Validate EU VAT numbers in bulk
Paste a list of EU VAT IDs and check them all against the official VIES database at once. Get valid or invalid plus the registered company name for each, then export to CSV. Free, no signup.
What a VIES result means for your VAT
A valid VIES result means the VAT number is currently registered for cross-border EU trade, so you can apply the reverse charge or zero-rate a B2B intra-EU sale to that customer.
VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) is the European Commission's official gateway to each member state's national VAT register. A valid answer confirms the number is active for intra-EU transactions at the moment you check it; an invalid answer means it is not, whether because it was cancelled, mistyped, or only ever registered domestically. A third outcome, service unavailable, is inconclusive: a member state's register was briefly offline and the number may still be valid.
Why it matters for invoicing
To zero-rate or reverse-charge a B2B sale to another EU business, you need a customer VAT ID that is valid in VIES at the time of supply. If it is not, you must charge VAT at your local rate and treat the buyer as a consumer (B2C). Tax authorities, including the German Finanzamt, cross-check your VIES evidence against your invoice ledger in an audit, and a zero-rated invoice issued against a number that was never valid is one of the most common and expensive findings. Keep a dated record of every check, which is exactly what the CSV export here is for.
The connection to your own VAT registration
Validating customer VAT IDs is something a cross-border B2B seller does routinely, and the same activity usually means you have a VAT footprint of your own. If you store goods in Germany (for example in an Amazon FBA warehouse) or your distance sales to Germany pass the EU-wide €10,000 threshold, you must register for German VAT yourself, with no minimum turnover for foreign companies. That is the part Vaytax handles.
One check, the whole list.
Whether you are onboarding customers, cleaning an invoice ledger before a filing, or vetting suppliers, a bulk VIES check protects you from the most expensive cross-border VAT surprises.
Customer onboarding
Validate every new B2B customer's VAT ID before you zero-rate their first invoice. A VIES-confirmed ID on file at the moment of invoicing is what an auditor expects, not a check run weeks later.
Pre-filing ledger clean-up
Run your whole customer list before a VAT return or ZM (recapitulative statement) so a single cancelled number does not turn into a back-VAT assessment after the fact.
Supplier vetting
Verify supplier VAT IDs before deducting input VAT. An invoice from a non-VIES-registered supplier will not survive a German Betriebsprüfung, and the input VAT you reclaimed comes straight back out.
Need to check just one number? Use the single German VAT number checker. New to German VAT? See German VAT registration for foreign companies or the complete German VAT guide.
Bulk VIES validation, explained.
Yes. Paste a list of EU VAT numbers, one per line including the two-letter country prefix, and this tool checks each one against the official VIES database in turn, returning valid or invalid plus the registered company name where the member state discloses it. It validates up to 50 numbers per run and exports the results to CSV. For a single number, use the German VAT number checker.
A valid result means the VAT number is currently registered for cross-border EU trade, so you may apply the reverse charge or zero-rate a B2B intra-EU sale to that customer. Keep a dated record of the check: EU tax authorities cross-check your VIES evidence against your invoice ledger in an audit, and a zero-rated invoice to a number that was not valid at the time of supply is a common audit finding.
An invalid result means the number is not registered for intra-EU trade: it may be cancelled, mistyped, or registered only domestically. You cannot zero-rate or reverse-charge an invoice on that number. Ask the counterparty to confirm their VAT ID is activated for intra-EU trade with their tax office, then re-check, or treat the sale as B2C and apply your local VAT rate.
This tool queries the European Commission's official VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) in real time, the same source as the EU's own portal. VIES is a gateway to each member state's national VAT register, so the answer is the country's current record at the moment you run the check. When a member state register is offline, VIES returns service-unavailable, which is inconclusive rather than invalid.
If you store goods in Germany (for example in an Amazon FBA warehouse) or your distance sales to Germany pass the EU-wide €10,000 threshold, you must register for German VAT, with no minimum turnover for foreign companies. Validating customer VAT IDs is something a cross-border B2B seller does routinely, and the same activity usually triggers a German VAT registration obligation. Vaytax handles that registration plus the monthly and annual filings, in-house, from €79/month.
VIES occasionally returns a service-unavailable response when a member state's national register is offline for maintenance. That result is inconclusive, not invalid: the number may still be valid. The tool marks those rows as unavailable so you can re-run them later. Keeping the unavailable response is itself evidence of a good-faith due-diligence attempt.
If you store stock in Germany, you need your own German VAT number.
Checking other companies' VAT IDs usually means you are trading cross-border yourself. The moment your goods sit in a German warehouse, German VAT registration is mandatory, with no minimum turnover for foreign companies. Vaytax handles the registration and the monthly and annual filings in-house, with a licensed German tax advisor, from €79/month.