How to check the validity of Vat registration number UK
Value added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax which is applied on the products. The percentage of the tax is applied from the different stages of production to the final stage. The amount of tax that a user pays is actually the cost of the product. When a company paid a tax, it gets its VAT registration number. Different countries have a different type of registration numbers like a registration number of Australia will be different from the vat registration number UK.
Consider an example, when a television is built by a company, the manufacturer has to pay a tax on each and every supply which was needed to build the television. After the completion of the production process, the customer who will buy that television will pay the applicable VAT. It can also be considered as an indirect tax.
VAT registration Number:
If your company is registered for VAT, you will be provided with a unique VAT registration number. Your company’s number will be different from others. It is also different for every country. VAT number is a number consisting of 15 characters out of which the first two will represent the code of the country. For example, AT is used for Austria and GB is used for UK. There are ways through which you can check if the registration number of a company is valid or not.
VAT information exchange system (VIES) is a search engine which is used to check the validity of the registration number. VIES is owned by the European Commission. All the data in this search engine is retrieved with the help of VIES tool. It is available in 23 different languages of European Union. The result of any search on VIES may result in two ways. The first one in which the number is valid and the second one in which the registration number does not exist.
Valid registration number:
If the number entered in VIES is valid, the respective information about the company or the business will be displayed on the screen.
Invalid registration number:
If the number added in VIES is not valid, it means that the number you entered is not registered on the relevant national database. This validity can result due to following reasons:
- The registration number does not exist
- The number is not activated for intra-EU transactions
- As some countries need a separate registration for intra-EU transactions, it is a possibility that the registration was not finalized when you entered the number.
Apart from using an online database to check the validity of the number, you can also verify it with the help of VAT helpline services. The limitation of using helpline for the validity is that they provide information only about vat registration number UK. Whenever you deal with a new customer or a supplier it is recommended that you should check for the Vat registration number of that company or person. The valid number will help you in doing the business in a proper way.
