How to validate an EU VAT number with VIES, and why the result matters

VIES, the VAT Information Exchange System, is the European Commission's service for confirming that a VAT identification number is registered for intra-EU transactions in a Member State. It is free, it is the check tax authorities expect you to have made, and since 2020 it is more than good practice: for goods, a valid number is a legal condition of the exemption.

What a VAT number looks like

An EU VAT identification number is a two-letter country prefix followed by up to twelve characters whose structure is set nationally: ESB12345678 in Spain, DE123456789 in Germany, FR12345678901 in France, NL123456789B01 in the Netherlands, IE1234567FA in Ireland. Greece uses the prefix EL, and Northern Ireland uses XI for goods under the Windsor Framework.

What VIES tells you

VIES asks the Member State's own database whether the number is currently registered for intra-EU trade and returns "valid" or "invalid", in most countries with the registered name and address. It does not tell you whether the business exists, whether it is the one you are dealing with, or whether the number was valid last month; it answers for the moment you asked. Some Member States register businesses for domestic VAT only, so a real business can have a national tax number that VIES reports as invalid.

Why the result decides the VAT treatment

• Intra-Community supplies of goods: since 1 January 2020, the customer's valid VAT number, communicated to you, is a substantive condition of the exemption (Article 138(1)(b) of the VAT Directive, as amended by the "quick fixes"). No valid number, no exemption.
• Cross-border B2B services: the reverse charge (Articles 44 and 196) presupposes a taxable customer. In practice the VAT number is how you demonstrate that; without it you must treat the customer as a consumer and charge your own VAT.
• Recapitulative statements: the number you validated is the one you report in the EC Sales List, and mismatches there are what trigger enquiries.

Keep the evidence

VIES can issue a consultation number when you provide your own VAT number with the query. Store it, or at least the date and the result, with the customer record. When a number is later found to have been invalid, the record of a check made in good faith at the time is what protects you.

When the number is invalid or VIES is unavailable

• Invalid: ask the customer to confirm the number and, if it is genuinely not registered for intra-EU trade, invoice with your own country's VAT.
• Unavailable: national systems go offline for maintenance. Retry later; do not treat an outage as a valid result. Hold the invoice or issue it with VAT and correct with a credit note once the number checks out.
• Valid but wrong name: verify with the customer; the number may belong to another entity in the same group.

How EUFactura does it

A customer's VAT number is checked against VIES when you save the customer and again on demand, and the result and time are stored on the customer. The VAT decision engine only applies the reverse charge or the intra-Community exemption when the stored result is "valid"; otherwise the invoice is marked for review with the reason.