# What Is VIES, and How Podnikio Checks EU VAT Numbers for You
2026-09-03 — Podnikio Team
VIES is the EU's official VAT-number checker. Here's what it does, why verifying your customer's VAT ID protects you from a tax bill, and how Podnikio runs the check automatically on every invoice.
If you invoice a business in another EU country, at some point you write their VAT number onto an invoice, set the VAT to zero, and add a "reverse charge" note. That zero rate is only allowed if the customer really has a valid EU VAT registration — and you are the one expected to check. The tool for that is **VIES**.
## Quick answer
**VIES** (VAT Information Exchange System) is a free service run by the European Commission that tells you whether an EU VAT identification number is **valid and active** right now. You use it before you zero-rate a cross-border B2B supply. If the number turns out to be invalid and you cannot show you checked it in good faith, the tax office can refuse the zero rate and bill the VAT to **you**. Podnikio runs the VIES check for you automatically, every time a VAT number is entered.
## Main takeaways
VIES is the EU's official, free VAT-number checker — it covers all 27 member states plus Northern Ireland.
A valid customer VAT ID is a condition of zero-rating an intra-Community supply and mandatory content on a reverse-charge invoice — verifying it is your responsibility, not the customer's.
The "consultation number" VIES issues when you identify yourself is dated proof that you checked a specific number on a specific day.
Podnikio checks every VAT number against VIES in the background, pre-fills the registered name and address when available, warns on a bad or unverifiable number, and stores the consultation number.
## Why it matters
For an ordinary B2B service to a business in another EU member state, the place of supply is the customer's country and the VAT obligation shifts to them — the **reverse charge**. You issue the invoice at zero VAT with the mandatory note. For goods, the equivalent is the **exempt intra-Community supply**.
In both cases the customer's valid EU VAT ID is not a formality. Since 2020 it is a **substantive condition** of the goods exemption, and for services it is mandatory invoice content and part of the evidence that your customer is actually a taxable person. If the number was never valid, or had been cancelled, and you did not verify it, the tax authority can deny the zero rate and assess the unpaid VAT against you, plus interest. Verifying in VIES — and keeping a record — is what establishes that you acted in good faith.
This applies even if you are **not a VAT payer**. In several countries, supplying a service to an EU business makes you an *identified person* with an obligation to file an EC Sales List — and the VAT ID you report there has to be a real one.
## What VIES can and cannot tell you
- **It tells you:** whether the number is a currently valid EU VAT registration, and — for most countries — the registered name and address.
- **It does not tell you:** anything for Germany or Spain beyond "valid" (no name, no address), anything about non-EU numbers, or whether the person in front of you is the person the number belongs to.
- **It is often unreachable.** VIES forwards each query to the relevant national database, and those go down routinely — sometimes for a whole day. A "service unavailable" answer is not the same as "invalid"; it just means *try again later*.
- **It is not built for bulk lookups.** Hammering it with automated requests gets you rate-limited.
## The consultation number
A plain VIES lookup gives you a yes/no on screen and nothing to file. If you also supply **your own** valid VAT number as the requester, VIES returns a **unique consultation number** together with the result. That number is the EU system's own receipt: it proves that on a given date you checked a given VAT number and it came back valid. If a zero-rated supply is ever questioned, that is the evidence you want on hand.
## How Podnikio uses VIES
You never have to open the VIES website. Podnikio checks VAT numbers as you work:
- **Every VAT number is checked automatically.** Type your own into your company profile, or a client's onto an invoice, and Podnikio queries VIES in the background.
- **You see the result inline.** A green *"VAT number verified with VIES"*, an amber *"VIES does not recognise this VAT number"*, or a quiet *"Couldn't verify with VIES right now"* when the national registry is offline.
- **The registered details are pre-filled.** When VIES returns a name and address, Podnikio fills those fields if you left them blank, and if what you typed differs it shows a *"doesn't match what VIES has on file"* note with a one-click **Use VIES details**.
