Germany – New Framework for Intra-EU VAT Validation 

The Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) issued an official reminder to all interested parties that, from November 30, 2025, the technical interface for checking foreign VAT numbers will change.  From this day forward, Tax ID verification will be available only through the new interface. 

The shift aligns with the tax authorities’ goal, which is founded on a vision of a more digitalized, modernized, and automated authority. The verification logic will work only based on REST API requests. German taxable persons will be able to verify the VAT numbers of their EU partners via direct requests, intermediated by BZSt, to the TAX ID databases held by individual Member States. 

Each request for Tax ID validation will be followed by a response that provides the necessary data trail, which will be stored on the requester’s system. Vice versa, foreign taxable persons will be able to verify their German partners’ Tax IDs more quickly, efficiently, and consistently. 

Taxable persons who use their own in-house software solutions (such as VAT Lookup) should update their systems to communicate with the BZSt service accordingly.