VAT numbers issued by different EU countries
You need the VAT number of your customers, suppliers or other counterparts when you prepare invoices for them. Contact the party you do business with and ask them to give you their VAT number. More information on VAT number checking.
The first two characters of the VAT number are the country code, which is followed by a varying number of other characters.
Used abbreviations:
9 = number, X = number or letter, L = letter, S = letter, number or other character
| Country | Structure | Number of characters after the country code | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | AT U99999999 | 9 | The first character following the country code is always “U". |
| Belgium | BE 9999999999 | 10 | |
| Bulgaria | BG 999999999 BG 9999999999 |
9 or 10 | |
| Croatia | HR 99999999999 | 11 | |
| Cyprus | CY 99999999L | 9 | |
| Czech | CZ 99999999 CZ 999999999 CZ 9999999999 |
8, 9 or 10 | |
| Denmark | DK 99999999 | 8 | |
| Estonia | EE 999999999 | 9 | |
| Finland | FI 99999999 | 8 | |
| France | FR XX999999999 | 11 | |
| Germany | DE 999999999 | 9 | |
| Greece | EL 999999999 | 9 | |
| Hungary | HU 99999999 | 8 | |
| Ireland |
IE 9S99999L or IE 9999999LL |
8 9 |
|
| Italy | IT 99999999999 | 11 | |
| Latvia | LV 99999999999 | 11 | |
| Lithuania | LT 999999999 LT 999999999999 |
9 or 12 | |
| Luxembourg | LU 99999999 | 8 | |
| Malta | MT 99999999 | 8 | |
| Netherlands | NL 999999999B99 | 12 | The 10th character following the country code is always "B". |
| Portugal | PT 999999999 | 9 | |
| Poland | PL 9999999999 | 10 | |
| Romania | RO 99 RO 999 RO 9999 RO 99999 RO 999999 RO 9999999 RO 99999999 RO 999999999 RO 9999999999 |
2 to 10 | |
| Sweden | SE 999999999901 | 12 | The last two characters are always the numbers “01”. |
| Slovakia | SK 9999999999 | 10 | |
| Slovenia | SI 99999999 | 8 | |
| Spain | ES X9999999X | 9 | The first and the last character can be either a letter or a number, but both cannot be numbers. |
|
United Kingdom
Northern-Ireland |
GB 999999999 or GB 999999999999 or GB GD999 or GB HA999 |
9 12 5 5 |
Identifies branch entities.
GB-prefixed identifiers are in effect up to 31 December 2020. |