Germany · DE
The German VAT number (USt-IdNr)
Eleven characters that deliberately reveal nothing. The German VAT number is decoupled from every other German company identifier — which is exactly what makes looking one up so hard.
Format: DE + 9 digits (8 digits + 1 check digit)
Example: DE811907980
Issued by: the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt), on application, free of charge.
The format
A German VAT number — Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer, USt-IdNr — is always
eleven characters: the prefix DE and nine digits. The national
part never contains letters, spaces or dashes.
- DEThe country prefix, identical to the ISO code.
- 81190798Eight digits identifying the taxable person.
- 0The check digit.
The check digit follows ISO/IEC 7064, MOD 11,10. It catches every single-digit error and most transpositions — and nothing more. A number that checks out arithmetically may never have been issued, or may have been withdrawn years ago.
USt-IdNr, Steuernummer, Steuer-ID, W-IdNr
Germany issues several numbers side by side, and they are routinely confused. Only the first one works for intra-community trade.
| Number | Format | Issued by | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| USt-IdNr | DE + 9 digits | BZSt | Intra-community supplies of goods and services |
| Steuernummer | 10–13 digits, often with slashes | The local tax office | Domestic tax filings. Changes when the company moves to another tax office |
| Steuer-ID (IdNr) | 11 digits | BZSt | Natural persons, for life. Not a company identifier |
| W-IdNr | DE + 9 digits + a 5-digit suffix | BZSt, since November 2024 | Economically active parties. A business that already has a USt-IdNr gets the same nine digits |
| Handelsregister number | HRB/HRA + number + court | The local court | Company law identification. Bears no relation to the USt-IdNr |
The W-IdNr is the change worth watching. Since November 2024 every economically active party is issued a business identification number, and for a company that already has a USt-IdNr it is built on the same nine digits — the first credible bridge between the tax world and the company world. It has not reached the public registers yet.
Finding the company behind a number
This is the German problem in one sentence: no directory can be searched by VAT number. Neither the Handelsregister nor the Unternehmensregister records it, and it cannot be derived from the HRB number.
Handelsregister and Unternehmensregister
handelsregister.de has been free since August 2022 and returns the company name, legal form, seat, representatives and filed documents. You search by name or registration number — never by VAT number. The same holds for the Unternehmensregister and the Bundesanzeiger.
The BZSt qualified confirmation
Under § 18e UStG the BZSt offers a confirmation request that is, in practice, indispensable for zero-rating an intra-community supply. It works the opposite way round from what you would expect: it hands out no data. You supply the name, legal form, town and postcode, and it answers, field by field, only "matches" or "does not match".
If you do not already know the name, it gets you nowhere. If you do, it gives you a record you can keep — and for tax purposes that is the point.
VIES
The European Commission's service confirms whether any German number is registered for
intra-community trade. Germany does not disclose the name or the address through
VIES — those fields come back as ---. Together with Spain, Germany is one
of the two member states where validity is all Europe offers.
Germany-specific pitfalls
- A VAT number is not automatic. It has to be applied for at the BZSt, either during tax registration or later online. A registered German company with no USt-IdNr is entirely normal.
- Small businesses under § 19 UStG can hold a USt-IdNr without charging VAT. Valid does not mean VAT-charging.
- The Steuernummer changes, the USt-IdNr does not. Moving to another tax office district issues a new Steuernummer and leaves the VAT number untouched.
- There is no path from the number to the name. Not through VIES, not through the confirmation service, not through the registers. Anyone who needs that mapping has to build it from elsewhere.
- The Impressum is the most practical source. German law requires commercial websites to publish their VAT number, which is often the only public place where the number and the company name sit side by side.
One call, 27 member states
Vatlas resolves a European VAT number to a company record: legal name, national identifier, legal form, status and address. Germany is bound by the same limit as everyone else — what a member state does not publish, nobody can return:
curl "https://api.vatlas.dev/v1/vat/DE811907980" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VATLAS_KEY"Response:
200 OK
{
"data": {
"vatNumber": "DE811907980",
"countryCode": "DE",
"nationalNumber": "811907980",
"nationalId": null,
"name": "",
"legalForm": null,
"status": "active",
"address": {
"line1": null,
"line2": null,
"postalCode": null,
"city": null,
"country": "DE"
}
},
"meta": {
"origin": "vies",
"source": "VIES",
"sourceUpdatedAt": "2026-08-28T10:43:23.616Z",
"checked": ["database", "VIES"]
}
}
The number is valid, meta.origin is vies, and the name and address
stay empty because Germany does not publish them. We would rather say so than invent
something. For a member state with an open register, the same response is complete:
200 OK
{
"data": {
"vatNumber": "IT00743110157",
"countryCode": "IT",
"nationalNumber": "00743110157",
"nationalId": null,
"name": "MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS ITALIA SRL",
"legalForm": null,
"status": "active",
"address": {
"line1": "LARGO FRANCESCO RICHINI 6",
"line2": null,
"postalCode": "20122",
"city": "MILANO MI",
"country": "IT"
}
},
"meta": {
"origin": "vies",
"source": "VIES",
"sourceUpdatedAt": "2026-08-28T09:43:39.522Z",
"checked": ["database", "VIES"]
}
}
That is the whole point: one endpoint, one response shape, 27 countries.
Whether the answer came from an imported register, a national API or VIES is recorded in
meta, not branched on in your code.
Free to try. An email address is enough — no credit card, no sales call — with 100 requests a month and a working key in about a minute.
Frequently asked
The German VAT number in short
How many digits does a German VAT number have?
Eleven characters: the DE prefix and nine digits, the last of which is a check digit computed under ISO/IEC 7064, MOD 11,10.
What is the difference between the Steuernummer and the USt-IdNr?
The Steuernummer is issued by the local tax office for domestic purposes and changes if the company moves to another tax office. The USt-IdNr is issued by the Federal Central Tax Office for intra-community trade and stays with the business.
Can I find a company name from a German VAT number?
Not from any official German source. Germany discloses neither name nor address through VIES, the qualified confirmation only confirms details you supply yourself, and the registers cannot be searched by VAT number.
Where do I apply for a German VAT number?
At the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, online or as part of registering with the local tax office. It is free.
What is the new Wirtschafts-Identifikationsnummer?
The W-IdNr has been issued since November 2024 to every economically active party. Its format is DE + 9 digits plus a five-digit suffix per activity, and a business that already holds a USt-IdNr receives those same digits.
Why does VIES return no address for Germany?
Because each member state decides whether to disclose the name and address. Germany and
Spain do not, and return --- in those fields.
VAT numbers in other countries
Last updated 28 August 2026.