Free VAT Number Checker — UK and EU
Check a VAT number against the register that issued it and see the company name and address it is registered to. UK numbers go to HMRC, EU numbers to VIES, and the tool routes each one for you — all 27 EU member states via VIES, plus the United Kingdom, Australia and Norway. Free, instant, no account.
Every check queries the official register itself, never a copy: VIES for the EU 27, HMRC for the United Kingdom, ABR for Australia and Brønnøysundregistrene for Norway. Switzerland is checked for correct format and checksum only, along with a further set of countries — the BFS UID register is not currently reachable for live lookup. Not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the European Commission, HMRC, the Australian Government or any other authority named here.
How to check a VAT number
Choose the country
Select the issuing country. Each one uses a distinct VAT format, so the tool knows which official registry to query and how the number should look.
Enter the VAT number
Type the number with or without its country prefix. Spaces, dots and hyphens are ignored, and the format is checked locally before any request is sent.
Read the result
You get a clear valid-or-invalid verdict plus the registered company name and address when the authority publishes them — usually in well under a second.
Why validate a VAT number?
A VAT number that looks right can still be inactive, mistyped or belong to a different company. Confirming it against the official register protects your tax position and your customers.
Reverse-charge & zero-rated B2B
Intra-EU B2B supplies can be zero-rated only when your customer holds a valid VAT ID. Checking it protects you if the tax authority later questions the invoice.
Clean invoicing & compliance
A valid, registered VAT number on every invoice keeps your bookkeeping audit-ready and helps avoid rejected filings and penalties.
Fraud & onboarding checks
Confirming the company name behind a VAT ID is a fast first signal when onboarding new B2B customers or suppliers.
Correct tax treatment
Whether a counterparty is VAT-registered decides if you charge tax, apply the reverse charge, or zero-rate the sale.
A UK VAT number and an EU one take different routes
VIES is the EU’s system. It holds no data of its own: it forwards your query to the tax administration of the member state that issued the number and relays the reply. It has never covered the United Kingdom, and since Brexit it does not cover Great Britain at all.
A GB number therefore has to go to HMRC, which publishes its own lookup. This tool routes by country code, so you do not have to know which is which — type the number, pick the country, and it asks the right register. That is worth knowing because several free checkers query VIES alone: a UK number either comes back unverifiable, or comes back from a cached copy of the register rather than the register itself.
One exception worth committing to memory: Northern Ireland. Numbers prefixed XI stay inside the EU VAT area for goods under the Windsor Framework, so they belong to VIES rather than HMRC — integrations written before 2021 frequently get this wrong. We do not offer XI as a country yet; entering one under the United Kingdom will fail, because HMRC does not hold it. Use the Commission’s VIES form for those in the meantime.
The number came back invalid — what now?
In practice a rejection is a data-entry problem far more often than it is a bad customer. Work down this list before you tell anyone their VAT number is not valid.
- 01
Strip the country prefix and try again
Customers write their number as GB123456789 or DE123456789, and some forms then send the prefix twice. The register answers that it cannot parse the input, which looks identical to a rejection. This is the single most common cause of a false invalid.
- 02
Check you picked the right country
An Irish number entered under the United Kingdom will always fail. Since Brexit, numbers beginning XI are Northern Ireland and are checked through VIES, not HMRC — a distinction that trips up integrations built before 2021.
- 03
Read the status, not the colour
“Not registered” and “the register did not answer” are different answers. The second one says nothing about the number; a member state's system was simply unreachable. Try again in a few minutes before you conclude anything.
- 04
Ask the customer for the number on their VAT certificate
A number transcribed from an email signature or a purchase order has been through more hands than one copied from the certificate. Registrations also lapse: a number that worked last year can be legitimately inactive today.
- 05
If it is still invalid, do not zero-rate
Since the 2020 quick fixes, a valid VAT identification number for your customer is a substantive condition of exempting an intra-Community supply, not a formality. Charge domestic VAT, or hold the invoice until the customer resolves their registration.
Supported countries & formats
If you are not sure what the result of a check entitles you to conclude, what a VIES validation proves — and what to keep as evidence covers the process end to end.
All 27 EU member states are validated live via the European Commission’s VIES service. The UK is checked against HMRC and Norway against Brønnøysundregistrene. Switzerland and Australia, along with a further set of countries, are checked for correct format and checksum — live lookup against the Swiss BFS UID register and the Australian ABR is not currently available. Each country has its own structure — see the country-by-country guide for formats and examples, or the VAT rates by country.
