The special confirmation procedure makes it easier for businesses participating in the special arrangement One-Stop-Shop, non-Union scheme (formerly VAT on e-Services) to verify whether, at the time of supply, service was supplied to a business registered in an EU Member State.
By providing documentary evidence of the customer’s business status, it may be possible to shift the tax liability to the customer.

Simple confirmation:

In a simple confirmation, you receive information as to whether the VAT ID No. is valid in the issuing Member State at the time of the enquiry.
However, it is not possible to perform confirmations for times or periods in the past.

Qualified confirmation:

In a qualified confirmation, you can find out, in addition to the validity of the VAT ID No., whether the information on the trade name (including legal form), place, postcode and street related to the VAT ID No. is consistent with the data registered in the business database of the respective EU Member State. A simple confirmation enquiry is mandatory before a qualified confirmation can be carried out.

Note: It is not possible to disclose the data registered in the business database of the respective EU Member State.

Every business that participates in the special arrangement One-Stop-Shop, non-Union scheme (formerly VAT on e-Services) and has a valid registration number (NETPID) for this scheme is entitled to make enquiries. The enquiry must always include the business’s own registration number (as documentary evidence of the entitlement to make enquiries).

Simple and qualified confirmation enquiries can be carried out through the internet portal of the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) by using an online form. The result of the confirmation enquiry will be displayed in the online form and can be printed out locally by the business making the enquiry.

For businesses with an especially large number of enquiries, the BZSt will offer the possibility to integrate the confirmation enquiries into their own systems. Enquiries to the provided system will be made via an XML-RPC interface in such case. Further information on this topic will be published as soon as this function is available.

Confirmation enquiries via the internet access the databases of the individual EU Member States. If access to the internet in all or some countries has failed for technical reasons, for example maintenance work, you should try to perform the online confirmation enquiry again at a later time.
An overview of scheduled temporary suspensions of service due to maintenance work can be found on the website for the online confirmation procedure.

Making simple and/or qualified confirmation enquiries via the internet is free of charge. You only pay the connection fee of your internet provider.

Please contact your business partner and request the correct data. It is not possible for the BZSt to disclose the data registered in the business database of the respective EU Member State.

Spelling mistakes, transposed letters or entering special characters does not usually result in a 'no match' message. Please check directly with your business partner whether the data provided by him/her is consistent with the data recorded in the relevant Member State.

If your business partner is not sure about what data has been recorded, he/she can contact the competent authority in the respective Member State and ask what data has been recorded for the business.

Only the competent authority in the respective Member State is permitted to change or amend the data at the request of your business partner.

Information about the formal structure of VAT ID No.s in the individual EU Member States can be found in this leaflet.