Verifications

A verification confirms that something a customer told you is true, most often their VAT identification number.

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Verify before invoicing

Cross-border B2B invoicing in the EU depends on the buyer's VAT number being valid. If it is, the sale is reverse charge and you do not charge VAT. If it is not, you do, and discovering that after you invoiced means reissuing.

So the useful moment to verify is when you create the customer, not when you invoice them.

What a result means

The customer's Tax card carries a VIES status and a Last validated date. A number nobody has checked reads Unvalidated and Never, which is the state every customer starts in.

A validated result is evidence you checked, which is what matters if the treatment is ever questioned.

An invalid result is not always fraud. Numbers get mistyped, and a number can be valid but not registered for cross-border trade, which is a different thing that produces the same answer.

Revalidating and overriding

Revalidate now re-checks against VIES on demand, which is what you use when a customer says they have corrected their registration.

Override status records a verdict manually. It exists because VIES is occasionally unavailable, and it should be rare: an override is your assertion rather than the authority's.

Reference