Glossary: Tax
VIES
VIES stands for VAT Information Exchange System: the European Commission's online tool for checking whether a VAT number is valid for sales between EU member states. Sellers use it to check a business buyer's VAT number.
In detail
VIES does not hold its own list of VAT numbers. It passes your query to the national tax database of the member state that issued the number and returns whether the number is valid. Sellers use it for cross-border business sales within the EU, where a valid VAT number from the buyer is one of the facts that decide how VAT is handled on the invoice.
A VIES result is evidence, not a ruling. It tells you the number is registered, and in some cases returns the name and address of the business. It does not tell you whether VAT applies to your sale, which depends on the goods or services, the countries, and the other conditions in the local rules. Check your obligations for each market or ask an adviser.
VIES covers EU member states, and Northern Ireland numbers that start with XI for goods. Since Brexit, VAT numbers from Great Britain (prefix GB) are not covered, and neither are Norway and Switzerland, which have their own checks. A national system can also be offline for a while, so a failed check does not always mean the number is invalid.
Keep a record of each check: the number, the date and time and the result. If a tax authority later asks why you did not charge VAT on a sale, a saved result is your evidence that you checked at the time. Check again when you open the account and at a regular interval, because VAT registrations can change.
Example
A German buyer enters the VAT number DE123456789 (an illustrative number) on a wholesale application. The seller queries VIES, which returns valid, and saves the result with the date before approving the account.
On Shopify
On a Shopify company location the Tax ID field is labeled VAT number for UK and EU locations when you use Shopify Tax, and the Help Center says Shopify Tax validation is available for it. The page does not say which service the check uses.
Sources: Shopify Help Center: Company locations (read October 4, 2026); Shopify Help Center: Tax overrides and exemptions (read October 4, 2026).
In BSS B2B apps
BSS B2B Solution's registration form has an EU VAT field. The storefront form checks the number with VIES as the buyer types, and falls back to another service if VIES does not answer. UK VAT numbers use a separate field. The field needs a paid plan, see the pricing page.
Related use cases
Learn more
Read the Tax and compliance hub for guides, use cases and setup docs, or the complete Shopify B2B guide.