EU VAT Number Validator (VIES)
Format and check digits offline, then one click to VIES for the name and address.
Type or paste a VAT number to check its format and check digits, offline, for the 27 EU countries, Northern Ireland, the UK, Switzerland and Norway. Nothing is sent anywhere until you press “Check with VIES” (or Enter).
- Country
- Number
- Kind of number
- Format
How the check was worked out
Registration in VIES
- Name
- Address
- Time of the answer
- Consultation number
Registration
Opens the official service in a new tab; the number goes to it only when you click.
Tax rules and rates change. This calculator follows the rules described on this page and may not cover every situation. Check the official source or a qualified tax professional before filing or invoicing.
About the EU VAT Number Validator (VIES)
A VAT identification number starts with the code of the country that issued it — DE for Germany, FR for France, EL for Greece, XI for Northern Ireland — followed by up to 12 letters and digits in a format that country sets, usually ending in one or more check digits. Before you invoice an EU business customer without VAT (a reverse-charge or intra-EU supply), check the number you put on the invoice.
Paste a number with its prefix — with or without spaces, dots or a “VAT No.” label, or in a line copied from an invoice. The checker reads the country, applies that country’s format and check-digit rule in your browser, and explains exactly what is wrong if it fails — a missing digit, the letter O typed for a zero, a GR prefix where Greece uses EL. It covers the 27 EU countries and Northern Ireland, and also UK, Swiss and Norwegian numbers.
A well-formed number is not necessarily a registered one. For EU and Northern Ireland numbers, one click on Check with VIES asks the European Commission’s free VIES service, which asks the national VAT database in real time and answers whether the number is valid, with the trader’s name and address where that country shares them. Add your own VAT number and VIES also gives a consultation number, a reference that shows a tax administration you checked the number at that time.
How to use it
- Type or paste the VAT number with its country prefix, for example IE6388047V or DE 811 115 368; a line copied from an invoice footer works too. For a number without the prefix, choose the country; if you do not know it, the checker lists the countries whose rules the number would pass.
- Read the offline result: Well-formed (format and check digits right), Right format (a kind of number with no check digit to verify), or the reason it fails. How the check was worked out shows the calculation.
- For an EU or XI number, click Check with VIES. VIES answers Valid with the name and address (some countries do not share them), or Not valid; national databases are sometimes down for maintenance, so try again later if one does not answer.
- For proof of the check, open Get a consultation number and add your own EU or XI VAT number before you click. Keep the consultation number VIES returns with your records.
- For UK, Swiss and Norwegian numbers, which VIES does not check, open the national register from the result: HMRC’s service on GOV.UK, the Swiss UID register or the Brønnøysund Register Centre.
- Copy result copies the offline check and the VIES answer as plain text for your files.
Examples
IE6388047V
Well-formed Irish VAT number 6×8 + 3×7 + 8×6 + 8×5 + 0×4 + 4×3 + 7×2 = 183; 183 mod 23 = 22 → check letter V VIES: Valid VAT number — GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED, 3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4
FR 59 542 051 180
Well-formed French VAT number Key = (12 + 3 × (542051180 mod 97)) mod 97 = (12 + 3 × 48) mod 97 = 59
The last 9 digits are the company’s SIREN number, which has its own Luhn check digit. VIES lists this number under the name SE TOTALENERGIES SE.
IE6388O47V
Not a valid Irish VAT number The letter “O” is easily typed for 0: read as digits, IE6388047V passes the check.
The character after 6388 is the capital letter O, which looks like a zero in many fonts. The checker marks such letters and offers the corrected number.
HU 12345676-2-41
Not a valid Hungarian VAT number This looks like a Hungarian tax number (adószám), written with 11 digits such as 12345678-1-23. The EU VAT number is HU followed by its first 8 digits: HU12345676, which passes the check.
A made-up number, to show the rule. Swedish organisation numbers get the same help: SE and 10 digits is offered with the 01 that makes it a VAT number.
DE811115369
Not a valid German VAT number: the rest of the number calls for 8, not 9
811115368
Which country is it from? Without a prefix, this number would pass the check digits of: Germany.
