Guides › What is VIES?
What is VIES?
Updated: 1 November 2026 · Klik&Shop
VIES stands for VAT Information Exchange System. It is the European Commission's system for checking whether an EU VAT number is valid.
How does VIES work?
VIES is not a central database. When you check a number, VIES forwards the request to the tax authority of the country in the prefix (for example the Dutch Belastingdienst for NL or the German Federal Central Tax Office for DE). That national database returns the answer. So VIES availability depends on 27 national systems, plus Northern Ireland (XI).
What data does VIES return?
- Valid or invalid: is the number active for intra-EU trade?
- Name and address: only if the member state shares them. Germany does not, for example; others sometimes show only part.
- Date of the check.
- Consultation number: only if you also submit your own VAT number on the VIES website. It serves as proof that you performed the check.
What does a valid result mean?
A valid result means the number is registered for intra-community transactions at that moment. It says nothing about how reliable the business is. Note: a business can be VAT-registered nationally but not for intra-EU trade; VIES then reports the number as invalid.
Limitations of VIES
- Outages and maintenance per country happen regularly. See VIES down.
- With many simultaneous requests, VIES returns errors such as
MS_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQ. - UK (GB) numbers have not been in VIES since 2021.
- VIES doesn't explain formats to you. See the EU VAT number format per country.
Using VIES: manually or via an API
For a one-off check use the VIES website or our free VAT number check. To build VIES checks into your software you can call the official VIES interface (SOAP or REST) yourself, but then you handle outages, timeouts and caching. The EU VAT Check API takes care of that: one simple JSON call, a 24-hour cache, batches of up to 50 numbers and a clear 503 with advice during outages.
FAQ
Is VIES official?
Yes. VIES is run by the European Commission (DG TAXUD) and retrieves data directly from the national tax authorities.
What is a VIES consultation number?
A unique number VIES issues when you also enter your own VAT number during the check. It proves you checked your customer's number at that moment. Keep it with your records.
Check a VAT number now
5 one-time free checks via VIES, or automate with the API (5 free checks a month).