VIES VAT number check

Check a number

Every EU country must let a business that supplies goods or services to another EU country confirm electronically whether a VAT number is valid, with the name and address behind it (Regulation (EU) No 904/2010, Art. 31). VIES, the VAT Information Exchange System, is the Commission's service for that (VIES FAQ).

What the result means

• Valid: the database of the country that issued the number holds it as valid on the day you check. VIES asks that country's own database at the moment you check; there is no central EU database (VIES FAQ). It confirms a number for the current day only, never for a past date (VIES FAQ).
• Not valid: the number is not active, or it was never issued (VIES help). Some countries record in VIES only the numbers registered for trade with other EU countries, so a correct number can show as not valid when its holder has no such registration (VIES FAQ). Only the tax administration that issued the number can correct what VIES shows (VIES FAQ). If you believe your customer is not a business, the Commission's answer is to charge VAT, not to exempt the sale (VIES FAQ).
• Not checked: the country's database, or VIES itself, did not answer, or turned the check away because too many requests were going to it (VIES help). VIES also blocks an address it counts as abusing the service, and a blocked address gets no answer at all (VIES FAQ). Parts of the system are down at times while countries back up their databases (VIES FAQ). The result names the country; the scheduled windows are below.
• Name and address: shown only where the issuing country permits it. A valid number with no name means that country does not permit the display (VIES FAQ). Spain gives no name or address with the answer: its database confirms them only when you enter them yourself (VIES FAQ).

A valid number is one piece of evidence, not the whole case. The Commission's words: the confirmation "is only ONE of the elements of evidence" supporting the VAT exemption of a sale of goods to a business in another EU country (VIES help; VAT Directive, Art. 138(1)). What else that exemption needs is on EU VAT for online sellers.

To keep proof of a check, run it on the Commission's VIES page with your own EU VAT number in the requester box. An XI number, or an EU number from the non-Union one-stop shop, also works there; a GB number is not accepted. The answer then carries a consultation number; keep it to show a tax administration that you checked that number at that time (VIES help; VIES form).

Scheduled maintenance, as the Commission lists it. Every other country in the Commission's table is listed as available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; Croatia and Slovenia are not in it (VIES help). The Commission gives no time zone for these times.

A worked example

IE6388047V is the VAT number Google publishes for Google Ireland (Google AdSense Help). On 3 October 2026 VIES answered this for it:

Where the country shares them, VIES also returns the name and address registered to the number, and a live check on this page shows them to you. Ireland shares both. They are left out of this example, because the VIES terms forbid copying its contents (VIES disclaimer). A number from a country that does not permit the display comes back valid with no name (VIES FAQ).

GB and XI numbers

VIES stopped checking UK numbers starting GB on 1 January 2021, and sends anyone checking one to the UK tax administration (VIES). HMRC's Check a UK VAT number service shows whether a UK VAT number is valid, and the name and address of the business it is registered to; it cannot find a number from a business name (GOV.UK). This page answers a GB number with a link there.

A business that trades goods under the Windsor Framework (goods in Northern Ireland, or moved between Northern Ireland and the EU) tells HMRC, and from then on puts XI in front of its usual UK VAT number, for example XI 123456789 instead of GB 123456789. It uses that number on all documents with EU customers or suppliers (GOV.UK). VIES checks XI numbers (VIES), so this page does too.

What a VAT number looks like

Each country sets its own structure: the two-letter code, then a block of digits or characters. This is the structure the Commission publishes (VIES FAQ, read on 3 October 2026). Greece uses EL, not GR. An Austrian number always starts with U after AT. Letters are typed in capitals, and spaces and dots between blocks are left out (VIES help); this page does both for you.

A number in the right shape can still be not valid: the Commission does not publish the algorithms behind these numbers (VIES FAQ). Who issues a VAT number, and when you need one: what is a VAT number.