Korea Business Registration Number Verifier (Live NTS Status)

Verify Korean business registration numbers (사업자등록번호, BRN) in bulk against the official National Tax Service (NTS) database. You get live business status, VAT tax type and closure date, plus an optional authenticity check. Output is clean English JSON for KYB, seller onboarding and fraud checks.

Why use it

• Live, official source. The data comes from the Korean National Tax Service open API (data.go.kr), not a scraped copy. NTS refreshes status about every 30 minutes.
• Nothing to set up. You don't need a Korean account, an API key or Korean language skills.
• Bulk. Thousands of numbers per run, checked in batches of 100.
• Free format pre-check. Numbers that fail the BRN checksum come back as INVALID_FORMAT and are not charged. Duplicates are removed.
• English enums (ACTIVE, SUSPENDED, CLOSED, NOT_REGISTERED). The original Korean labels are kept alongside.

Use cases

• KYB / KYC onboarding of Korean merchants on marketplaces, payment providers and B2B platforms
• Cleaning supplier and customer lists (find closed or suspended businesses)
• Checking a counterparty before an invoice or contract
• AI agents that need to verify a Korean company (works with the Apify MCP server)

Input

{
  "businessNumbers": ["124-81-00998", "220-81-62517"],
  "verifications": [
    { "businessNumber": "124-81-00998", "openingDate": "1969-01-13", "representativeName": "대표자명" }
  ]
}

• businessNumbers: returns status and tax type. Any separators are fine.
• verifications (optional): checks that the number matches the registered opening date and representative name. Enter the name in Korean, exactly as registered.

Output

{
  "input": "220-81-62517",
  "businessNumber": "2208162517",
  "businessNumberFormatted": "220-81-62517",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "statusKo": "계속사업자",
  "taxType": "GENERAL_VAT_TAXPAYER",
  "taxTypeKo": "부가가치세 일반과세자",
  "closedDate": null,
  "taxTypeChangedDate": null,
  "eInvoiceApplyDate": null,
  "previousTaxType": null,
  "isUnitTaxationBranch": false,
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Authenticity results also include isAuthentic (true/false) and authenticityMessageKo.

status	Meaning
ACTIVE	Operating (계속사업자)
SUSPENDED	Temporarily closed (휴업자)
CLOSED	Permanently closed; see closedDate (폐업자)
NOT_REGISTERED	Number not registered with NTS
INVALID_FORMAT	Failed the checksum; not sent to NTS, not charged

taxType	Korean
GENERAL_VAT_TAXPAYER	부가가치세 일반과세자
SIMPLIFIED_VAT_TAXPAYER	부가가치세 간이과세자
SIMPLIFIED_VAT_TAXPAYER_INVOICE_ISSUER	간이과세자 (세금계산서 발급사업자)
VAT_EXEMPT_BUSINESS	부가가치세 면세사업자
NON_PROFIT_OR_GOVERNMENT_ENTITY	비영리법인 / 국가기관 등
ORGANIZATION_WITH_UNIQUE_NUMBER	고유번호가 부여된 단체
SPECIAL_TAXPAYER	과세특례자

Pricing

Pay per event: $3 per 1,000 business numbers checked ($0.003 each), plus Apify's standard $0.00005 run-start fee.

Example	Cost
Check 100 numbers	$0.30
Check 1,000 numbers	$3.00
Invalid-format or duplicate numbers	Free

You can set a maximum cost per run in Apify. The Actor stops cleanly when the limit is reached.

Data source and legal

• Source: 국세청 사업자등록정보 진위확인 및 상태조회 서비스 (Korea National Tax Service), data.go.kr dataset 15081808. The dataset is licensed for use without restriction (이용허락범위 제한 없음).
• Business status and tax type are not personal data. For authenticity checks, you supply the representative name yourself. This Actor never looks names up and does not return them.
• This Actor runs in your own Apify account. Its developer does not keep copies of your inputs or results.
• The results reflect the NTS database at the time of the check (NTS refreshes it about every 30 minutes). They are provided as is and are not legal or tax advice.
• This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Korea National Tax Service.

FAQ

Does it return company name or address? No. NTS only confirms status, and confirms authenticity for details you provide.

Is a Korean corporate registration number (법인등록번호, 13 digits) supported? Not yet. Use the 10-digit business registration number.