| Country | Format | Example | Checked against |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia AU | 11 digits | 51824753556 | ABR |
| Austria AT | ATU + 8 digits | ATU12345678 | VIES |
| Belgium BE | BE + 0 or 1 + 9 digits (10 digits total) | BE0123456789 | VIES |
| Bulgaria BG | BG + 9 or 10 digits | BG123456789 | VIES |
| Croatia HR | HR + 11 digits | HR12345678901 | VIES |
| Cyprus CY | CY + 8 digits + 1 letter | CY12345678A | VIES |
| Czech Republic CZ | CZ + 8, 9, or 10 digits | CZ12345678 | VIES |
| Denmark DK | DK + 8 digits | DK12345678 | VIES |
| Estonia EE | EE + 9 digits | EE123456789 | VIES |
| Finland FI | FI + 8 digits | FI12345678 | VIES |
| France FR | FR + 2 alphanumeric chars + 9 digits | FRXX123456789 | VIES |
| Germany DE | DE + 9 digits | DE123456789 | VIES |
| Greece EL | EL + 9 digits | EL123456789 | VIES |
| Hungary HU | HU + 8 digits | HU12345678 | VIES |
| Ireland IE | IE + digit + alphanumeric + 5 digits + 1-2 letters | IE1234567A | VIES |
| Italy IT | IT + 11 digits | IT12345678901 | VIES |
| Latvia LV | LV + 11 digits | LV12345678901 | VIES |
| Lithuania LT | LT + 9 digits (companies) or 12 digits (individuals) | LT123456789 | VIES |
| Luxembourg LU | LU + 8 digits | LU12345678 | VIES |
| Malta MT | MT + 8 digits | MT12345678 | VIES |
| Netherlands NL | NL + 9 digits + B + 2 digits | NL123456789B01 | VIES |
| Norway NO | NO + 9 digits + MVA | NO123456789MVA | Brønnøysundregistrene |
| Poland PL | PL + 10 digits | PL1234567890 | VIES |
| Portugal PT | PT + 9 digits | PT123456789 | VIES |
| Romania RO | RO + 2 to 10 digits | RO1234567890 | VIES |
| Slovakia SK | SK + 10 digits | SK1234567890 | VIES |
| Slovenia SI | SI + 8 digits | SI12345678 | VIES |
| Spain ES | ES + letter/digit + 7 digits + letter/digit | ESA12345678 | VIES |
| Sweden SE | SE + 12 digits | SE123456789012 | VIES |
| United Kingdom GB | GB + 9 digits | GB123456789 | HMRC |
The examples show the shape, so you can tell a malformed number from one that was simply never issued. Most are illustrative and will come back as not registered; Australia’s is the Australian Taxation Office’s own published ABN, so it returns a real result if you want to see one.
Country-specific checkers
The checker above handles every supported country. These pages add the format rules, a worked example and the mistakes that actually cause failures for the countries we get asked about most.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check a UK VAT number?⌄
Select United Kingdom and enter the nine digits, with or without the GB prefix. The check goes to HMRC, which is the register that issued the number — VIES has never covered the UK, and since Brexit it does not cover Great Britain at all. You get back whether the number is registered and, where HMRC publishes it, the registered name and address.
Is this the same as the HMRC VAT number checker?⌄
It asks HMRC the same question and gets the same answer, for UK numbers. The difference is that this tool also handles EU numbers through VIES and several non-EU registers in the same place, and routes each number to the right one by country code — useful if you sell across borders and would otherwise be using two or three separate lookups.
How do I check a Northern Ireland VAT number?⌄
Numbers prefixed XI are Northern Ireland, which stays inside the EU VAT area for goods under the Windsor Framework, so they are checked through VIES rather than HMRC — integrations written before 2021 commonly send them to HMRC and get a rejection that has nothing to do with the number. This tool does not offer XI as a country yet; for now, check an XI number on the European Commission's own VIES form. Entering it under United Kingdom will fail, because HMRC does not hold it.
How do I check if a VAT number is valid?⌄
Pick the country, type the VAT number (with or without the country prefix) and select Check VAT number. The tool queries the official registry in real time — VIES for the EU, HMRC for the UK and Brønnøysundregistrene for Norway — and returns whether the number is active, along with the registered company name and address when the authority publishes them. Swiss and Australian numbers are checked for format and checksum only; live registry lookup is not currently available for those two.
Is the VAT checker free to use?⌄
Yes. Single checks are completely free and require no account. If you need to validate VAT numbers automatically inside your billing or checkout flow, or check many at once, create a free API key that includes 100 validations per month.
Which countries are supported?⌄
All 27 EU member states are validated live through VIES. Outside the EU, the United Kingdom (HMRC), Australia (ABR) and Norway (Brønnøysundregistrene) are validated against their official registries. Switzerland is checked for correct format and checksum only, along with a further set of countries — the BFS UID register is not currently reachable for live lookup. See the country-by-country guide for exact formats.
Why does a valid VAT number show no company name?⌄
Some tax authorities — Germany and Spain in particular — let businesses opt out of publishing their name and address through VIES. The number can still be confirmed as valid, but the company name and address fields come back empty. This is expected behaviour, not an error.
What does "service unavailable" mean?⌄
VIES and other national registries have scheduled and unscheduled maintenance windows. When the upstream authority is temporarily unreachable, the tool reports a service-unavailable status instead of wrongly marking the number invalid. Wait a moment and try again. In production you should handle this status separately and never reject a customer just because VIES is down.
Does a valid result prove a transaction is compliant?⌄
Validating the number confirms the business is registered for VAT today. For zero-rated intra-EU B2B sales you should also keep the consultation record. The TaxID API returns a request date and source you can store as evidence of each check.
Can I validate VAT numbers in bulk?⌄
Yes — with a free API key you can validate up to 25 numbers per request through the batch endpoint, or handle higher volumes on a paid plan. The web tool here is designed for one-off, manual checks.
Do you store the VAT numbers I check?⌄
Results are cached briefly to keep the tool fast, but the web checker does not tie a lookup to your identity. For audit trails on your own validations, use the API, where every response carries a request date and source.
Validate VAT numbers in your own app
Automate checks at checkout, in billing or across your CRM. Free API key with 100 validations/month, batch up to 25 numbers per call, real VIES responses in milliseconds. No credit card.