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French VAT Number Checker
A French VAT number is a two-character key followed by the company's nine-digit SIREN. The key is derived from the SIREN, and unlike most of the EU it can contain letters — including O and I. Any normalisation step that helpfully turns letter O into zero and letter I into one is therefore a bug, not a clean-up.
Because the SIREN sits inside the VAT number, French customers frequently supply the SIREN on its own, or the fourteen-digit SIRET that extends it with an establishment code. Both are genuine French identifiers. Neither validates in VIES.
Checked live against VIES, the European Commission's VAT Information Exchange System. Not affiliated with the European Commission or the France tax authority.
France VAT number format
- Local name
- N° TVA (Numéro de TVA intracommunautaire)
- Structure
- FR + 2 alphanumeric chars + 9 digits
- Valid example
- FRXX123456789
- Standard rate
- 20% · reduced 10%, 5.5%, 2.1%
FR, two alphanumeric characters, then nine digits. The two characters are a computed key, not a fixed prefix, and they vary from company to company.
What usually goes wrong
Normalising O to 0 and I to 1
A common input-sanitising step everywhere else, and destructive here. The key legitimately contains those letters, so the substitution silently corrupts valid numbers into invalid ones.
Accepting a SIREN or a SIRET
A SIREN is nine digits and a SIRET is fourteen. Both identify the business, neither is its VAT number, and both fail in VIES. You can spot them by length before making the call.
Assuming the key is numeric
Validators written against the numeric examples that appear in most documentation reject the alphanumeric keys, which are common in practice.
Frequently asked questions
What are the two characters after FR?
A key computed from the SIREN that follows it. It can be two digits, two letters, or one of each, which is why the French format needs an alphanumeric match rather than a numeric one.
Is a SIREN the same as a French VAT number?
No, but it is contained in one. The VAT number is the two-character key plus the SIREN. Given a valid VAT number you can read the SIREN off the end; given a SIREN alone you cannot reliably derive the key without computing it.
What is the French VAT rate?
The standard TVA rate is 20%. France runs one of the more complex reduced structures in the EU, with rates of 10%, 5.5% and 2.1% applying to different categories.
Validating France numbers from your own code instead of by hand? The France VAT validation API guide has the endpoint, the response shape and examples in four languages. To check a number from another country, go back to the VAT number checker.