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USt-IdNr VIES Peppol 9930

Check a VAT Number: Valid, and How Do I Invoice This Customer?

Type any EU VAT number. You get the live answer from the European Commission's VIES service, the electronic address that number gives the company on the Peppol network, and the date from which German law expects a structured invoice instead of a PDF.

Country prefix first, then the number. Official EU data, fetched live. Nothing you type is stored.

Meets the standards EN 16931 ZUGFeRD / Factur-X XRechnung KoSIT GoBD Archive PDF/A-3

Three Answers Hidden in One VAT Number

A check that is worth more than a yes or a no.

What VIES confirms, and what it does not

A valid answer means one thing: on this day, that member state had an active registration for intra-community trade under this number. It is not a credit rating, not proof that your contact is entitled to act for the company, and not a check of the name you were given. Germany, unlike most member states, withholds the trader name and address entirely, so a German number comes back confirmed but anonymous. For a supply you intend to zero rate, keep the answer with the invoice.

From a VAT number to a Peppol address

An electronic address on the network is a scheme plus a value, and for a German company the scheme is 9930 and the value is the USt-IdNr: 9930:DE811569869. So the number you just checked is also the address the invoice travels to, and it belongs in the buyer electronic address field of the XML. Other member states have their own code on the same list, 9925 for Belgium, 9944 for the Netherlands, 9914 for Austria, 9957 for France.

The German calendar: 2025, 2027, 2028

Receiving came first and is already binding: since 1 January 2025 every German business must be able to accept a structured e-invoice for domestic B2B supplies. Issuing is staged by size. From 1 January 2027 it applies above 800,000 euro of previous-year turnover, and from 1 January 2028 to everyone else. Until the end of 2026 you may still send paper or a plain PDF if the recipient agrees. The dates come from the Wachstumschancengesetz.

How the Check Works

One number in, an invoicing answer out.

Step 1

Type the VAT number

Country prefix first, then the number: DE811569869. Spaces, dots and hyphens are ignored, so you can paste it straight off a letterhead, an order confirmation or a supplier's website.

Step 2

Read the answer

VIES asks the member state that issued the number and answers in about a second: registered or not, with the company name where that country publishes it. Germany does not, so a German number comes back confirmed but anonymous.

Step 3

Invoice the customer

Below the answer you get the Peppol address built on that VAT number and the date from which you must send this customer a structured invoice. One click takes you to the ZUGFeRD or XRechnung form with nothing to install.

When a VAT number is worth thirty seconds

Before a zero-rated EU supply, the customer's valid VAT ID is a material condition of the exemption; before a new supplier's first invoice, a quick check saves later arguments about the input-VAT deduction. This check queries the EU's VIES system live and shows the holder's name and address where the member state publishes them; German numbers come back valid but anonymous by design.

For the formal qualified confirmation German law offers, the route is the Federal Central Tax Office, and its result belongs documented with the transaction. The quick check here is the everyday habit; the qualified confirmation is the paper trail for the big cases.

Related reading

Frequently Asked Questions

VAT numbers, VIES answers and German deadlines, explained.

The Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer (USt-IdNr) is the European VAT identifier: DE followed by nine digits, issued by the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern and valid across the whole single market. The Steuernummer is the domestic reference your local tax office uses for your file, it changes when you move to a different office, and it means nothing outside Germany. Only the USt-IdNr can be checked in VIES, and only it belongs in the buyer and seller VAT fields of an EN 16931 invoice.
Because Germany chose not to publish trader details. Each member state decides for itself whether VIES may return the name and address behind a valid number, and the German administration withholds both. So a German answer confirms the registration and nothing more, which is exactly what the law asks you to check. Belgian, Polish or Dutch numbers usually do come back with a name and an address.
That the member state has no active intra-community registration under that number today. In practice it is almost always one of four things: a typo, a number that was issued but never activated for intra-community trade, a registration too recent to have propagated, or a company that has been deregistered or wound up. It is not a judgement about the business. Ask your contact to confirm the number in writing before you treat a supply as tax free.
No. The number you type is passed to VIES to get the answer and is not written to any log or database here. The page needs no account, sets no tracking cookie for the check, and keeps no history of who looked up what. If you need a formal record for your files, request a qualified confirmation (qualifizierte Bestätigungsanfrage) from the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, which issues one on request.
That is the intended use, and for intra-community supplies it is close to compulsory: a zero-rated cross-border supply relies on your customer holding a valid VAT number at the time of the supply, and the check is the evidence that it did. Domestically it is worth just as much for a different reason. The number you confirm here is also the Peppol address you will route the invoice to, so one check settles both questions.
9930 is the code for a German VAT number in the electronic address scheme list that EN 16931 and Peppol use. An electronic address is always a pair, the scheme and the value, so a German company on the network is addressed as 9930:DE811569869. It goes in the buyer electronic address field (BT-49) of the invoice. Other countries have their own code on the same list, for instance 9925 for Belgium, 9944 for the Netherlands, 9914 for Austria and 9957 for France.
The Leitweg-ID is the routing identifier of a German public-sector buyer, a federal ministry, a state authority, a city or a public body. It looks like 991-01234-56 and is issued by the buyer, who has to give it to you; you cannot derive it from a VAT number. On the network it carries scheme 0204 rather than 9930. If your customer is public sector, ask for the Leitweg-ID, put it in the buyer reference field (BT-10) and send an XRechnung. For a business customer, the VAT number under 9930 is the address.
Receiving already applies: since 1 January 2025 every business in Germany must be able to accept a structured e-invoice for domestic B2B supplies, with no size threshold and no transition. Issuing is staged. Until 31 December 2026 you may still send paper or a plain PDF if the recipient agrees. From 1 January 2027 you must issue e-invoices if your turnover in the previous calendar year was above 800,000 euro. From 1 January 2028 the obligation covers every business, whatever its turnover. The dates come from the Wachstumschancengesetz (the Growth Opportunities Act).
From VIES, the VAT Information Exchange System run by the European Commission. VIES holds no database of its own: it forwards your question to the tax administration of the country that issued the number and passes the answer straight back. That is why a check can occasionally fail for one country while every other country answers normally. When that happens this page says the service gave no answer, and never turns silence into an invalid verdict.
No. VIES covers the VAT numbers of EU member states, plus numbers prefixed XI for Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework. Switzerland, the United Kingdom and other non-EU countries run their own registers and are not reachable through it. For those, verify the number with the national authority. The e-invoicing rules on this page are German rules and apply to domestic B2B supplies, so a non-EU customer is a separate question from your side of the invoice.
Built for the German mandate

