n8n Node for EU VAT Validation

Somewhere in your automation a business customer types a VAT number, and everything downstream — the invoice, the reverse charge, the tax return — assumes it is real. The vatnode node checks that assumption against the official EU VIES register, in the middle of the workflow, before the wrong invoice goes out.

A Regex Cannot Tell You a Company Exists

The usual approach is a pattern match: the string looks like a German VAT number, so the workflow treats it as one. That catches typos and nothing else. Whether the number belongs to a real, currently registered business is a fact held only by the tax authority of that member state, reachable through VIES.

The distinction has a price. Zero-rate an intra-EU sale against a number that was never valid, and the VAT you did not charge is still owed — by you, with interest. The node keeps the cheap offline check for typos and adds the authoritative one for everything that reaches an invoice.

Operations

Install

1. In n8n, open Settings → Community nodes → Install and enter n8n-nodes-vatnode.
2. For live validation, add a Vatnode API credential and paste a key from your dashboard. Rate lookups and format checks need no credential at all.
3. Drop the vatnode node into a workflow, or hand it to an AI agent as a tool.

A Workflow That Pays for Itself

The pattern worth copying puts the free check first:

1. Check Format on every incoming number — offline, unlimited, catches the fat-finger cases.
2. Filter on validFormat so malformed numbers never reach a paid call.
3. Validate what survives, then branch on valid.
4. Store consultationNumber and companyName with the customer record — that is what an auditor asks for, months later.

The same three nodes cover the common jobs: onboarding a B2B signup, checking a supplier before payment, or re-validating a customer list on a schedule.

Questions