CHE-116.281.710 MWST
Well-formed Swiss VAT number (check digit 0) VIES does not check Swiss numbers: open it in the Swiss UID register
The Swiss UID register lists this number as the VAT group of Nestlé S.A.
Common uses
- Checking a business customer’s VAT number before invoicing an intra-EU supply or a reverse-charge service without VAT.
- Confirming the name and address behind a supplier’s VAT number before you pay a new supplier.
- Keeping a VIES consultation number on file as a record of each check.
- Spotting typos in VAT numbers copied from emails, PDFs or order forms.
- Testing a VAT number field in a checkout, invoicing or ERP system against each country’s format.
VAT number formats by country
The structure each country uses, after its two-letter prefix (from the VIES FAQ, plus the UK, Switzerland and Norway):
- Austria (AT): U and 8 digits — the U is part of the number (ATU12345678).
- Belgium (BE): 10 digits starting with 0 or 1; older 9-digit numbers take a 0 in front.
- Bulgaria (BG): 9 digits for legal entities, 10 for individuals and others.
- Croatia (HR): the 11-digit OIB.
- Cyprus (CY): 8 digits and a letter.
- Czechia (CZ): 8 digits (legal entities), or 9 or 10 (individuals).
- Denmark (DK): 8 digits.
- Estonia (EE): 9 digits.
- Finland (FI): 8 digits.
- France (FR): a 2-character key and the 9-digit SIREN.
- Germany (DE): 9 digits.
- Greece (EL): 9 digits; the prefix is EL, not GR.
- Hungary (HU): 8 digits — the first 8 of the 11-digit tax number (adószám, written 12345678-1-23).
- Ireland (IE): 7 digits and 1 or 2 letters; older numbers are a digit, a letter (or + or *), 5 digits and a letter.
- Italy (IT): the 11-digit partita IVA.
- Latvia (LV): 11 digits.
- Lithuania (LT): 9 or 12 digits.
- Luxembourg (LU): 8 digits.
- Malta (MT): 8 digits.
- Netherlands (NL): 9 digits, the letter B and 2 digits.
- Poland (PL): the 10-digit NIP.
- Portugal (PT): the 9-digit NIF.
- Romania (RO): 2 to 10 digits.
- Slovakia (SK): 10 digits.
- Slovenia (SI): 8 digits.
- Spain (ES): 9 characters — a letter or digit, 7 digits and a letter or digit, never digits at both ends.
- Sweden (SE): 12 digits: the 10-digit organisation number and 01.
- Northern Ireland (XI) and the United Kingdom (GB): 9 digits, 12 for a branch trader, or GD or HA and 3 digits for government departments and health authorities.
- Switzerland (CHE): 9 digits and MWST (TVA in French, IVA in Italian), written CHE-123.456.789 MWST.
- Norway (NO): the 9-digit organisation number and MVA, written NO 123 456 789 MVA.
What VIES tells you — and what it does not
VIES is not a database of its own: each check is passed in real time to the national VAT database of the country that issued the number (VIES FAQ). Its answers are:
- Valid — with the trader’s name and address where that country allows them to be shown. Germany and Spain, for example, show none: the name and address then appear as “---” on VIES and as “not shown” here.
- Not valid — at least at the time of the check. First ask the business to confirm the number. Some Member States record in VIES only the numbers registered for trade with other EU countries, so a correct number can still be “not valid”; the business can ask its own tax administration to update it.
- Unavailable — VIES itself, or one country’s database, is not answering. National systems have maintenance windows; try again later.
The VIES help adds that confirming a number is only one element of evidence for an exempt intra-EU supply, and the VIES disclaimer says its information is not professional or legal advice.
Consultation numbers
If you give your own VAT number as the requester, VIES puts a unique consultation number in its answer. The VIES help explains its use: to prove to a tax administration of a Member State that you checked a given VAT number at a given time and got a given reply — so keep it in your records. Only EU and Northern Ireland (XI) VAT numbers can be requesters. If VIES does not accept your own number, it gives no answer at all; leave the field empty to check without a consultation number.
