- →
-
Contact Form
-
A buyer asking for a ready made company with a VAT number almost always means one of two different things, and the difference decides whether the company can do the job. A domestic VAT registration lets the company charge value added tax on its home market and recover the input tax it pays there. A registration for intra-Community trade is a separate act: it is what puts the number into VIES, the EU system in which a customer in another member state checks a supplier before accepting an invoice without VAT. An entity can hold the first and not the second, and most of them do.
The separation is visible in the filing itself. In Poland the NIP and REGON are issued automatically on the court register entry, while VAT and VAT-EU are applied for afterwards on the VAT-R form. In the Czech Republic the DPH registration and the DPH-EU registration that makes the number searchable in VIES are two steps, not one. In Hungary the adószám arrives with the registration and the EU VAT number is applied for separately at NAV. Nobody obtains the cross-border number by accident.
This is the standard dormant entity and the bulk of any honest inventory. Most ready made Polish companies have never activated a VAT registration, and the dormant Czech s.r.o. carries its IČO and DIČ but has never been registered for DPH. Nothing is wrong with that. The buyer applies after the transfer, and in Poland VAT-EU activation typically runs 1 to 2 weeks.
The company sits on the register in its own country, charges VAT to local customers and recovers input VAT on its own costs. For a business selling inside one member state that is the whole requirement. It is not enough for a supplier whose German or Dutch customer has to check the number before accepting an invoice with no VAT on it.
The number validates as an intra-Community registration, so the company can invoice business customers in other member states without charging its own VAT. This is the state buyers mean by an EU VAT number, and the rationed one, because it is what tax authorities examine hardest.
Which state a company is in is a fact about that company rather than about the country, and it is confirmed for the specific entity before purchase rather than promised in advance. Ready made companies and off the shelf companies are the same product under two names, and both come in all three states.
VAT registration is compulsory once turnover passes a threshold and voluntary below it. A ready made company has no turnover, so every pre-registration on a dormant entity is a voluntary one, granted on what the applicant says it is about to do rather than on what it has done. Tax authorities treat that differently from a registration triggered by real trade. In Ireland, Revenue grants VAT registration against evidence of real trading activity, usually with an Irish connection, which is why an Irish company carries a Revenue tax reference number from the day it is formed and may carry no VAT number at all.
What an authority looks for is consistent even where the procedure differs: an activity matching the company’s stated objects, a real address, a bank account in use, the identity of the people behind the company, and often contracts showing the trade is not hypothetical. So the VAT question is answered by the activity rather than by the entity, and a company bought to do something quite different from the business its registration was granted for is the weakest case you can put to a tax office.
The registration belongs to the company and not to the seller, and it does not lapse because the shares move. The Czech DIČ remains valid with continuity of the tax accounting obligations once the Finanční úřad is told of the change of jednatel and společník. The Polish NIP remains valid once the tax office is notified of the new shareholder and management board on form NIP-8. The Hungarian adószám remains valid once NAV is notified. In Ireland the existing tax reference number stays live while the corporation tax, VAT and payroll registrations are updated as required. The principle is clearest in Portugal, where the company identifier belongs to the company rather than to the outgoing shareholders, so it survives the change of ownership along with any VAT registration already issued.
That much buyers get right. What they get wrong is what the notification does. It tells the tax office that the company it registered is now owned and run by different people and is about to start doing something. A registration granted on a declared activity is now held by a company whose declared activity has changed, and the authority is entitled to look at it again. Expect questions rather than silent continuation, and expect them sooner where the registration was recent, voluntary and unused.
A registration nobody has used is exposed for a second reason. VAT registration is a live obligation: returns fall due whether or not there is anything to report, and a file showing nothing but nil returns invites the question of whether the company trades at all. The seller’s compliance record therefore matters more than the number itself. Poland and the Czech Republic both issue a tax clearance certificate, the zaświadczenie o niezaleganiu and the potvrzení o bezdlužnosti, confirming that nothing is outstanding, and that document belongs in the transfer file next to the share transfer deed.
Which leaves one thing worth relying on: the number validating in VIES. Check it yourself before you sign and again after the change of ownership is registered. It is the same check your customers will run, and the only one that does not depend on anybody’s assurance.
These are the jurisdictions where the question comes up most often. The middle column is what every entity carries; the right hand column is the part that has to be earned, by the seller in advance or by you after the transfer.
| Jurisdiction | What every company already carries | What the VAT number itself needs |
|---|---|---|
| Poland | NIP and REGON, issued automatically on the KRS entry | VAT and VAT-EU are separate applications on the VAT-R form, compulsory above PLN 200,000 of turnover and voluntary below. Activation typically runs 1 to 2 weeks after the transfer. |
| Czech Republic | IČO and DIČ from incorporation | DPH is compulsory above CZK 2,000,000 of turnover and voluntary below, and voluntary registration is normal for B2B companies recovering input DPH. DPH-EU is the step that puts the number in VIES. |
| Ireland | An active CRO number and a Revenue tax reference number | VAT is a separate application that Revenue grants against evidence of real trading activity, usually with an Irish connection. The strictest of the five. |
| Lithuania | The įmonės kodas, the company code | PVM registration is compulsory once turnover passes the €45,000 threshold and voluntary below it, filed with VMI together with the VIES registration for intra-Community trade. |
| Hungary | The adószám, automatic on registration | The EU VAT number for VIES is applied for separately at NAV, compulsory above HUF 12 million of turnover and voluntary below it. |
The United Kingdom is left off that list deliberately. A British company registers with HMRC once turnover passes the £90,000 threshold, and voluntarily below it, but that is a domestic registration under British law rather than an EU one, so it is not the number an EU business customer is asking for. A British ready made company is the right answer to a British VAT question and the wrong answer to an intra-Community one. If the trade is inside the single market, so must the entity be, which is what European company formation turns on.
Yes. Tax registrations attach to the entity rather than to the outgoing shareholders, so the company keeps its tax identifier and any VAT registration already issued when the shares change hands. The tax office has to be notified of the new shareholder and the new director, and at that point registrations such as corporation tax, VAT and payroll are updated rather than reissued.
No. A domestic registration lets the company charge and recover value added tax at home. Selling to business customers in other member states without charging your own VAT needs a further registration for intra-Community supplies, and that is the one which appears in VIES. Many companies hold the first and not the second, and a customer checking you will only ever see the second.
Put the number into VIES yourself and see whether it validates as an intra-Community registration for that member state. Separately, ask the seller for the registration certificate issued by the tax authority and for confirmation that every VAT return due under it has been filed. Then run the VIES check a second time after the change of ownership has been registered, because that is when a problem would surface.
You trade without one until it is granted. Below the registration threshold that is lawful, and the only loss is the input tax you cannot recover, so reflect it in your invoicing and keep the records. Then fix the reason for the refusal, which is almost always thin evidence of real activity: a bank account in use, signed contracts, a genuine address, an activity matching the stated objects. Reapply on that record rather than on intention.
Sometimes, and never as a standing promise. Pre-registered entities exist in several of the jurisdictions above, but they are a small part of any inventory and supply rotates from month to month, so the position is confirmed for the specific company you are choosing rather than for the country as a whole. Where no registered entity is free, the registration is filed alongside the transfer instead.