Use VIES when the decision needs official intra-EU VAT status. Add company-registry evidence when the workflow must identify the legal entity behind the number, and use a commercial API when retries, batches, monitoring or retained evidence justify the cost. None of these checks proves bank-account ownership.
Seven Irish VAT check options at a glance
To check an Irish VAT number well, first decide what the result must prove. An official VIES response concerns intra-EU VAT registration. A company record identifies a legal entity. An API, spreadsheet tool or monitoring service makes those checks easier to operate at volume. Those are connected controls, but they are not interchangeable.
This is a VATFind-published comparison, not an independent ranking. The order follows the article brief: the official service first, VATFind second and Global Database third. Product scope and public pricing were reviewed on 8 October 2026; where documentation does not confirm a feature, the table says so rather than assuming it is absent.
Choose by the result and workflow
The shortest shortlist starts with evidence needs, not the longest feature list.
| Provider | Best fit | Verification scope | Pricing basis | Key trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIES | Official EU status | Irish and other EU VAT numbers | Free | You own retries and records |
| VATFind | Company identity | Irish and global company records | From $99/month | Not live VIES by default |
| Global Database | Identity plus authority evidence | Country-scoped VAT and registry data | Contact sales | Pilot exact fields and latency |
| VATify.eu | European API and monitoring | 40+ national sources; Ireland included | €14/month + usage | Source responses vary |
| LookupTax | Multi-country validation API | 100+ countries; Ireland included | From $49/month | Enterprise for batch tools |
| Quaderno | Checkout tax workflow | EU VAT plus selected non-EU IDs | From €/$29/month | Whole tax platform, not checker only |
| Valdit | EU VAT evidence and rechecks | EU VIES-based validation | Contact sales | Current prices not public |
What an Irish VAT number check does—and does not—prove
Ireland uses the IE country prefix, but Irish numbers can appear in more than one legacy or current character pattern. Format validation is useful for catching transcription errors before a network call. It is not registration evidence. Revenue's VIES Traders Manual tells traders to include the country prefix and verify the format, while the European Commission explains that the status itself comes from the relevant national database through VIES.
VIES is a search engine, not a central EU database. A valid response means the number was recognised for the VIES purpose at that time. An invalid response can reflect a number that does not exist, is not activated for intra-EU transactions or has a registration that is not finalised. An unavailable response is a service condition, not an invalid business. Keep those states distinct.
For an Irish supplier or customer, the operational question often continues after the status result. Does the legal name match the entity in the supplier master? Is the registered address plausible? Which source supplied the company details, and when were they retrieved? A company-record service can help answer those questions, but company identity still does not prove ownership of a beneficiary bank account or authorise a payment.
Four evidence layers for one Irish number
Store each layer separately so a green answer cannot be reused for a different claim.
- 01Format
Normalise the IE prefix and test a recognised Irish pattern.
- 02Official status
Record the VIES outcome, source time and consultation reference where returned.
- 03Company identity
Match the legal name, registration data, address and source record.
- 04Approval
Resolve mismatches and apply separate payment and tax-treatment controls.
EVIDENCE DESIGN
Separate VAT lookup from live validation
Use the VATFind guide to map company records, official VAT status and transaction decisions before selecting an integration.
Official status and legal-company identity
The first three options illustrate the central buying decision. VIES gives the official intra-EU status result. VATFind adds company-record context without claiming that its current REST result is a live VIES decision. Global Database documents a combined authority, registry and evidence workflow that should be piloted for the precise Irish fields and service levels required.
Official EU service
VIES
The European Commission's VAT Information Exchange System queries the national VAT database for the selected country. For Ireland, choose IE and enter the number without treating the service as a commercial company or central registry.
Strengths. Free official status check for intra-EU VAT activity, with a consultation reference when the requester number is supplied and the service returns one. Irish Revenue directs traders to the EU service and documents the role of VAT-number verification in cross-border controls.
