About VAT-Checker.co.uk

VAT-Checker.co.uk was originally a project for a so called VWA, translated from German a pre-scientific paper during the final exam in Austria. Because the page got so popular and had so many visitors, who out of a sudden were able to find VAT IDs, the website was absorbed by Linkomat GmbH, placed in Vienna.

What makes this site unique is the reverse of the process of proofing VAT IDs. Moreover, it is possible to find these VAT IDs even when you only have the name of the company. This is mostly applied by companies, who either need the number of their affiliates for writing invoices or update their customer databses. In the latter case the VAT Number Register is perfectly suited because of its normalized and uniquely relatable data (with the VAT number as primary key).
Alternatively this service can also be used to check vat numbers by inputting the number in the name field without considering the format .

Source of the Information

VAT-Checker.co.uk is directly connected to public institutions who publish the information in the first place.

This sites simplifies the search of the following data:

• over 8,200.000 VAT IDs from Argentina
• over 1,131.000 VAT IDs from Austria
• over 19,005.000 VAT IDs from Australia
• over 2,359.000 VAT IDs from Belgium
• over 1,206.000 VAT IDs from Bulgaria
• over 53,466.000 VAT IDs from Brazil
• over 1,140.000 VAT IDs from Switzerland
• over 365.000 VAT IDs from Czechia
• over 5,380.000 VAT IDs from Germany
• over 2,161.000 VAT IDs from Denmark
• over 159.000 VAT IDs from Estonia
• over 877.000 VAT IDs from Finland
• over 27,725.000 VAT IDs from France
• over 10,885.000 VAT IDs from Great Britain
• over 0.000 VAT IDs from Greece
• over 284.000 VAT IDs from Croatia
• over 708.000 VAT IDs from Hungary
• over 374.000 VAT IDs from Ireland
• over 2,631.000 VAT IDs from Italy
• over 5,565.000 VAT IDs from Japan
• over 146.000 VAT IDs from Luxembourg
• over 473.000 VAT IDs from Latvia
• over 95.000 VAT IDs from Malta
• over 6,670.000 VAT IDs from the Netherlands
• over 1,270.000 VAT IDs from Norway
• over 1,692.000 VAT IDs from New Zealand
• over 6,314.000 VAT IDs from Poland
• over 803.000 VAT IDs from Portugal
• over 3,724.000 VAT IDs from Romania
• over 10,825.000 VAT IDs from Russia
• over 795.000 VAT IDs from Sweden
• over 178.000 VAT IDs from Slovenia
• over 370.000 VAT IDs from Slovakia
• over 1,564.000 VAT IDs from the Ukraine
• over 1,042.000 VAT IDs from South Africa
• together 179,582.000 VAT IDs from Europe

Functionality

This search engine has only been made possible to realise due to the high performance of compution. If you hit the search button, the search algorithm checks all VAT numbers, matches the given name with them and sorts them after their relevance. Following functions make the search more efficient:

• Synonyms - different spellings and abbreviations of i.e. Limited lead to nearly the same results.
• Fuzzy Search - even misspellings are no obstacle to the wanted results as the algorithm uses similarity based on Levenshtein edit distance.
• Global Indexing - you can search after all entries in the index, which is why it is for instance possible to find the VAT IDs of a certain company in Great Britain and Austria at once.
• Geo Coordinates - if you do not know twrihe name of the business you can enter the address and VAT-Checker.co.uk will find the nearest matches.
• Register Numbers - if the company is registered you can get the Register Report by only clicking once.
• Further Information - in countries including Great Britain and Belgium it is possible to get further information such as Incorporation Date, Status or Category about the company. This information is i.e. from the Companies House.

Privacy Concerns

Because sole traders often have a VAT number they are also listed in this search engine. Sometimes they see their privacy endangered, but if you contact Linkomat GmbH, your information will be deleted as soon as possible. However, exactly these entries are very interesting for some companies as these sole traders sometimes do not have any entry in the internet. The Linkomat GmbH is therefore confronted with two sides of sole traders. On the one hand person who do not want their private addresses etc. publicly available and on the other hand businesses who implicitly want to be found because it is a kind of advertisement for them and otherwise their business would seem dubious (when the would appear as if they had no VAT ID).