MeridianMERIDIAN

EU VAT Number

identity.government.eu_vat

European Union Value Added Tax identification number. Format: 2-letter country code prefix followed by 2-12 alphanumeric characters. Each EU member state has its own format rules.

Worked samples

DuckDB 1.5.5 · finetype 0.6.64

ValueAs VARCHARcountry_codelocal_number
DE123456789DE123456789DE123456789
FR12345678901FR12345678901FR12345678901
ATU12345678ATU12345678ATU12345678
NL123456789B01NL123456789B01NL123456789B01
GB123456789GB123456789GB123456789
Scope
Locale-specific
Locales
DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, PL, AT, BE, IE, SE, DK, FI, CZ, HU, RO, GR, PT

Shape

Pattern
^[A-Z]{2}[0-9A-Za-z+*.]{2,12}$
ValueLengthShape
DE12345678911matches
FR1234567890113matches
ATU1234567811matches
NL123456789B0114matches
GB12345678911matches
de12345678911rejected: lower-cased

Told apart

Going the other way, this type's own rule accepts 4 of 4 samples of Indian PAN.

Background

Origin

The EU VAT identification number is set out in Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax.[1] Article 214 of the directive requires Member States to identify certain taxable persons by means of an individual number.[1]

HMRC says businesses trading goods between Northern Ireland and the EU add the XI prefix before their normal 9-digit UK VAT number where appropriate.[2] HMRC also says the XI prefix is not required for services between Northern Ireland and the EU, or within the internal UK market.[2]

Use

Article 226 of the VAT directive lists the supplier's VAT identification number among the details required on an invoice.[1] The customer's VAT identification number is also required on an invoice when the customer is liable for the VAT or receives an intra-Community supply of goods.[1]

Germany writes DE followed by 9 digits.[3] The Netherlands writes NL, 9 digits, the letter B and a 2-digit company index, as in NL999999999B01.[3] In a French number the two characters after FR are a validation key, and either can be a letter.[3] Belgian numbers end in 2 check digits calculated as 97 minus MOD 97.[3]

Sources

  1. [1]Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added taxstandard
  2. [2]VATNIEU2100 - The Single Market concept: background - HMRC internal manual - GOV.UKdocumentation
  3. [3]VAT identification numbersecondary source

Detection notes

Each EU country has specific format rules. DE = 9 digits, FR = 2 chars + 9 digits, AT = U + 8 digits, etc.

Use it

CLI · DuckDB
$ finetype infer -i "DE123456789" --mode column
→ identity.government.eu_vat

SELECT ft_infer('DE123456789');
-- → 'identity.government.eu_vat'
Cast expression
CAST({col} AS VARCHAR)

Schema

https://meridian.online/schemas/identity.government.eu_vat · Frictionless type string

finetype taxonomy identity.government.eu_vat -o json-schema

Aliases

vat_numbervat_id

Type Registry