Why should a business check a VAT number of their customer
A business should always check a UK business VAT number for all their new customers who provide their VAT number on their invoices. This VAT number check should also be done on a regular basis to make sure any of these customers have not deregistered from VAT at some point. If the VAT number provided by your customer on their invoice is not valid, HMRC will not allow to reclaim the VAT back on that invoice in the VAT returns. Invalid VAT number provided by your customer could be because of a typo error or they might have not removed it from their invoice after they have deregistered from VAT or they are trying to falsely charge VAT when they are not allowed to do so. How to verify a UK VAT number before Brexit European Commission runs a website - VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) which has a search engine which will let you check a VAT number of any business in a EU country. VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) is a search engine (not a database) owned by the European Comm