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Free Irish business tool

Irish & EU VAT Number Checker

Check whether a VAT number is valid and registered for intra-EU trade, straight from the official EU VIES service. For a valid number you also get the registered business name and address. Useful before you pay a new supplier, apply reverse charge, or onboard a customer.

Any EU VAT number works. A bare number with no country letters is treated as Irish (IE). Try , , .

What this checks

VIES (the VAT Information Exchange System) is the European Commission service that confirms whether a business is registered for VAT and enabled for cross-border trade within the EU. This tool sends your query to VIES in real time and shows you exactly what it returns. Nothing is estimated and nothing is cached: every result is a live lookup.

For Irish businesses the most common uses are confirming a new supplier is genuinely VAT-registered before settling an invoice, and verifying a customer in another EU member state so you can correctly zero-rate an intra-EU supply under reverse charge. A valid VIES result returns the trader name and address as held on the official register, which you can keep with your records.

Source and privacy

Data comes directly from the EU VIES REST API (ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies). We do not log or store the VAT numbers you check. This page is published for general information and is not tax, accounting, or legal advice. Verify anything you rely on with Revenue or a qualified Irish accountant.

Questions

Is this VAT number checker free?

Yes. It queries the official EU VIES service directly, with no charge and no signup. We do not store the VAT numbers you check.

What is the difference between an Irish VAT number and a VIES-enabled one?

Revenue issues a domestic VAT registration, and on request enables it for intra-EU (VIES) trade. A number can be valid in Ireland for domestic purposes but show as not valid on VIES if it was never enabled for EU trade. If you are checking a supplier before applying reverse charge, the VIES result is the one that matters.

Why does it sometimes say the service is unavailable?

VIES checks each member state’s own database in real time. If Ireland’s node, or another country’s, is temporarily down, VIES returns a service error. That does not mean the number is invalid, only that the lookup could not complete. Try again shortly.

Can I rely on this for reverse charge or intra-EU supplies?

Checking VIES before you zero-rate an intra-EU supply is good practice and part of what Revenue expects. Keep a record of the check, the registered name and the date, alongside your invoice. This tool is informational and is not tax advice.

Results are indicative only and based on the information provided. Data may not reflect current vendor offerings and is subject to change. Always verify details directly with vendors before making purchasing decisions.