Value-added tax (VAT) numbers are used for tax purposes and are only given to businesses that are registered for VAT.
The EU VAT system is regulated by a series of European Union directives. The EU VAT is based on the "destination principle": the value-added tax is paid to the government of the country in which the consumer who buys the product lives. Businesses selling a product charge the VAT and the customer pays it.
If your business is registered for value-added tax (VAT), you can add your VAT identification number to your company information to ensure the collection and remittance of VAT to the appropriate tax authorities.
Countries & Formats
Countries of the EU have different formats for VAT numbers, however all countries will share the common format of having the country code first that is followed by a string of numbers and letters.
Examples:
SE1234567890 (Sweden)
FR12345678901 (France)
DE123456789 (Germany)
Country | Country code | Format | Characters | Notes |
Austria | AT | U12345678 | 9 characters | 9 characters the first character is always a ‘U’ |
Belgium | BE | 1234567890 | 10 characters | Prefix with zero ‘0’ if the customer provides a 9 digit VAT number |
Bulgaria | BG | 123456789, 1234567890 | 9 or 10 characters |
|
Croatia | HR | 12345678901 | 11 characters |
|
Cyprus | CY | 12345678X | 9 characters The last character must always be a letter |
|
Czech Republic | CZ | 12345678 123456789 1234567890 | 8, 9 or 10 characters If more than 10 characters are provided delete the first 3 |
|
Denmark | DK | 12345678 | 8 characters |
|
Estonia | EE | 123456789 | 9 characters |
|
Finland | FI | 12345678 | 8 characters |
|
France | FR | 12345678901 X1234567890 1X123456789 XX123456789 | 11 characters May include alphabetical characters (any except O or I) as first or second or first and second characters. |
|
Germany | DE | 123456789 | 9 characters |
|
Greece | EL | 123456789 | 9 characters |
|
Hungary | HU | 12345678 | 8 characters |
|
Ireland | IE | 1234567WA (companies) 1234567FA (individuals) | 8 or 9 characters Includes one or two alphabetical characters (last, or second and last, or last 2) |
|
Italy | IT | 12345678901 | 11 characters |
|
Latvia | LV | 12345678901 | 11 characters |
|
Lithuania | LT | 123456789 123456789012 | 9 or 12 characters |
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Luxembourg | LU | 12345678 | 8 characters |
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Malta | MT | 12345678 | 8 characters |
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Netherlands | NL | 123456789B01 or 123456789BO2 | 12 characters. The 10th character is always B | Companies forming a VAT Group have the suffix BO2 |
Norway (non-EU) |
| 123456789MVA | 9 digits and the letters 'MVA' to indicate VAT registration | Last (ninth) digit is a MOD11 checksum digit.[20] |
Poland | PL | 1234567890 | 10 characters |
|
Portugal | PT | 123456789 | 9 characters |
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Romania | RO | 1234567890 | 10 characters |
|
Slovakia | SK | 1234567890 | 10 characters |
|
Slovenia | SI | 12345678 | 8 characters |
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Spain | ES | X12345678 12345678X X1234567X | 9 characters Includes 1 or 2 alphabetical characters (first or last or first and last) |
|
Sweden | SE | 123456789012 | 12 characters | Swedish VAT numbers consist of the registered organisation number (organisationsnummer) plus 01 |
Switzerland (non-EU) | CHE | 123.456.789 | 9 numbers plus MWST/TVA/IVA | German part: MWST |
United Kingdom (non-EU) | GB | 123456789 | 9 characters |
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