Italian tax office to cancel 60,000 companies VAT numbers on the VIES system

2 November 2016

In an effort to prevent fraud the Italian tax office confirmed that it will cancel over 60,000 VAT numbers from the European VAT Information Exchange System (VIES).

The VIES system is an electronic means of transmitting VAT registration information in the EU and is used to validate VAT numbers for VAT free intra-community supplies between businesses in separate EU countries.

The Italian tax authority will target Italian VAT registered businesses that have not undertaken any intra-community supplies since 2015 and they intend to notify the companies by sending a cancellation notice in the next few weeks. The cancellation of the VAT number from the VIES system will then occur 60 days after receipt of the notification if evidence of future intra-community supplies is not provided.