Check a German VAT Number.
Verified live against VIES.
Validate a German VAT number (USt-IdNr, format DE + 9 digits), or any EU VAT ID, against the official VIES database in seconds. Free, no signup, no limits.
The lookup above proves the number exists. It does not prove it belongs to the company on your invoice. A qualified confirmation (qualifizierte Bestätigungsanfrage) asks the German Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt) to compare the name and address your customer gave you against what their own member state holds on file. That is the check that stands up when an auditor asks how you knew who you were zero-rating for.
We pass your entry straight to the BZSt and keep nothing: not your VAT ID, not your customer's, not the answer. Since 20 July 2025 the BZSt accepts qualified requests only electronically, so this is the same route your accounting software would take. Each field you leave blank simply comes back as "not requested".
A qualified confirmation (qualifizierte Bestätigungsanfrage) compares a company's name and address against the register of the member state that issued the number. The BZSt runs it for VAT IDs from the other 26 member states. It does not confirm one German VAT ID against another, except for warehouse operators (§ 4 Nr. 4a UStG) and operators of electronic interfaces (§ 25e UStG). For a German number the VIES result above is the check available to you, and it answers less than it does elsewhere: Germany discloses no company name or address through VIES, so a German VAT ID can be confirmed valid but never traced to a company. If what you actually need is to identify the business, that lives in the commercial register: how to check a German company.
Three checks, one tool.
Whether you're issuing a first invoice, applying reverse charge, or reclaiming input VAT, a quick VIES check protects you from the most expensive German tax surprises.
Your own VAT ID
A quick check before submitting your first invoice. New registrations can take days to appear in VIES; if you bill cross-border before yours shows up, every EU customer will reject the reverse-charge treatment.
Customer VAT IDs
Required before applying reverse charge or zero-rated B2B sales. German tax authorities expect a VIES-confirmed ID on file at the moment of invoicing, not weeks later when an audit asks.
Supplier VAT IDs
Verify before deducting input VAT. An invoice from a non-VIES-registered supplier won't survive a routine Betriebsprüfung, and the input VAT you reclaimed comes straight back out.
Need to know who a German company is, not just whether a number is valid? See how to check a German company. Validating a whole list? Use the bulk EU VAT validator. Need a German VAT number of your own? See German VAT registration for foreign companies, check the German VAT rates, or read the complete German VAT guide.
Two different checks, and only one of them names the company.
Most tools stop at the first. The second is the one German auditors have in mind when they ask how you established who your customer was.
Simple check, through VIES
Answers one question: is this VAT ID registered for cross-border EU trade right now? Some member states return the company name and address alongside, many do not. It is instant, needs nothing from you, and it is what the tool at the top of this page runs.
Good for: a first sanity check, your own number after registration, a supplier invoice you are about to book.
Qualified confirmation, through the BZSt
Answers a harder question: does the name and address your customer gave you actually belong to that VAT ID in their own member state's register? You get a field-by-field match or mismatch, dated, from the German Federal Central Tax Office. It needs your own German VAT ID, and it only covers numbers from the other 26 member states.
Good for: any new B2B customer you are about to zero-rate, and any invoice large enough that you would not want to explain it later.
Why this became more than paperwork
Since the 2020 EU quick fixes, a valid customer VAT ID is not a formality you can repair after the fact. It is one of the substantive conditions for treating an intra-EU B2B supply as zero-rated (§ 6a UStG), alongside the EU sales list (Zusammenfassende Meldung) and proof the goods left the country. If the number turns out to have belonged to somebody else, the tax follows you, not your customer.
Two practical notes. Since 20 July 2025 the BZSt accepts confirmation requests only electronically, so the old phone and paper routes are gone. And a confirmation is evidence of the check you made on the day you made it, which is exactly why it is worth running before you issue the invoice rather than during an audit.
VAT IDs, explained for foreign sellers.
Short, plain-English answers to the questions our customers send us most.
A simple VIES check tells you a VAT ID is registered. A qualified confirmation (qualifizierte Bestätigungsanfrage, § 18e UStG) additionally asks whether the company name and address you were given match what the issuing member state holds for that number. You get a field-by-field answer from the German Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt), dated.
Run it whenever you zero-rate a B2B sale to another EU country and want to be able to show later that you checked who you were dealing with, not just that the number existed. It needs your own German VAT ID, and it covers numbers from the other 26 member states, not German ones.
The BZSt confirms VAT IDs issued by other member states. It does not confirm one German number against another, except for warehouse operators (§ 4 Nr. 4a UStG) and operators of electronic interfaces such as marketplaces (§ 25e UStG). Ask it anyway and it answers that the requesting number is not authorised.
For a German number the VIES lookup at the top of this page is the check available to you, but it answers less than it does elsewhere: Germany discloses no company name or address through VIES, so you can confirm a German number is valid and still not know whose it is. Identifying the business means going to the commercial register instead, which is covered in how to check a German company.
A VAT ID is your identifier for cross-border EU trade. In Germany it's called the USt-IdNr and starts with DE followed by nine digits. It's the number that appears on invoices to other EU businesses and the one VIES validates.
A tax number (in Germany, the Steuernummer) is your domestic identifier with a local tax office. It's the number the Finanzamt uses to track your filings. Same business, different jobs: the Steuernummer is for them, the VAT ID is for everyone else.
To apply reverse charge or zero-rate a B2B intra-EU sale, you need a customer VAT ID that's currently registered in VIES. If it isn't, you must charge VAT at your local rate, treating the buyer as B2C.
Tax authorities cross-check your VIES log against your invoice ledger. An invoice issued at zero rate to a customer whose number was never valid at the time of supply is one of the most common findings in a German VAT audit.
VIES is a real-time gateway to each member state's national VAT register, so the answer depends on the country. Most update overnight; a few publish changes within hours; new German registrations typically appear within one to three business days of activation.
The check we run here returns the country's current answer at the moment you press Validate, with a timestamp you can keep as proof of due diligence.
The Steuernummer is issued by your local Finanzamt and follows a regional format, e.g. 12/345/67890. It identifies you for domestic correspondence: filings, payments, audit notices.
The USt-IdNr is issued by the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern in Saarlouis, follows the format DE plus nine digits, and is the one VIES recognises. You apply for it separately, often after your Steuernummer has been issued. Foreign sellers usually need both: one to file in Germany, one to invoice the rest of the EU.
VIES occasionally returns a "service unavailable" response when a member state's national register is offline for maintenance. When that happens, the check is inconclusive, not invalid: the number might still be perfectly valid; the gateway just couldn't reach the register to confirm.
Our recommendation is the same one tax authorities give: try again later the same day, and if it still fails, keep a screenshot of the unavailable response as evidence you attempted due diligence, then re-verify within a reasonable window.
Find out what you actually need in Germany.
A valid VAT ID is one piece. If you're selling into Germany, a 60-second check tells you whether you need a German VAT registration, monthly filings, or nothing yet. No signup.
Free. Built and operated in-house by a licensed German tax advisor.