Free tool
Check an EU VAT number
Look a VAT number up in VIES, the European Commission’s official register, before you invoice a customer in another EU country. Free, and it takes a second.
- Free
- No sign-up
- The lookup runs against the European Commission’s VIES
Answer from VIES
The answer appears here: whether the number is registered for EU trade, the name and address if VIES returns them, and the time of the lookup.
Before you invoice
Why this matters when you invoice abroad
Reverse charge needs a valid number
Selling to a VAT registered business in another EU country, you normally invoice without VAT and the buyer accounts for it. That treatment depends on the buyer having a valid EU VAT number.
Check it, and keep the proof
If the number turns out to be invalid, the tax authority can come back to you for the VAT. Checking before you invoice, and noting the date you checked, is your documentation.
The number goes on the invoice
Both your own VAT number and the customer’s belong on a reverse charge invoice, together with a note that the reverse charge applies.
Formats
EU VAT numbers: country code and format
An EU VAT number is always the country code followed by a national number. The format differs from country to country. The examples below are made up and only show the shape.
- Austria U and 8 digits ATU12345678
- Belgium 10 digits BE0123456789
- Bulgaria 9 or 10 digits BG123456789
- Croatia 11 digits HR12345678901
- Cyprus 8 digits and a letter CY12345678X
- Czechia 8–10 digits CZ12345678
- Denmark 8 digits DK12345678
- Estonia 9 digits EE123456789
- Finland 8 digits FI12345678
- France 2 characters and 9 digits FR12345678901
- Germany 9 digits DE123456789
- Greece 9 digits EL123456789
- Hungary 8 digits HU12345678
- Ireland 8 or 9 characters IE1234567X
- Italy 11 digits IT12345678901
- Latvia 11 digits LV12345678901
- Lithuania 9 or 12 digits LT123456789
- Luxembourg 8 digits LU12345678
- Malta 8 digits MT12345678
- Netherlands 9 digits, B and 2 digits NL123456789B01
- Northern Ireland 9 or 12 digits XI123456789
- Poland 10 digits PL1234567890
- Portugal 9 digits PT123456789
- Romania 2–10 digits RO12345678
- Slovakia 10 digits SK1234567890
- Slovenia 8 digits SI12345678
- Spain 9 characters, first and last may be letters ESX1234567X
- Sweden 12 digits, ending in 01 SE123456789001
FAQ
Questions about VAT numbers
What is VIES?
VIES is the European Commission’s VAT Information Exchange System. It asks each member state’s own tax registry whether a VAT number is valid for cross-border trade, so the answer comes from the country itself rather than from a copied list.
What is the VAT register?
The VAT register is the list of businesses registered for VAT. Every EU country keeps its own, and VIES is the European Commission’s lookup across them, which the tool above queries. For a Danish business you can also see the VAT registration in the CVR register on virk.dk.
What is a Danish VAT number?
In Denmark your VAT number is DK followed by your 8 digit CVR number. So CVR 12345678 becomes DK12345678. Enter just the digits above and pick Denmark.
The number came back invalid. Is the company fake?
Not necessarily. VIES answers one narrow question: is this number registered for intra-EU trade right now. A real, trading company can be registered only domestically and still show as invalid here. Ask the customer to confirm the number before drawing any conclusion.
Do I have to check my customer’s VAT number?
If you invoice without VAT under the reverse charge rules, you need to be able to show the number was valid. Checking it and recording the date is the simple way to document that.
Why is Greece EL and not GR?
For VAT purposes Greece uses the code EL, even though its country code is GR everywhere else. Northern Ireland uses XI since Brexit. Both are handled above.
Is anything stored?
No. The number is passed to the official VIES service to get the answer and is not stored by SEJR.
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