vatverify-rates

Offline VAT number validation and VAT rates for 44 countries. Real checksum algorithms (MOD97, MOD11, Luhn, HMRC 97-55), not just regex. Zero runtime dependencies, pure Python, fully type-annotated.

For live validation (VIES / HMRC / CH UID / Brønnøysund), use this package as the format/checksum pre-check in front of the hosted vatverify API.

Install

pip install vatverify-rates

Usage

Look up a rate

from vatverify_rates import get_standard_rate, get_rate

get_standard_rate("DE")    # 19.0
get_standard_rate("FR")    # 20.0

rate = get_rate("DE")
# Rate(country_code='DE', country='Germany', standard=19.0, reduced=(7.0,), ...)

Validate a VAT number

from vatverify_rates import validate

result = validate("IE6388047V")
if result.valid:
    print("valid")
else:
    print("invalid:", result.errors)

Country utilities

from vatverify_rates import country_name, is_eu_member, get_flag

country_name("DE")     # 'Germany'
is_eu_member("CH")     # False
is_eu_member("DE")     # True
get_flag("FR")         # '🇫🇷'

Types

from vatverify_rates import Rate, ValidateResult, CountryCode

Rate and ValidateResult are @dataclass(frozen=True, slots=True). CountryCode and EUMemberCode are Literal unions of ISO-2 codes.

API

Supported countries

Greece uses EL per VIES convention. XI is Northern Ireland under the Brexit protocol.

Offline vs live

Offline checks (format + checksum) catch typos and fraudulent-looking numbers, but cannot confirm a number is registered with a tax authority. That requires a live registry call. The hosted vatverify API handles VIES, HMRC, BFS, and Brønnøysund, with freshness-aware responses so a registry outage never breaks your checkout.

Other languages

Same data, same functions, idiomatic per language:

• JavaScript / TypeScript: @vatverify/vat-rates (source: vat-rates-js)

License

MIT. See LICENSE.