Italian VAT number check (VIES)

How the check works

What an Italian VAT number is

A partita IVA is a VAT registration number issued to those carrying on a business, a profession or an artistic activity. VAT registration can entail periodic VAT settlements and returns, depending on the applicable regime, and the electronic invoicing obligation through the Italian exchange system applies to transactions between parties resident or established in Italy: mere VAT identification of a non-established business is not the same as being established there.

The number has eleven digits, the last of which is a check digit calculated on the first ten under the Italian VAT decree and the implementing decree of 23 December 1976. In intra-EU trade it is quoted as IT followed by the eleven digits, which is the form VIES expects.

The codice fiscale of an individual is different: sixteen letters and numbers. The codice fiscale of a company, however, is also eleven digits, which is the classic source of errors. Use the number printed on the VAT registration certificate, not the tax code, when checking VIES or writing an invoice.

What VIES certifies, and what it does not

VIES is the European Commission's search service for checking VAT information held in national databases: it is not a register of its own, and administrative cooperation and information exchange between Member States rest on Regulation (EU) no. 904/2010.

• It certifies that the number is registered and enabled for intra-EU VAT operations at the time of the check.
• It does not certify solvency, that the business is trading, or reliability: it is not a credit or due diligence check.
• It does not return the SDI recipient code used for Italian electronic invoicing, or the company's beneficial owners.
• It does not replace the Italian Revenue Agency service for the existence and status of the VAT position.

Until the number appears in VIES, an intra-EU treatment cannot be taken for granted: request VIES inclusion before planned intra-EU transactions. If validation fails, check the position with the tax authority and determine the VAT treatment of the specific supply; a failed lookup alone is not a complete VAT assessment.

Errors and limits of this tool

A number that fails the format or check-digit test is stopped before any network call, and the message says which test failed. A number that passes is sent to our server route, which applies a limit of thirty requests per hour per IP. Our server aborts its request to VIES after eight seconds; the total time shown in your browser can be longer because it also includes network and server delays.

The three outcomes are kept distinct: valid, not valid on VIES, and service unavailable. A timeout or an outage of the European service is not evidence that the number is wrong, and the page never presents it that way.

Check the digits on the certificate before drawing conclusions: a single wrong digit changes both the number and its check digit, and VIES will correctly reject a number that was mistyped.

If you are not established in Italy

Making a supply taxable in Italy does not automatically require Italian VAT registration. For many supplies by a non-established business to an Italian-established taxable customer, the customer accounts for the VAT under the reverse charge and settles the Italian obligations, so the supplier does not need an Italian VAT identification number for that supply. Where the business does need to act in Italy, a business established in another EU State can use direct VAT identification under article 35-ter of the Italian VAT decree. A business established outside the EU generally must appoint an Italian fiscal representative, jointly and severally liable for the VAT, unless a mutual assistance agreement permits direct identification.

Our VAT registration and fiscal representation service covers registration, VIES enrolment and the ongoing filings; the guide on codice fiscale and VAT for non-residents explains the documents the Italian administration asks for before registration.