GOV.UK service Check a UK VAT number.

Add this VAT check to your website

Accountants, trade portals and web shops can place this live VIES check on their own website for free. Paste this code into the HTML of your page:

<iframe id="hw-vat-check" src="https://holdwise.nl/en/vat-number-check-embed" title="EU VAT number check (VIES)" width="100%" height="560" style="border:0;max-width:640px" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font-size:13px;margin:6px 0 0"><a href="https://holdwise.nl/en/vat-number-check">VAT check by Holdwise</a></p>
<script>addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e.origin==="https://holdwise.nl"&&e.data&&e.data.hwVatHeight){document.getElementById("hw-vat-check").style.height=e.data.hwVatHeight+"px"}});</script>

The widget shows the same live check, with the result, the date and the consultation number. The short script sets the height of the widget to its content; where your site filters scripts, the widget keeps a height of 560 pixels. Each visitor can do up to 40 checks per hour. Please keep the credit link “VAT check by Holdwise” next to the widget. See the widget on its own: holdwise.nl/en/vat-number-check-embed.

Your own Dutch VAT number

Selling to businesses across the EU from the Netherlands? Your Dutch limited company (a BV) receives its VAT number from the Dutch tax office after the registration at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK). We set up your BV from abroad, with the tax and VAT numbers included. Our team works from Hoofddorp, next to Schiphol.

A company from outside the EU can also register for Dutch VAT directly, or use a fiscal representative for its Dutch VAT. See Dutch VAT registration, fiscal representation and bookkeeping in the Netherlands. Want our team to have a look?

Read next

See the VAT number and the EORI number, VAT registration for foreign companies and reclaiming Dutch VAT as a foreign business. To see which VAT registrations your company needs in Europe, use the EU VAT route finder.