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EU VAT validation in PHP / Laravel

Validate EU VAT numbers in PHP applications with Laravel, Symfony, or plain PHP. Includes service class, validation rule, and database storage pattern.

Implementation steps

1. 1

   Create VATValidationService

   Generate a service class (php artisan make:service VATValidationService) that injects Laravel's Http facade and calls GET https://api.taxid.pro/v1/validate/{country}/{vat} with withToken(config('services.taxid.api_key')). Return the decoded JSON as a PHP object or DTO so callers never access raw array keys and get IDE autocompletion on status, company_name, and request_id.

2. 2

   Add Laravel validation rule

   Create a custom rule class (php artisan make:rule ValidEUVatNumber) that calls VATValidationService::validate() in the passes() method and returns true only when status === 'active'. Use the rule in your FormRequest: 'vat_number' => ['required', 'string', new ValidEUVatNumber($request->country)]. This makes VAT validation available anywhere Laravel's validator runs, including API controllers and queue jobs.

3. 3

   Cache results in Redis

   Before making an HTTP request in VATValidationService, check Cache::get("vat:{$country}:{$vat}"). On a cache miss, call the API and store the result with Cache::put("vat:{$country}:{$vat}", $result, $ttl) where $ttl = $result->status === 'active' ? 86400 : 3600. Using Laravel's cache abstraction means you can switch from Redis to Memcached or database cache without changing the service class.

4. 4

   Display validation feedback in Blade

   After the form submits, pass the VATValidationResult to your Blade view and conditionally render an inline confirmation block: show the company_name in green when status is active, an error alert when invalid, and a warning notice when service_unavailable. Displaying the company name that VIES returned is a strong trust signal for B2B buyers and reduces support tickets from customers unsure whether their number was accepted.

Code example

const res = await fetch(
  'http://localhost:3000/api/v1/validate/DE/DE123456789',
  { headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' } }
);
const { valid, status, company_name, company_address } = await res.json();

if (valid) {
  console.log(`Valid EU business: ${company_name}`);
} else if (status === 'service_unavailable') {
  // VIES is temporarily down — retry or allow with manual check
  console.log('VIES unavailable — check back in a few minutes');
} else {
  console.log('Invalid VAT number — charge local tax rate');
}

import requests

res = requests.get(
    "http://localhost:3000/api/v1/validate/DE/DE123456789",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"}
)
data = res.json()

if data["valid"]:
    print(f"Valid: {data['company_name']}")
elif data["status"] == "service_unavailable":
    print("VIES temporarily unavailable")
else:
    print("Invalid VAT number")

API response

The TaxID API returns a consistent JSON response for every validation request:

{
  "valid": true,
  "status": "active",
  "country_code": "DE",
  "vat_number": "123456789",
  "company_name": "Example GmbH",
  "company_address": "Musterstraße 1, 10115 Berlin",
  "request_date": "2026-05-10T00:00:00.000Z",
  "cached": false,
  "request_id": "req_01j..."
}

Error handling

The API uses a consistent Stripe-style error format. Always handle service_unavailable separately — VIES has occasional downtime and you should not reject valid customers during outages.

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