How can I validate my Irish VAT number on an eCommerce platform?

[MOBDS]

Good Day Shopify Community

Please advise how I arrange the VAT Number for my business to be validated in Shopify.  I understand Ireland are not on the VIES Database yet therefore this might be one of the problems, the other issue is the tax registered company name is in the Irish Language  and the corresponding Shopify account has been set up under  the Trading Name in English.

Look forward to resolving this

Geraldine

[Ivy]

Hi @MOBDS!

Ivy here from Shopify.

Have you had any further updates or progress regarding this issue? I am curious what the exact error message you are seeing says?If the ID shows invalid in VIES, you will need to contact your local tax authority to resolve the issue. Please be aware, that we do require a cross border VAT ID. If the VIES search returns a red error which says "No, invalid VAT number for cross-border transactions in the EU" - this usually means the VAT ID is not a cross border VAT ID. This error appears like this:


Once you are certain you have a valid, cross-border number then we just have to be sure that we are inputting the number correctly into our system. Here are some common problems I have come across before:

• Do not copy and paste the number as this usually inputs it along with spaces, either within the number or at the beginning/end of the number. The number should be input with no spaces.
  
• Make sure your store address is set to the same country as the first two letters of your VAT ID.
  

If you are still experiencing issues after this, or if you feel the discrepancy between English and Irish language is causing an error: Please select the option 'I do not have a VAT number' and confirm. Save your settings with no VAT ID and then wait 24 hours before trying to add it again. It should be accepted the next time as long as it was removed for 24 hours. If after all of these steps you are still experiencing problems, then the next step here would be to reach out to our support advisor team for their account specific advice. I hope this helps!

Thanks, Ivy.