Greece · EL
The Greek VAT number
The only country in the Union whose VAT prefix is not its ISO code: it is written EL, never GR.
Format: EL + 9 digits (the AFM)
Example: EL090101655
Issued by: the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE).
The format
A Greek VAT number is always eleven characters: the prefix and the nine digits of the AFM.
- ELThe VAT country prefix — not GR.
- 09010165Eight digits.
- 5The check digit.
The check digit is computed with powers of 2 and a modulus 11 remainder; if the remainder is 10, the digit is 0. Numbers starting with 0 usually belong to legal persons registered long ago.
EL, not GR. Greece is the only member state whose VAT prefix differs from its ISO 3166 code. A system that sends GR to VIES gets an error back, even though the number is correct.
AFM, GEMI and the tax office
The AFM is issued by AADE to every natural and legal person and never changes. The VAT number is exactly the AFM with an EL prefix.
The GEMI number comes from the General Commercial Registry and identifies the company commercially. It cannot be computed from the AFM, or the other way round.
The DOY is the competent tax office; it appears on documents but is not part of the number.
The distinction that matters: everyone has an AFM, not everyone is liable for VAT. And beyond that, registration in the VIES register for intra-community transactions is a separate step again.
Finding the company
AADE
AADE offers RgWsPublic2, a SOAP service returning the legal name, the seat address in separate fields and the activity — more than VIES gives. It requires dedicated credentials, issued free through TAXISnet.
Watch one trap: the deactivation flag comes back as 1 for active and 2 for deactivated — the opposite of what anyone would guess.
GEMI
The General Commercial Registry offers public company search with basic details free; certificates are charged for.
VIES
Greece discloses the name and the address. The address arrives on one line, using runs of spaces as separators and putting the postcode before the municipality, split off with a dash.
Greece-specific pitfalls
- EL, not GR. It is the commonest mistake made about Greece and it causes correct numbers to be rejected.
- An AFM does not mean VIES registration. Intra-community registration is a separate step.
- The GEMI number is not the AFM and cannot be computed from it.
- The AADE deactivation flag is inverted: 1 means active, 2 means deactivated.
- The address uses runs of spaces as separators, so collapsing whitespace destroys its structure.
One API for 27 member states
Vatlas turns a European VAT number into a company record: legal name, national identifier, legal form, status and address. It accepts GR too, and normalises it to EL before any lookup happens.
curl "https://api.vatlas.dev/v1/vat/EL090101655" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VATLAS_KEY"Response:
200 OK
{
"data": {
"vatNumber": "EL090101655",
"countryCode": "EL",
"nationalNumber": "090101655",
"nationalId": null,
"name": "ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ ΕΡΕΥΝΑΣ",
"legalForm": null,
"status": "active",
"address": {
"line1": "Ν ΠΛΑΣΤΗΡΑ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΑ ΒΟΥΤΩΝ 100",
"line2": null,
"postalCode": "70013",
"city": "ΑΓ ΜΥΡΩΝΑΣ",
"country": "EL"
}
},
"meta": {
"origin": "vies",
"source": "VIES",
"sourceUpdatedAt": "2026-08-28T10:16:51.342Z",
"checked": ["database", "VIES"]
}
}meta.origin says where the answer came from: database for a register imported locally, source for a national API queried live, vies as a last resort. The shape of the response never changes from one country to the next.
Free to try. An email address creates an account — no credit card, no sales call — with 100 requests a month and a working key in about a minute.
Frequently asked
The Greek VAT number in short
How many digits does a Greek VAT number have?
Nine after the EL prefix — eleven characters in total.
Why is the prefix EL and not GR?
It is a historical convention of EU VAT legislation. Greece is the only member state whose VAT prefix differs from its ISO country code.
Are the AFM and the VAT number the same?
The digits are. The VAT number is the AFM with an EL prefix, but it is valid for intra-community trade only after registration in the VIES register.
What is the GEMI number?
The General Commercial Registry number, which identifies a company commercially. Nothing computable links it to the AFM.
Why does VIES reject an AFM that exists?
Either the person is not registered for intra-community transactions, or GR was sent instead of EL.
VAT numbers in other countries
Last updated 28 August 2026.