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Italian VAT Number Checker
Italy issues a Partita IVA to businesses and a Codice Fiscale to people, and the two look nothing alike — eleven digits against a sixteen-character string built from a name and a date of birth. Companies hold both, and it is the Codice Fiscale that tends to be printed most prominently on Italian paperwork.
The useful property of a Partita IVA is that its eleventh digit is a checksum over the preceding ten. A good share of transcription errors can therefore be caught locally, before you spend a network round trip on a number that cannot possibly be right.
Checked live against VIES, the European Commission's VAT Information Exchange System. Not affiliated with the European Commission or the Italy tax authority.
Italy VAT number format
- Local name
- Partita IVA
- Structure
- IT + 11 digits
- Valid example
- IT12345678901
- Standard rate
- 22% · reduced 10%, 5%, 4%
IT plus eleven digits. The final digit is a check digit computed from the other ten, so a single mistyped character is usually detectable without calling VIES at all.
What usually goes wrong
Sending a Codice Fiscale instead
A company's Codice Fiscale is a different identifier in a different format and is not registered in VIES. If an Italian customer's number is sixteen characters and contains letters, you have the wrong one.
Skipping the check digit
Validating the checksum locally turns a large fraction of typos into instant, free feedback in the form the user can actually act on, instead of a slow generic failure from the registry.
Reading an unavailable node as an invalid number
Italy's VIES endpoint has historically been among the less reliable in the EU. A service_unavailable response means the Italian tax authority's system did not answer — it is not a statement about the customer, and treating it as one wrongly charges them VAT.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a Partita IVA and a Codice Fiscale?
The Partita IVA is the VAT registration number: eleven digits, held by businesses, present in VIES. The Codice Fiscale is a personal tax code derived from name, birth date and birthplace. Companies have both, and only the Partita IVA is used for intra-EU trade.
Can I validate an Italian VAT number without calling VIES?
You can rule numbers out. The check digit lets you reject malformed input locally, but only a live lookup can tell you whether a well-formed number is currently registered and active.
What is the Italian VAT rate?
The standard IVA rate is 22%. Reduced rates of 10%, 5% and 4% apply to categories including food, some services and essential goods.
Validating Italy numbers from your own code instead of by hand? The Italy 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.