EU VAT Number VIES Official Validator

Official, real-time European Commission VIES VAT number verification for B2B cross-border compliance, reverse-charge invoicing, and audit certificates with zero monthly subscriptions.

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💡 The Problem Solved

Under European Union tax directives (Council Directive 2006/112/EC), cross-border B2B transactions between EU member states qualify for the 0% VAT Reverse Charge Mechanism only if the customer's VAT ID is officially registered and active in the VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) at the transaction date.

Manually validating VAT numbers through the EU web portal is slow, and commercial tax SaaS platforms charge $50–$300/month recurring subscriptions.

This Actor solves this by providing:

• Zero Monthly Subscription: Pay only $0.005 per check using Apify Pay-Per-Event (PPE).
• Official EU Gateway: Queries ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/rest-api directly.
• Audit Consultation Proof: Generates official requestIdentifier tokens for tax audits when requester VAT details are provided.
• Smart Sanitization: Normalizes Greece (GR -> EL), spaces, and dashes, with full post-Brexit Northern Ireland (XI) support.
• Single & Batch Support: Verify 1 VAT number or thousands in automated batches.

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💰 Transparent Pay-Per-Event (PPE) Pricing

No recurring monthly subscriptions. You only pay for successful validation queries:

Billable Event	Unit Price	Deliverable
vat_validation	$0.005 USD	Official validation status, registered company name, address, and audit certificate ID

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📥 Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
vatNumber	string	Yes	—	Target VAT number (e.g. '6388047V' or 'IE6388047V').
countryCode	string	No	'IE'	2-letter Member State code (e.g. DE, FR, IT, EL, XI). Auto-detected if prefix included in vatNumber.
requesterCountryCode	string	No	""	Your 2-letter country code to obtain a binding audit consultation certificate.
requesterVatNumber	string	No	""	Your own VAT number for audit proof generation.
batchVatNumbers	array	No	[]	Optional array of VAT numbers for bulk verification (e.g. ["IE6388047V", "EL094014201"]).

Sample Input JSON

{
  "vatNumber": "IE6388047V",
  "requesterCountryCode": "IE",
  "requesterVatNumber": "6388047V"
}

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📤 Output Format

Each verified item pushed to the Apify dataset contains:

{
  "countryCode": "IE",
  "vatNumber": "6388047V",
  "valid": true,
  "status": "VALID",
  "name": "GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED",
  "address": "3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4",
  "requestIdentifier": "WAPIAAAAaFQiOHmI",
  "requestDate": "2026-10-18T19:41:50.529Z"
}

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⚡ Integration Snippets

1. Python (apify-client)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("your-username/eu-vat-vies-validator").call(
    run_input={"vatNumber": "IE6388047V"}
)

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"Company: {item['name']} | Valid: {item['valid']} | Cert: {item['requestIdentifier']}")

2. Make.com (Integromat)

1. Add Apify -> Run an Actor.
2. Select eu-vat-vies-validator.
3. Map vatNumber from your Shopify, WooCommerce, or CRM invoice webhook.
4. Add a router: If valid == true, apply 0% VAT rate; if false, flag for manual review.

3. Zapier

1. Trigger: New Order in Stripe / QuickBooks.
2. Action: Apify -> Run Actor (eu-vat-vies-validator).
3. Pass customer VAT ID. Store requestIdentifier in your ERP for VAT tax audit compliance.

4. cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/your-username~eu-vat-vies-validator/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"vatNumber": "IE6388047V"}'

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🇪🇺 Supported Member States & Codes

All 27 EU Member States + Northern Ireland Protocol: AT (Austria), BE (Belgium), BG (Bulgaria), CY (Cyprus), CZ (Czechia), DE (Germany), DK (Denmark), EE (Estonia), EL (Greece, normalized from GR), ES (Spain), FI (Finland), FR (France), HR (Croatia), HU (Hungary), IE (Ireland), IT (Italy), LT (Lithuania), LU (Luxembourg), LV (Latvia), MT (Malta), NL (Netherlands), PL (Poland), PT (Portugal), RO (Romania), SE (Sweden), SI (Slovenia), SK (Slovakia), XI (Northern Ireland).