The tax/business identifier tool currently groups two high-value, well-documented systems in one family: EU VAT numbers and U.S. EINs. EU VAT recognition starts with a Member State or XI prefix and applies known national format rules. EIN recognition checks the nine-digit 00-0000000 shape and the IRS prefix table.

Local results describe format only. Current EU VAT registration status can be checked after you explicitly open the European Commission's VIES service. There is no equivalent public service for looking up an arbitrary company's EIN, so the tool does not invent one.

1. 01Enter a VAT number with its country prefix, or a U.S. EIN with or without its hyphen.
2. 02Review the detected system, normalized value and format state.
3. 03For EU/XI VAT numbers, explicitly open VIES when current business validity matters.
4. 04Treat an EIN result as a format/input check, not as entity verification.

The European Commission explains that Member States use their own VAT-number formats and that VIES checks the validity of Member State or Northern Ireland VAT numbers. Format recognition can run locally; registration status belongs to external tax systems.

The IRS defines an EIN as a nine-digit identifier displayed as 00-0000000. This tool never treats a syntactically plausible nine-digit number as proof of a particular business's EIN.

• EU VAT rules here produce format candidates; current business validity belongs to VIES or the relevant national tax administration.
• VIES does not validate GB VAT numbers. After Brexit, VIES covers the Northern Ireland XI case instead.
• EIN checks cover format and published prefix allocation, not taxpayer name, filing status or tax records.
• Many national personal TINs, business registration numbers and tax identifiers remain outside this first release; the shared detector contract is designed to add them incrementally.

• Recognize EU VAT numbers before invoice or customer-data entry.
• Separate local format checks from VIES validation in cross-border B2B workflows.
• Recognize EIN display format in U.S. forms.
• Add more country identifiers later through the same tax-business family.

Local format analysis does not upload the input. If you open VIES, the VAT number is sent to the European Commission service. Tax and business identifiers can still relate to individuals or small businesses, so collect only what the workflow actually needs.