Composition of the VAT Registration Numbers in the EU Member States (på svenska)

Member state Format of VAT number with country code 1) Number of characters except the country code
Belgium BE9999999999 10 digits 11)
Denmark DK99999999 8 digits
Finland FI99999999 8 digits
France FR99999999999 11 digits 2)
Greece EL999999999 9 digits 3)
Ireland IE9X99999X 8 character 4)
Italy IT99999999999 11 digits
Luxemburg LU99999999 8 digits
Netherlands NL999999999B99 12 characters
Portugal PT999999999 9 digits
Spain ESX9999999X 9 characters 5)
United Kingdom GB999999999
GB999999999999
GBGD999
GBHA999		 9 digits
12 digits 6)
5 characters 7)
5 characters 8)
Sweden SE999999999999 12 digits
Germany DE999999999 9 digits 9)
Austria ATU99999999 9 characters 10)
Member States from 1st of May 2004
Cyprus CY99999999X 8 digits + 1 letter
Czechia CZ99999999
CZ999999999
CZ9999999999		 8 digits
9 digits
10 digits
Estonia EE999999999 9 digits
Hungary HU99999999 8 digits
Latvia LV99999999999 11 digits
Lithuania LT999999999
LT999999999999		 9 digits
12 digits
Malta MT99999999 8 digits
Poland PL9999999999 10 digits
Slovakia SK9999999999 10 digits
Slovenia SI99999999 8 digits
Member States from 1st of January 2007
Bulgaria BG999999999
BG9999999999		 9 digits
10 digits
Romania RO9999999999 2-10 digits 12)

Explanations:
1)
9 = the character should be a digit
X = the character should be a digit or a letter
other characters = the character is a part of the number
2) The first and/or the second character following the country code may in some cases be a letter (not I or O).
3) The country prefix is not in accordance with ISO 3166; an exception in article 22 1(d) in the directive 77/388/EEC (amended by the directive 2001/115/EC). Add a leading zero to old 8-digit numbers. (EL92001050 will be EL092001050).
4) The second character following the country prefix may be a digit or a letter, the last character is always a letter (N.B! the difference between 1 and I and between 0 and O).
5) The first character following the country prefix, the last character or both the first and the last character may be a letter.
6) Used by "Branches" (Divisional registration).
7) Governmental Departments.
8) "Health care institutions", now usually exchanged to 9 digit numbers beginning with the digits 654.
9) Must be the "Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer" ("USt-IdNr.").
10) The first character following the country prefix is always the letter U. Must be the "UID Nr".
11) Valid from 1st April 2005. Add a leading zero to old 9-digit numbers.
12) Do not add any leading zeros to shorter registration numbers.


2007-01-28, Jan Bengtsson

http://home.swipnet.se/~w-71763/vatno.htm