The white list: the only EU register linking an account to its owner

Poland is the only EU member state where a bank account number can be traced to its owner. Not because Polish banks are more open, but because the Ministry of Finance publishes the accounts that VAT-registered businesses have declared — and it does so because paying an unlisted account has tax consequences for the payer, not for the party issuing the invoice.

For a bookkeeper that means something available nowhere else in Europe: before sending the money, you can check whether this particular account really belongs to this particular supplier.

What the white list is

Formally the register of entities registered as VAT payers, unregistered, and removed from or restored to the VAT register, maintained by the head of the National Revenue Administration and public. It carries a business’s VAT status and the settlement account numbers that business has declared.

It also keeps historical state, which matters for a practical reason below: you can show what an account looked like on the day the transfer was ordered, not merely today.

Why this is the payer’s problem, not the supplier’s

For a transaction worth more than PLN 15,000 between businesses, paying into an account that is not on the list has two consequences, both falling on the payer:

• Loss of the tax-deductible cost, for the part of the payment made to the unlisted account.
• Joint and several liability for the supplier’s unpaid VAT on that transaction.

This is a rare case where the risk transfers to the buyer. It is why checking the white list is routine in Polish bookkeeping rather than an optional precaution.

Two things that are commonly misread:

The threshold applies to the transaction value, not to a single invoice. Splitting one transaction across several smaller invoices does not put it below the limit.

The date that counts is the day the transfer was ordered. An account that was listed yesterday and is not today does not help you — and vice versa, which is why the register keeps history.

If the payment has already gone

Where money has gone to an unlisted account, the consequences can be avoided by filing a ZAW-NR notification with the head of the tax office competent for the issuer of the invoice, within 7 days of ordering the transfer.

Alternatively the sanctions do not apply where the payment was made using the split payment mechanism (MPP).

This is not tax advice and the rules change — for a specific transaction, confirm the deadline and the competent office with your accountant. The point is that the window is short, so checking before the transfer is cheaper than repairing it afterwards.

What this tool does

Enter a Polish VAT number together with the supplier’s IBAN and the tool queries the register live, then says one of three things:

• The account is listed for this taxpayer. That is the strongest confirmation of account ownership available anywhere in the EU.
• The account is NOT listed, even though the supplier has other accounts registered. That is a signal to stop.
• Could not be established — the supplier is not an active VAT payer, or the register did not answer. Nothing follows from it either way.

The IBAN itself is never sent anywhere. Only the VAT number goes to the register, and the accounts are compared on this tool’s own server — see privacy.

What the white list does not settle

It is the strongest account check in Europe and it is still not proof that an invoice is genuine.

The commonest invoice fraud compromises a real supplier’s mailbox and changes only the bank details. If the attacker supplied an account that is not on the list, this check catches it — and that is its real value. But the register cannot tell you whether the order existed, whether the goods arrived, or whether the company is solvent.

It does not replace the phone call either. When bank details change the same rule holds: call a number you already had, not the one in the message announcing the change. See supplier asking to change bank details.

And outside Poland

Nowhere else in the EU can this be checked from the outside. Since 9 October 2025 banks in the euro area must verify the payee name on a transfer, which answers the same question at the moment of payment — but that regulation does not cover Polish domestic transfers in złoty at all, and Polish payment providers have until 9 July 2027. Until then the register is the answer in Poland, and it is better than what everyone else gets: it works before the transfer rather than during it.

See what the bank payee check does and does not cover.

You can check a VAT number and an IBAN together on the homepage.