What VIES is and what it is for
VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) is the European Commission database that allows you to check whether an intra-Community VAT number is valid and active. It connects the records of the tax administrations of the 27 Member States, plus Northern Ireland for certain transactions.
Its main purpose is to give certainty to transactions between companies in different EU countries. When you sell to a customer with a VAT number from another Member State, the intra-Community supply is exempt from VAT at origin (Article 138 of Directive 2006/112/EC). But that exemption is only valid if the customer's number appears in VIES at the time of the transaction.
That is why what VIES is is not a theoretical question: it is the tool that validates your right to invoice without VAT and to correctly file form 349 in Spain.
How to validate a European VAT number step by step
The system responds in real time whether the number exists and is active in the corresponding country's register. It does not tell you the name of the holder in all cases, only the validity of the number.
Key points
- 1. Select the Member State of the number you want to check.
- 2. Enter the full VAT number, with its country prefix (ES, PT, FR, DE, IT…).
- 3. Enter your own VAT number as the requester in queries that require it.
- 4. Click "Verify" and check the result: valid or not valid.
- 5. Save a screenshot or proof of the query for your tax records.
When it is mandatory to validate VAT in VIES
Validation is mandatory whenever you apply the VAT exemption on an intra-Community supply of goods or on certain services provided to businesses in another EU country. Without a valid number in VIES, the tax authority may reject the exemption and claim the VAT not charged, plus interest and penalties.
It is also advisable to validate when registering a new supplier, before issuing the first invoice and periodically, because a number can be deregistered and cease to be valid. If you have your company in Portugal, France or Germany, the logic is the same: VIES is common to the whole EU.
Common mistakes when checking VIES
If you use the XI prefix, remember that it corresponds to Northern Ireland for supplies of goods, not to an independent country.
Key points
- Writing the number without the country prefix or with the wrong prefix.
- Confusing the national NIF with the intra-community VAT number (in Spain it is "ES" + NIF).
- Including spaces, hyphens or dots that the system does not accept.
- Checking at the weekend or in the early hours, when some States carry out maintenance.
- Not distinguishing between the customer's number and your own company's number as the requester.
What to do if a number does not appear in VIES
A negative result does not automatically mean the customer is fraudulent: it could be a transcription error, a recent deregistration or a one-off failure of the service in the country of origin. Before invoicing, verify the data, ask the customer for the VAT registration certificate issued by their administration and repeat the check.
If the number still does not appear, do not apply the exemption: issue the invoice with VAT and regularise the transaction once the customer provides you with a valid number. Operating without a confirmed number exposes you to losing the exemption and having to bear the tax yourself.
