How can I validate UK VAT numbers (January 2025 onwards) ?

In January 2025, the UK tax authority (HMRC) is changing the interface that software can use to look up UK VAT numbers. From then, to look up UK VAT numbers, you will need to do one of the two things below.

First alternative: use “VAT Sense”

Set up an account with “VAT Sense”, and enter your account’s API key into the plugin settings, and save your settings (these settings are in your WordPress dashbaord in WooCommerce -> VAT Compliance in the “VAT number lookups” section). In the following screenshot, that’s the third section in the list of sections:

To do this, visit the VAT Sense website and sign up for an account by following this link. Their pricing plans start with a free package for up to 100 number lookups per month.

Note that VAT Sense is a third-party business, and you should address any questions you have about their services to them using the contact links at the link above.

Here is a screenshot of the place to enter your VAT Sense API key, once you have gained one:

Second alternative: register an HMRC account

Or instead (or even as well, for extra reliability) register an account with HMRC (the UK tax authority). You can do this by following this link.

Having done so, you must then:

1. Make sure that you are running at least version 1.32.0 of the WooCommerce European VAT Compliance plugin on your website. (If your entitlement to updates has expired – i.e. your last purchase is more than 12 months ago – then please purchase again from the shop page).
2. Go to the plugin settings page in your WordPress dashboard (WooCommerce -> VAT Compliance)
3. Open the “VAT number lookups” section, which is the third section in the following screenshot:

   

4. At the top, there is a “HMRC (the UK)” section. Follow the link at the top of this section to begin the procedure to connect your account. NOTE: If it says that you are already connected, this may be because you connected back in 2020-21 when HMRC previously required a similar procedure. In this case, you MUST still re-connect; i.e. follow the link that says “You appear to be already authenticated, though you can authenticate again to refresh your access if you’ve had a problem.”
5. If you have problems registering an HMRC account, then you will need to use HMRC’s support facilities. We are not an HMRC agent, have no more access to their systems or support than you do, and will be unable to help with any queries specifically relating to creating an HMRC account.

Testing your setup

After doing either or both of the above, further down the “VAT number lookups” section, test a UK VAT number lookup in the ‘Test’ section. For example, test this VAT number, which belongs to the UK supermarket Tesco: GB220430231 . If this works, then everything is fine. (Note that if you have not updated to version 1.32.0 of the plugin and it is not yet January 2025 then it will work merely because it’s still using the old interface, but will stop working shortly afterwards). Remember to press the appropriate button – “Test (HMRC)” or “Test (VAT Sense API)” depending upon which is the appropriate one for your chosen solution.

The following screenshot shows the results if testing the above VAT number with HMRC (the format from VAT Sense will be different):

Please do feel free to contact us with any questions that you have about these issues (unless they are issues with your HMRC or VAT Sense account, which should be directed to those entities).

Posted in: WooCommerce European (EU/UK/Norway/Switzerland) VAT Compliance