- **The consultation number is captured.** Whenever both your VAT number and the client's are on file, Podnikio runs the requester check and stores the consultation number on the invoice, with the date — this is the evidence that matters most on a reverse-charge invoice, but it is captured any time it's available. It is shown on the invoice so you always have the proof attached to the document it belongs to.
## Frequently asked questions
### Does this apply to invoices within my own country?
No. VIES is the **cross-border** system. On a domestic B2B invoice you charge domestic VAT as usual — there is no exemption you could lose, so there is no "verify or you are liable" rule on you as the supplier; a wrong VAT number mainly affects the customer's own input-VAT deduction. VIES can even be misleading for a domestic-only registrant: in Spain and Italy a number can be valid domestically but not enabled for intra-EU, and it then shows as invalid in VIES.
Domestic verification still exists, it just uses **national** tools, not VIES. In [**Poland**](/en/blog/poland/vat-whitelist-biala-lista-2026), for a B2B transfer over PLN 15,000 gross you must check the counterparty against the *biała lista* (white list) and pay to a listed bank account, miss it and you lose the deduction and become jointly liable for their VAT. [**Czechia**](/en/blog/czech-republic/unreliable-vat-payer-register-2026) publishes an *unreliable VAT payer* register, and [**Slovakia**](/en/blog/slovak-republic/vat-payer-register-2026) an at-risk (deregistration-grounds) list, each alongside approved bank accounts — paying a flagged supplier (or an unpublished account) makes you jointly liable for their unpaid VAT. Podnikio runs these checks automatically too, the same way it does for VIES.
### Do I have to check the VAT number every single time?
For a new customer, yes, verify before the first zero-rated invoice. For a returning customer it is good practice to re-check periodically, because registrations do get cancelled. Podnikio re-checks whenever you edit or re-save an invoice, so a lapsed number surfaces on its own.
### VIES says "not valid" but the customer insists their number is fine
Ask them to check their own number in [VIES](https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/) for the exact spelling, including the country prefix. A common cause is a number that is valid domestically but not enabled for **intra-EU** transactions — the customer has to ask their tax office to activate it. Until VIES confirms it, you cannot safely apply the zero rate.
### VIES is down. Can I still issue the invoice?
Yes. An "unavailable" answer is not a rejection. Issue the invoice, keep evidence that the customer is a business (contract, correspondence, their letterhead), and re-check once VIES is back. Podnikio's re-check on the next save handles this for you.
### What about UK (GB) VAT numbers?
VIES does not cover them since Brexit. The UK runs its own checker. A GB number simply shows as unverifiable in Podnikio's VIES check.
## Try it
Our free invoice generator does the invoice side — set the client's **country** to their EU member state and it zero-rates the VAT, adds the note, and already runs the live VIES check and pre-fill described above as you type, no account needed. Start with the [Czech invoice generator](/en/services/czechia/invoice-generator) (Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria versions exist too). A free **Podnikio account** adds the consultation-number proof on every saved invoice, a saved client list with stored VAT IDs, a full history of every cross-border invoice, and a connected accountant who handles the identified-person registration and the EC Sales List.
## Contact us
If you are unsure how VAT-number verification or the reverse charge applies to your situation, feel free to reach out. We offer a free initial consultation.
## Related posts
- [🇵🇱 Poland — the VAT Whitelist (biała lista) and How Podnikio Checks It for You](https://www.podnik.io/en/blog/poland/vat-whitelist-biala-lista-2026)
- [🇨🇿 Czech Republic — the Unreliable VAT Payer Register and How Podnikio Checks It](https://www.podnik.io/en/blog/czech-republic/unreliable-vat-payer-register-2026)
- [🇸🇰 Slovak Republic — the VAT Payer Register and How Podnikio Checks It](https://www.podnik.io/en/blog/slovak-republic/vat-payer-register-2026)