How to Check a Germany Tax ID Number (TIN): Steuer-ID, Steuernummer, USt-IdNr and W-IdNr

Sources last verified: 28 October 2026

Official sources cited at the end of this page.

From the fourth quarter of 2026 the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (BZSt, Federal Central Tax Office) is extending the Wirtschafts-Identifikationsnummer (W-IdNr) to companies subject to corporation tax. A person’s German tax ID stays the 11-digit Steuer-ID (IdNr); a business is known by its Steuernummer, its USt-IdNr (DE plus nine digits, checked in VIES) and now the W-IdNr, that DE number with a five-digit suffix.

Issue began in November 2024 and runs in stages to 2027, and for now the W-IdNr replaces nothing: returns still carry the Steuernummer, invoices the Steuernummer or the USt-IdNr. This guide follows the change, then shows how to check a number’s format, the official route for each identifier, and what that route does not show.

01 · Germany Tax ID Numbers at a Glance

Germany gives each person one permanent tax identification number, the IdNr, and identifies businesses by the Steuernummer from the local Finanzamt, the USt-IdNr from the BZSt and, increasingly, the W-IdNr.

When a German supplier or customer gives you a USt-IdNr, a W-IdNr or a Steuernummer, our tax identity engine tests it against the published structure first and, where an official source can answer, confirms it there and keeps a record of which source replied.

02 · Issuing Authority and Registration: The W-IdNr Reform

The W-IdNr is the business counterpart of the Steuer-ID: the BZSt assigns it, without any application, to every wirtschaftlich Tätige (an economically active natural person, a legal person or an association of persons) in three stages.

§ 139a AO gives natural persons an Identifikationsnummer and economically active persons a Wirtschafts-Identifikationsnummer; § 139c AO adds a five-digit suffix for each activity, business and permanent establishment. The BZSt’s W-IdNr page, updated 10 September 2026, gives the timetable:

A business that held a USt-IdNr on 30 November 2024 received no letter: a public notice in the Bundessteuerblatt made that USt-IdNr, extended by -00001, its W-IdNr from 3 December 2024. Every other business receives the number in its ELSTER account; the BZSt advises anyone doubting the automatic ELSTER e-mail to open the mailbox directly rather than click a link.

The official texts disagree on dates. The Wirtschafts-Identifikationsnummer-Verordnung (WIdV) of 30 September 2024, as published on the federal legislation portal, sets 1 July 2025 for everyone not covered earlier and 1 March 2026 for further suffixes; the BZSt, which issues the numbers and whose dates this guide follows, now gives the fourth quarters of 2026 and 2027.

Quoting the W-IdNr on tax forms stays optional until the first allocation is complete; the Steuernummer is to be superseded only after a transition. The W-IdNr doubles as the federal business number of the company base register. Other countries’ numbers are compared in the global guide to tax identification numbers.

03 · TIN Format and Structure: Check a German Tax ID Number

Every German tax number can be checked for structure first, before anyone is asked whether it is real.

Three mistakes recur. The pattern 12 345 678 901, offered online as a Germany TIN number example, cannot be an IdNr: no digit repeats among its first ten, and the arithmetic in section 06 gives a check digit of 3, not 1. ELSTER cannot check a Steuernummer entered without its full federal tax office number. And a W-IdNr entered in a VAT field fails, because the suffix belongs to the W-IdNr alone. Whether a form says Deutschland, Germania or Alemania, these are the numbers it means.

04 · The Steuer-ID: Tax Identification Number for Individuals

For a person, the tax identification number in Germany is the Steuerliche Identifikationsnummer, which the BZSt assigns once and which does not change with a move or a change of name.

Registration offices start the process: under § 139b(6) AO, each Meldebehörde sends the BZSt the data of every resident registered with a sole or main residence, and the BZSt writes to the person with the number; one person, one number, issued once. The statute reaches beyond residents: § 139a AO gives the identifier to every taxpayer and to any other natural person conducting an administrative procedure with a public body.

The BZSt names the income tax assessment and the employer’s Lohnsteuerbescheinigung as the usual places to find it. A lost number can be requested again through the BZSt’s online form or by letter and is sent only by post, never given out by telephone.

No public service confirms whose number an IdNr is. The OECD sheet for Germany restricts access to the data stored with it to the German revenue authorities and rules out its use on identity or pension insurance cards, and the EU TIN country sheet records the national online check as not available.

05 · Tax Identification Number Types for Businesses

A business in Germany can hold four numbers: a Steuernummer, a USt-IdNr for EU trade, a W-IdNr and, as a merchant or company, a Handelsregister number.

The Steuernummer

The Steuernummer is the number “vom Finanzamt erteilt”, in the words of § 14(4) of the Umsatzsteuergesetz, which accepts it on an invoice instead of the USt-IdNr. Each Land prints it in its own pattern. No public lookup for it was found among the official services read for this guide; it is read from the supplier’s invoices and letters.

The USt-IdNr

The BZSt issues the USt-IdNr on application under § 27a UStG; a new business ticks a box on its tax registration questionnaire. Anyone can check a German number in the Commission’s VIES service, which returns valid or invalid, shows a name and address only where the member state permits, and cannot search by name. The BZSt’s confirmation service works the other way: under § 18e UStG it confirms other member states’ numbers for German businesses, with name and address on a qualified request, and German numbers only for operators of electronic interfaces under § 25e UStG.

