---
id: "gb_vat"
kind: "datatype"
status: "draft"
is_pii: false
categories: ["finances"]
country: ["GB"]
langs: ["en"]
quality: 88
url: "http://registry.apicrafter.io/datatype/gb_vat"
---

# UK VAT registration number (`gb_vat`)

> **Draft.** Draft records have not been reviewed yet and may be incomplete or wrong; do not treat them as authoritative for legal or compliance decisions.

VAT registration number of businesses in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man. The standard form has nine digits with a weighted check, sometimes followed by a 3-digit branch code; government departments (GD) and health authorities (HA) have short 5-character numbers. Northern Ireland businesses use the XI prefix for trade with the EU.

- Parent datatype: `vatin`
- Personal data (PII): no
- Categories: Finances and banking (finances)
- Countries: United Kingdom (GB)
- Languages: English (en)
- Classification: identifier

## Detection

Regular expression (Python `re`):

```
^(?:(?:GB|XI)[ -]?)?(?:\d{3} ?\d{4} ?\d{2}(?: ?\d{3})?|GD\d{3}|HA\d{3})$
```

## Examples

- `XI 432525179` — Real-world value published online
- `432 5251 79` — The first example in its printed form
- `4325251797` (invalid example) — One character too many

## Mappings

- fta: `IDENTITY.VAT_GB`, `IDENTITY.VAT_UK`
- schema_org: `vatID`
- stdnum: `gb.vat`

## Supported by tools

- `awsglue`
- `dataprep`
- `fta`
- `pythonstdnum`

## Sources

- other: <https://arthurdejong.org/python-stdnum/doc/2.2/stdnum.gb.vat.html>
- other: <https://docs.dataprep.ai/user_guide/clean/clean_gb_vat.html>

## Quality

Score 88/100. Missing: authoritative source link, translation.

JSON: <http://registry.apicrafter.io/api/v1/datatypes/gb_vat.json> · Edit: <https://github.com/apicrafter/metacrafter-registry/edit/main/data/datatypes/GB/finances/gb_vat.yaml>