VIES VAT number check: what it is, why it matters, and how to do it quickly

When you invoice a business in another EU country, you are often legally required to verify their VAT number via VIES. What is VIES, what does it check (and what doesn't it), and how do you maintain a proper audit trail?

When you issue an invoice from the Netherlands to a business in another EU country, you are in many situations legally required to verify upfront that the VAT number provided is valid. If you skip this step and things go wrong later — fictitious companies, revoked VAT numbers, typos — the Dutch Tax Authority (Belastingdienst) can still deny you the 0% VAT rate and bill you for the unpaid VAT.

For that check, there is one European source: the VIES system (VAT Information Exchange System). This guide explains what VIES is, what it can and cannot do, and how to organise the check in practice — including an audit trail for your records.

What exactly is VIES?

VIES is a free service from the European Commission that connects the VAT administrations of all EU member states. You enter a VAT number, select the member state, and VIES queries that country's national tax authority directly to confirm whether the number is currently valid. In most cases you also get back the name and address associated with that number.

One important thing to understand: VIES is a look-up, not a registration. It only answers the question "does this VAT number exist right now?" It does not prove that a purchase was genuinely a business transaction, and it says nothing about the financial health of the other party.

When are you required to check?

• For intra-community supplies of goods — if you sell goods to a business in another EU country and want to apply the 0% VAT rate, the buyer's VAT number must be valid at the time of delivery.
• For intra-community services (B2B) — VAT is reverse-charged to the customer, which requires their VAT number to be valid.
• For periodic EC Sales List filings — the return will be rejected if it contains invalid VAT numbers.

The Tax Authority focuses on one concrete question: could you reasonably have known that the VAT number was invalid? If you ran a VIES check at the time of invoicing and received a valid result, you are protected — even if the number is revoked at a later date.

What makes a good audit trail?

The law does not prescribe a specific format, but in practice the Tax Authority is satisfied with:

• The VAT number you checked
• The date and time of the check
• The result (valid / invalid)
• The name and address returned by VIES
• A reference to the invoice or order

A screenshot of the VIES website is acceptable, but it is not very practical. A better approach: a tool that runs the check and automatically saves the result in a log. Our VIES VAT check does exactly that — for every check it stores the name, address, result, and timestamp in an exportable overview.

Common mistakes

1. Checking only once at the first invoice. VAT numbers are revoked upon bankruptcy, fraud, or deregistration. For long-term customers it is wise to re-check periodically (quarterly or annually).
2. Trusting a result despite a typo. Some typos accidentally pass VIES (e.g. the same length as a different valid number). Always verify that the name returned actually matches your customer.
3. Trying to check a UK VAT number (GB...) via VIES — since Brexit, the UK is no longer connected to VIES. For GB numbers you need HMRC's separate check service.
4. Recording the number only for your own administration. Also save the result — the Tax Authority does not just look at whether the number was valid at the time, but whether you knew that at the time.

When is a check not required?

Selling to a private consumer in another EU country? In that case you simply charge Dutch VAT (or, above a turnover threshold, VAT of the consumer's country via the One Stop Shop scheme). No VIES check needed. VIES is exclusively for B2B transactions involving the 0% rate or reverse charge.

Summary

VIES is free, fast, and the legally correct way to validate EU VAT numbers before issuing a 0% VAT invoice. Run the check at the time of invoicing, save the result (name + address + date), and re-check periodically for regular customers. It saves a lot of explaining to the Tax Authority later — and in the worst case, it prevents you from having to pay VAT you never collected.

Ready to check? Our VIES VAT check runs the validation and automatically keeps a log of every check.