Limitations. The returned name and address depend on national data and disclosure rules. VIES does not resolve every number to a full company profile. Teams integrating it directly must handle timeouts, national-source downtime, retries, storage and exception review.
Pricing. Free public service. There is no commercial subscription, guaranteed service level or managed evidence store.
Best for. One-off official checks and teams able to build their own controlled VIES workflow.
Company identity, API and bulk data
VATFind
VATFind connects supplied VAT numbers and company names to available legal-company records, returning identifiers, registered details, status, source context and retrieval time. Coverage and returned fields vary by country and record.
Strengths. Useful when finance or procurement must see the company behind a supplier or customer relationship, investigate a name mismatch and retain source-linked registry context. Self-service monthly plans include REST and MCP checks plus company-record monitoring; higher-volume users can scope custom throughput or scheduled bulk company-data feeds.
Limitations. Current REST company checks do not query live VIES by default, so an Irish company match must not be labelled an active VAT-registration result. A delivery cadence or scheduled recheck does not mean every government registry refreshed the underlying record that day.
Pricing. Starter is $99/month for 495 checks, Growth $199 for 1,990 and Scale $499 for 9,980. Annual prepayment is optional; custom API volume and bulk feeds are quoted separately.
Best for. Supplier onboarding, legal-entity matching, source lineage and company-data enrichment around an Irish VAT check.
Tax-ID validation and company intelligence
Global Database
Global Database documents a tax-ID workflow that applies format checks, queries the issuing authority, resolves the identifier to a national company record and keeps timestamped evidence. Delivery options include web access, REST, batch and files.
Strengths. Combines VAT-status evidence with legal name, registration status and wider company context where the selected country product provides them. Documents source, last-verified time, batch processing, repeat checks and daily, weekly or monthly file delivery options.
Limitations. A global company database is not proof of live VAT coverage in every country. Buyers should test the Irish authority route, registry fields, outage behaviour and evidence export. The broader company-intelligence scope may be more than a small VIES-only workflow needs.
Pricing. Contact sales — public pricing not available. Confirm the billable result, included volume, overages, delivery rights and minimum contract term.
Best for. Enterprise supplier masters that need authority status and richer company context in one governed process.
VATFind monthly plans
Use the control to compare included checks with monthly price. These allowances cover VATFind company-record operations, not direct VIES validations. Source failures do not consume an included check, and bulk company-data delivery is commercially scoped outside the self-service plans.
VATFind monthly allowances and prices
One provider and one billing unit, with visible values and a zero baseline.
checks per month · scale starts at zero
View all prices and allowances
| Plan | USD/month | Included checks |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | US$99.00 | 495 |
| Growth | US$199.00 | 1,990 |
| Scale | US$499.00 | 9,980 |
APIs, monitoring and checkout workflows
The remaining services wrap official or national data in different operating models. VATify.eu emphasises European records and monitoring. LookupTax provides a multi-country validation API and documented Ireland-specific handling. Quaderno embeds validation in a wider tax engine. Valdit focuses on EU VAT evidence, retained entities and scheduled rechecks.
European API, files and monitoring
VATify.eu
VATify.eu publishes an Ireland-specific service that uses VIES data and offers a JSON API, spreadsheet checks and repeat monitoring across more than 40 national sources.
Strengths. Publishes Irish number formats, available company fields, API allowances and per-call overages. Monitoring can repeat checks and report changes, while Express supports spreadsheet-based jobs without a custom integration.
Limitations. Fields and outcome semantics depend on the underlying country source. Test Irish legacy formats and unavailable-source behaviour with real samples. A daily check cadence does not guarantee that the national database changed or refreshed that day.
Pricing. API: €14/month plus €0.10 per call; €29 includes 3,000 calls, €49 includes 10,000 and €99 includes 25,000. Excess calls are €0.10; prices exclude VAT. Confirm cancellation terms.
Best for. European supplier checks that need a published API tariff, repeat monitoring or spreadsheet delivery.