UK, Swiss and Norwegian numbers
VIES does not check these, so the checker tests their format and check digits and links to the official register:
- United Kingdom (GB): HMRC’s Check a UK VAT number service shows whether a UK VAT number is valid and the name and address it is registered to; a UK VAT-registered business can also use it to prove when it checked a number. Numbers with the XI (Northern Ireland) prefix are checked by VIES.
- Switzerland (CHE): the VAT number is the company’s UID followed by MWST (TVA, IVA). The UID register shows the business and whether it is in the VAT register.
- Norway (NO): the VAT number is the 9-digit organisation number; on invoices, a seller registered for VAT writes MVA after it (Bookkeeping Regulations, § 5-1-2). The check digit follows the Brønnøysund Register Centre’s modulus 11 rule.
How the check digits are worked out
Each country has its own rule — for example a weighted sum and modulus 11 (Denmark, Finland, Norway), modulus 97 (Belgium, the UK), ISO 7064 MOD 11,10 (Germany, Croatia), the Luhn algorithm (Italy, Sweden and the French SIREN), or a check letter (Ireland, Cyprus, Spain). The European Commission does not publish these algorithms (VIES FAQ); the rules used here are the national ones in long-standing public use, and every Member State’s rule has been tested against numbers that VIES confirms as registered. How the check was worked out shows the calculation for your number. Where a country’s numbers for individuals are built from a personal number (such as a Czech birth number), the date in it is never shown.
Limitations
- Offline, the check shows whether a number is well-formed, not whether it is registered; a made-up number with the right check digits passes. VIES (for EU and XI numbers) or the national register confirms registration.
- Check digits of numbers for individuals in Latvia and of numbers from before 1954 in Czechia are not verified; some French numbers with letters in the key are checked only for their SIREN.
- VIES answers only for EU and Northern Ireland numbers, and only while the national database answers; names and addresses appear only where the Member State allows it.
- One number at a time: the VIES service is designed for checking numbers one by one, and the number of VIES checks per hour is limited.
- Not tax advice: whether you may invoice without VAT depends on more than a valid number.
Privacy
The format check runs in your browser and sends nothing. When you press “Check with VIES” (or Enter in the form), the number you are checking — and your own VAT number, if you add one for a consultation number — goes to MySmartCoPilot’s server and on to the European Commission’s VIES service, and VIES’s answer comes back to you. MySmartCoPilot keeps no copy of the numbers or the answer; for each check, its server records only the country code, VIES’s status and how long VIES took.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if an EU VAT number is valid?
Paste it with its country prefix and the checker tests the format and check digits at once. Then click Check with VIES: the European Commission’s VIES service asks the national VAT database of that country and answers whether the number is valid, with the name and address where that country shares them.
Why does VIES say a VAT number is not valid when the business says it is right?
First check the number with the business — the right length, the right country prefix (EL for Greece, ATU for Austria). If it is right, the business may not be registered for trade with other EU countries: some Member States record in VIES only those numbers. Only the business’s own tax administration can update its VIES record.
Why are there no name and address for a German or Spanish number?
Each Member State decides whether VIES may show the name and address behind a valid number. Some, including Germany and Spain, do not, so VIES confirms only that the number is valid.
What is a VIES consultation number?
A unique reference VIES adds to its answer when you give your own EU or XI VAT number as the requester. Keep it with your records: it lets you show a tax administration that you checked that VAT number at that time and what the answer was.
Can I check a UK VAT number with VIES?
No. VIES no longer checks UK (GB) numbers; use HMRC’s Check a UK VAT number service on GOV.UK, which this page links from the result. VIES does check numbers with the XI (Northern Ireland) prefix.
What is the VAT number format in Greece?
EL followed by 9 digits. Greece uses EL rather than its ISO code GR as the VAT prefix, so a number written GR123456789 is read here as EL123456789.
Does a valid VAT number mean I can invoice without VAT?
Not on its own. The VIES help notes that a confirmed number is only one element of the evidence for an exempt intra-EU supply; the other conditions of the VAT rules still apply. Ask a tax adviser if you are unsure.
Is it safe to check a VAT number here?
VAT numbers are business identifiers printed on invoices. The format check never leaves your browser; a VIES check sends the number (and your own, if you add it) through MySmartCoPilot’s server to VIES, and nothing is stored.