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 registry has to be searched by AFM instead, which its open-data API allows.
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
GEMI
The General Commercial Registry offers public company search with basic details free; certificates are charged for. It also publishes an open-data API whose key is granted to anyone who asks, and although the GEMI number cannot be derived from the AFM, the API is searchable by AFM, so the VAT number is enough to reach the record: registered name in Greek and Latin, seat address in separate fields, legal form and a dated status.
Three things to know about it: it allows 8 requests a minute; its coverage is not total, some large companies being missing from it; and a search by AFM takes about two seconds, several times what VIES needs for the same number, so it is worth reaching for once the faster sources have come back empty, not before.
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, which is to say to Greek taxpayers only.
Watch one trap: the deactivation flag comes back as 1 for active and 2 for deactivated, the opposite of what anyone would guess.
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, though the GEMI open-data API can be searched by AFM, which is what makes the registry reachable from a VAT number at all.
- 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, one response shape
Vatlas turns a business tax number into a company record: legal name, national identifier, legal form, status and address. Greece: the same call and the same response as for every other country covered.
curl "https://api.vatlas.dev/v1/lookup/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": {
"source": "VIES",
"sourceDate": "2026-09-15",
"sourceSince": "2026-09-15",
"sourceUpdatedAt": null,
"proof": {
"type": "vies_consultation_number",
"value": "WAPIAAAAaCkPtnNK"
}
}
}meta.source names the register that answered (SIRENE, ARES, VIES…) and meta.sourceDate the day it said so: the publication date of the file for a register we import, the day of the call for one we query live. The shape of the response never changes from one country to the next.
Try it on your own numbers. An email address is all it takes to create an account, 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, but the registry's open-data API can be searched by AFM, so a VAT number is enough to find the record.
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.