Multi-country tax-ID validation API
LookupTax
LookupTax documents one API for tax-ID validation across more than 100 countries, plus an Ireland endpoint and current handling for legacy Irish P-series numbers. Its responses separate source and format status.
Strengths. Published API documentation, SDKs and change history make response states and Ireland-specific fixes visible. The Enterprise tier includes batch validation, CSV workflows and 10,000 validations per month.
Limitations. Batch tools are reserved for the highest published tier. Confirm which Irish name, address and evidence fields are returned for each outcome. A multi-country validation response is not automatically a complete company-registry or ownership profile.
Pricing. Monthly: Lite $49 for 200 validations, Pro $149 for 1,000 and Enterprise $499 for 10,000. Annual billing is discounted; confirm renewal and overage behaviour.
Best for. Engineering teams that need one validation API, explicit source states and optional batch processing.
Tax engine with customer tax-ID validation
Quaderno
Quaderno's Tax IDs API validates EU VAT numbers through external official services and returns true, false or null when the external service is unavailable. Validation sits inside a wider calculation, invoicing and reporting platform.
Strengths. A simple API contract distinguishes a service outage from a false result, and a sandbox supports integration testing. Useful when VAT validation must feed checkout tax calculation, reverse-charge handling and invoicing in the same stack.
Limitations. The validation endpoint returns a boolean-style result rather than a full Irish company profile. Identity evidence may require a separate company-data control. Published prices buy the wider platform and are not a standalone per-validation tariff.
Pricing. Hobby is €/$29 per month for 25 transactions and 250 API calls; higher plans start at €/$49 for 250 transactions and 2,500 calls. Confirm which limits and tax jurisdictions apply.
Best for. Digital sellers that want tax-ID status embedded in an existing tax calculation and invoicing workflow.
EU VAT validation, records and rechecks
Valdit
Valdit's documented REST API uses VIES for EU VAT-number validation and keeps a business-entity record with the status, check date, returned name and address, consultation reference and optional recheck schedule.
Strengths. Designed around retained validation records, OAuth access and repeat checks rather than a disposable green badge. Documentation distinguishes on-demand validations, scheduled revalidations and source-unavailability handling.
Limitations. The public documentation does not show a current price table, service-level commitment or recently dated Ireland-specific field matrix. It is EU-focused; legal-company enrichment beyond the VIES response is not publicly confirmed.
Pricing. Contact sales — public pricing not available. Documentation describes monthly validation-credit tiers but directs buyers to request current prices and ordering terms.
Best for. EU VAT workflows that prioritise retained VIES evidence and scheduled revalidation.
LookupTax monthly plans
The published monthly plans use validations as the allowance. Free trial credits and annual discounts are excluded from this chart so the three paid monthly tiers remain comparable. Batch and CSV validation are documented for Enterprise.
LookupTax monthly prices and validation allowances
Compare the current monthly rate with the included validation count.
validations per month · scale starts at zero
View all prices and allowances
| Plan | USD/month | Included validations |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | US$49.00 | 200 |
| Pro | US$149.00 | 1,000 |
| Enterprise | US$499.00 | 10,000 |
A buyer checklist for an Irish VAT number checker
Build the proof of concept from real Irish records. Include a current standard-format number, a legacy-format number, an invalid input, a valid result with a name difference and a simulated authority outage. Inspect the raw response, evidence record and retry behaviour—not only the user-interface badge.
For an illustrative supplier-onboarding case, a VIES-valid number with a different trading name should not be converted to invalid. Retain the official response, compare the submitted supplier to the legal-company record, route the name difference to review and keep payment-change controls separate. That preserves facts while preventing a weak match from flowing into the supplier master.
- Coverage: document IE formats, the authority route, company fields and unsupported cases.
- Evidence: retain the submitted value, normalised value, source, timestamp, response and consultation reference where returned.
