VAT number not registered

The VAT check came back negative. Before assuming the worst, it is worth knowing that this covers two situations that look alike and mean opposite things:

• The number is not registered to anybody. It was mistyped, or it was invented.
• The business is real and on the company register, but is not VAT-registered. That is perfectly legal and extremely common.

The result page separates these where it can, because one is red and the other is not.

When the number belongs to nobody

Shown in red. In rough order of how often each turns out to be the cause:

It was mistyped. By far the most likely explanation. Two transposed digits produce a number that is the right length and the right shape and is registered to nobody. Retype it from the original document rather than from a copy, and rather than from what you remember.

It was read out of a PDF. Copying from a PDF, or scanning a paper invoice, silently turns 0 into O, 1 into l, and 5 into S. The number then looks correct to you and wrong to the registry.

The country prefix is missing or wrong. VAT numbers are only meaningful with their two-letter country code, and invoices frequently print the number without it. The digits of a Belgian number pasted in as a French one will not resolve. See VAT number formats by country for what each country’s number should look like.

It is not a VAT number at all. Invoices carry several identifiers and they are easy to confuse: a company registration number, a national tax number, an EORI number. Germany is the classic trap — the domestic Steuernummer and the USt-IdNr are different numbers, and only the second one is a VAT identification number.

The registration ended. A number that was valid on last year’s invoice can be invalid today, because the business deregistered, restructured, or closed. This is worth taking seriously if you have paid them before with no trouble.

It was invented, or copied from someone else. The remaining case, and the reason the check exists. It matters most on a first invoice from a supplier you have no history with, and much more again if the payment details are unfamiliar. See how to check an invoice is genuine.

The trap: valid at home, not valid in VIES

Worth knowing before you accuse anyone of anything. VIES does not answer “is this business registered for VAT?” It answers “is this number valid for intra-EU trade?” Those are not the same question, and in several member states the second one requires the business to opt in separately.

In Italy a business must be included in the VIES archive before it can trade intra-Community, and many smaller ones are not. Spain uses a separate register of intra-Community operators, and a Spanish company outside it has a real, working VAT number that VIES will not confirm.

So a negative answer can mean a wholly legitimate domestic business that has simply never registered for cross-border trade. If they are invoicing you from another member state, it is still a question worth asking — that registration is usually what allows them to invoice you without VAT — but it is a question, not a finding. Ask them; they will know.

When the company is real but not VAT-registered

Shown in amber, not red, because nothing is wrong. This appears where the tool can read a national register alongside the VAT check — currently Slovenia, Poland and Romania, whose numbering makes the distinction visible.

Ordinary reasons a real business is not VAT-registered:

• It is below the registration threshold. Every country has one, and plenty of small suppliers sit under it deliberately.
• Its activity is exempt. Certain services — health, education, insurance and finance among them — are outside VAT in most of the EU.
• The number is a tax number, not a VAT number. Slovenia and Poland reuse the same digits for both, so a “not registered” answer against a number that plainly identifies a real company means it is not VAT-liable, not that it does not exist. Romania is the same idea in reverse: the CUI exists for every company and gains its RO prefix only on VAT registration.

The one thing to check here

Does the invoice charge VAT anyway?

A business that is not VAT-registered must not add VAT to its invoices, and if one has, you cannot deduct it. Either it is a bookkeeping error on their side, or the invoice is not what it claims to be. This is the whole reason the amber result exists — not to question the supplier, but to make sure you are not about to reclaim VAT that was never owed. Send it to your accountant before booking it.

What to do

1. Retype the number from the original document, with the country prefix.
2. Compare it against the format for that country using VAT number formats by country. A number of the wrong length is a different problem from one that is simply unregistered.
3. Check an older invoice, if you have one. A number that has changed is a fact worth knowing regardless of what the registry says today.
4. Look up the company register. Name, status and address there will usually settle it in under a minute, and will distinguish “no such business” from “business that does not charge VAT”.
5. Ask the supplier. “Our system does not find your VAT number in VIES — could you confirm it, and whether you are registered for intra-Community supplies?” This is a routine accounts-payable question, and a genuine supplier answers it without friction.
6. Do not let it be the only check. A valid VAT number would not have proved the invoice was genuine either. Confirm the bank details by phone regardless.

Before treating it as a red flag

Make sure the registry actually answered. A negative answer and no answer are different things, and a member state’s system being down produces the second, not the first. If the result said the service was unavailable rather than that the number was invalid, see what to do when VIES is unavailable.

Also worth knowing: VIES answers only for now. There is no way to ask whether a number was valid on the date of an invoice, so a check today says nothing about a supply made three months ago. If you need evidence that you checked, the official VIES site issues a consultation number when you enter your own VAT number alongside your supplier’s — this tool does not, and cannot, produce that for you.

What a valid number would not have proved

That the number is registered says only that. It does not say the business sent you the invoice, that the name on it matches the registration — see valid VAT number, different name — or that the bank account belongs to them. That last one is the expensive one to get wrong, which is why every result on this site ends with the same instruction to confirm bank details by phone.

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