One toolkit for ZUGFeRD and XRechnung

Every German business has had to accept e-invoices since January 2025. Both formats are covered here.

ZUGFeRD or XRechnung? Let the assistant pick the tool Tell the chat what you need: it converts, checks, builds, and reads out German e-invoices. Open assistant

Create

Fill one form, get a ZUGFeRD PDF or an XRechnung with Leitweg-ID
Create ZUGFeRD PDF ZUGFeRD PDF The guided form turns your details into a ZUGFeRD or XRechnung invoice. Create XRechnung XRechnung Generate a valid XRechnung with Leitweg-ID, ready for public-sector buyers. Create Order-X Order-X PDF Create an Order-X order file: the ZUGFeRD hybrid principle applied to purchase orders. ZUGFeRD Credit Note ZUGFeRD PDF Cancel or correct an e-invoice you already sent with a ZUGFeRD credit note. XRechnung Credit Note XRechnung Create an XRechnung credit note with Leitweg-ID for public-sector buyers.

Check & repair

Test against EN 16931 and the XRechnung CIUS, then fix what a buyer rejected
Validate ZUGFeRD ZUGFeRD PDF Run EN 16931 checks on your ZUGFeRD invoices before DATEV or your customer does. Validate XRechnung XRechnung Check XRechnung XML against EN 16931 and the German CIUS rules. Validate Order-X Order-X Run incoming and outgoing Order-X orders through the official Order-X 1.0 checks. Edit ZUGFeRD Invoice ZUGFeRD PDF Repair a refused or broken invoice: upload it, correct the fields, and get a valid file back. Edit XRechnung XRechnung Open an XRechnung as a form, fix the Leitweg-ID or any rejected field, and download a valid file.

Convert

Move an invoice between PDF, CII, UBL and XRechnung
PDF to ZUGFeRD PDF ZUGFeRD Any PDF, Word, or Excel invoice goes in; a ZUGFeRD or XRechnung file comes out. PDF to XRechnung PDF XRechnung Convert a PDF invoice to a valid XRechnung with Leitweg-ID for public-sector buyers. CII to ZUGFeRD CII ZUGFeRD Package existing CII XML as a ZUGFeRD PDF/A-3 hybrid invoice. Embed XML to PDF CII PDF ZUGFeRD Marry a PDF and its CII XML into one ZUGFeRD-compliant hybrid invoice. CII to UBL CII UBL Transform a CII invoice into UBL XML, the syntax most Peppol networks expect. UBL to CII UBL CII Map a UBL invoice to UN/CEFACT CII XML, ready to embed in ZUGFeRD or Factur-X. XRechnung to PDF XRechnung PDF See any CII, UBL, or XRechnung XML as a tidy, printable PDF.

Open & extract

Open a file, see what is inside it, and take the data with you
Extract XML PDF CII Pull structured XML straight out of any PDF invoice with AI-driven OCR. Extract Attachments ZUGFeRD XRechnung Pull every embedded file out of a ZUGFeRD or XRechnung invoice as a ZIP. XRechnung Viewer XRechnung CII UBL Open e-invoice XML in your browser and read it like a paper invoice. ZUGFeRD Viewer ZUGFeRD PDF Open a ZUGFeRD PDF and read the embedded invoice data your software books.

Look up & automate

Check who you are invoicing, or move the whole flow to an API
Check VAT Number Check any EU VAT number against VIES and get the customer's Peppol address. Developer API, MCP and automation Automate invoice generation and validation end to end.
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