- Exceptions: keep invalid, unavailable, unsupported and identity mismatch as separate states with owners.
- Bulk operation: preserve row identifiers through retries and export completed, changed and unresolved rows separately.
- Commercials: compare the billable event, monthly allowance, overage, contract term, evidence retention and exit export.
Failure modes to prevent before rollout
The first failure is treating a timeout as invalid. An unavailable national source should create a retryable exception and preserve the last usable evidence. The second is overwriting a valid historical response with a later outage. Status history should be append-only enough to show what the team knew at the transaction time.
The third is assuming the returned name is a complete company verification. National disclosure differs, trade names can diverge from legal names and group companies can look similar. Use a registry-backed match and human review for material conflicts. The fourth is allowing an authority result to approve a bank-account change. VAT validity does not authenticate a payment request.
Finally, avoid buying a global label without a country test. Ask each vendor to demonstrate the Irish formats, exact source, field freshness, batch behaviour, outage state and retained evidence. A smaller service with transparent semantics can be safer than a broad platform whose answer cannot be explained later.
IRISH COMPANY DATA
Scope an Irish supplier-data workflow
Talk to VATFind about company identity, source context, API checks, monitoring or a bulk company-data feed for your finance and procurement systems.
PRACTICAL ANSWERS
Frequently asked questions
How do I check an Irish VAT number?
For official intra-EU status, select Ireland in VIES and enter the IE number. Record the outcome, time and consultation reference where returned. If the workflow also needs legal-company identity, compare the supplied name and address with a registry-backed company record rather than treating the VIES result as a full company profile.
What format does an Irish VAT number use?
Irish VAT numbers use the IE prefix and can appear in several current or legacy alphanumeric patterns. Normalise spaces and punctuation carefully, preserve leading characters and use current Irish Revenue or provider rules. A correct pattern is only a format check; it does not prove an active registration.
Is VIES the official Irish VAT number checker?
VIES is the European Commission's official search service for intra-EU VAT information retrieved from national databases, including Ireland. Irish Revenue directs traders to it for relevant cross-border verification. It is an official service, not a commercial company or a central company registry.
What does an invalid Irish VIES result mean?
It means the number was not confirmed for the VIES purpose at that time. Official guidance lists several possible reasons, including a non-existent number, no activation for intra-EU transactions or registration not yet finalised. It does not by itself prove the business is fictitious.
What should an API return when VIES is unavailable?
It should return an explicit unavailable or retryable state, not invalid. The workflow should preserve the request and error, apply bounded retries, display the age of any cached result and route persistent failures to review without erasing the last usable evidence.
Can VATFind confirm live Irish VAT status?
VATFind's current REST company checks use company-record evidence and do not query live VIES by default. They can help identify the company and expose source context, but the result should not be represented as current official VAT status. Pair it with an official check when that claim is required.
Which services support Irish VAT checks by API?
VATify.eu, LookupTax, Quaderno and Valdit document API-based EU or Irish VAT validation. VATFind provides a company-data API, while Global Database documents authority and registry workflows. Confirm whether each endpoint returns official status, company identity or both before integrating it.
Which service supports bulk Irish VAT checks?
LookupTax documents batch and CSV validation on its Enterprise tier; VATify.eu offers spreadsheet and monitoring options; Global Database documents batch and file delivery; and Valdit supports repeat validations. VATFind can scope bulk company-data feeds, but those are not automatically bulk live VIES checks.
Does a valid Irish VAT number prove the bank account belongs to the company?
No. VAT status, company identity and bank-account ownership are different claims. Keep beneficiary verification, payment-change approval and trusted-channel confirmation as separate controls, even when the VAT number and company name both appear valid.
How should a team choose an Irish VAT number checker?
Define the claim, volume, latency, fields, evidence and exception owner. Test Irish current and legacy formats plus invalid, unavailable and mismatch cases. Review raw responses and retention, model monthly and outage-heavy costs, and choose the smallest service category that meets the control.