The W-IdNr

The W-IdNr lasts as long as the business is active and survives a new registered office or company name. The BZSt states that it does not yet meet the invoice requirements of § 14 UStG and is not compulsory on business letters. The only W-IdNr query procedure the BZSt announces is a basic one, for financial institutions only, at the end of 2027.

The Handelsregister Number and Other Business Numbers

§ 3 of the Handelsregisterverordnung places sole merchants and partnerships in division A of the Handelsregister and companies such as the GmbH and AG in division B, and a GmbH must print its register court and number on business letters (§ 35a GmbHG). The joint register portal searches by court, register type (HRA, HRB, GnR, PR, VR, GsR), Handelsregisternummer or name; the Unternehmensregister confirms it has been free since 1 August 2022. Customs declarations need an EORI number from German Customs, whose customs portal is mandatory for applications from 1 October 2026, and users of the EU small-enterprise scheme abroad receive a Kleinunternehmer-Identifikationsnummer (§ 19a UStG).

Worked Example: A Danish Buyer Checks a Bremen Supplier

A fictitious Esbjerg wind-turbine service company, Vestkyst Vindservice ApS, hires a fictitious Bremen gearbox remanufacturer, Weserkraft Getriebetechnik GmbH, to overhaul main-shaft gearboxes (fictitious example). The register portal finds the GmbH in division B at the Bremen court, extract free of charge. Its USt-IdNr goes through VIES, since a Danish buyer cannot use the BZSt service for a German number, and the dated result is filed. The W-IdNr on the supplier’s letter changes nothing: the overhaul is a cross-border service, so the invoice states reverse charge and both VAT numbers.

06 · The Steuer-ID Check Digit and the 13-Digit Steuernummer

The Steuer-ID’s eleventh digit is calculated from the first ten by an iterative method using the moduli 10 and 11, which ELSTER publishes as program code; the Steuernummer’s last digit uses one of three Land-specific methods.

The method is in ELSTER’s specification for checking tax numbers, dated 2 September 2026. Start with a running value of 10. For each of the first ten digits, add it to the running value and take the remainder modulo 10 (10 if it is 0), double that, and keep its remainder modulo 11 as the new running value. The check digit is 11 minus the final value, or 0 where that gives 10. On ELSTER’s test number 02476291358 the running value ends at 3, and 11 minus 3 gives 8, its final digit; only a test number may start with 0.

The repetition rule is a second test: exactly one digit occurs twice or three times among the first ten, and a tripled digit never fills three consecutive positions. Until 2014 no IdNr began with 0, 1, 2 or 3, which kept it apart from the Steuernummer. A pass proves consistency, not ownership.

For ELSTER the Steuernummer has 13 digits: the four-digit federal tax office number, a 0, the district number and the distinguishing number (three and four digits; four and three in North Rhine-Westphalia), then the check digit (F, B, U and P in the patterns below). ELSTER’s test-office specimens show each Land’s conversion:

ELSTER assigns each Land a 2 method, an 11 method or, in Rhineland-Palatinate, a modified 11 method; Bavaria has dropped the 2 method. Neither the BZSt nor ELSTER publishes a calculation for the USt-IdNr or W-IdNr, although § 139a AO makes the last digit of every identifier a check digit.

07 · TIN and VAT Number Connection: Where German Numbers Are Required

German law requires the Steuernummer or the USt-IdNr on every invoice, both parties’ USt-IdNrn on a reverse-charge invoice for cross-border services, and the IdNr and W-IdNr in banks’ account records.

Under § 14a(1) UStG, a German business supplying a § 3a(2) service in another member state states “Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers” and both VAT numbers. Between businesses established in Germany, § 14(2) requires a structured e-invoice. § 27(38) UStG allows paper, or another format with the recipient’s consent, until 31 December 2026 for 2025 and 2026 supplies. For 2027 supplies it runs to 31 December 2027 where the issuer’s previous-year turnover was at most EUR 800,000. Rates are in the Germany VAT guide.

§ 154(2a) AO requires credit institutions to record each account holder’s IdNr and W-IdNr or, for a business without a W-IdNr, its income tax Steuernummer. For the CRS, the OECD sheet records automatic TINs for individuals but not entities, which give the Steuernummer until W-IdNrs are issued; the Germany CRS 2.0 and DAC8 article and the Germany CARF article cover reporting. Digital service providers must show a USt-IdNr or W-IdNr, where they hold one, in their website imprint.

08 · TIN Verification and Lookup for German Supplier Files

One German supplier can be checked by hand; a vendor master of thousands, each with a Steuernummer, a USt-IdNr and soon a W-IdNr, needs a process.

1. Catch the malformed number. Syntax validation across 1,000+ TIN types in 210+ countries tests an IdNr, a 13-digit Steuernummer or a DE number before any official source is asked.

2. Ask the source. Real-time lookup against official sources in 130+ countries confirms that a tax ID exists, is active and belongs to the declared holder, naming the source on each result, through TIN lookup.

3. Know the entity. Official business registries in 120+ countries are searchable by company name, and on the entity itself Verify+ adds 30+ tax-native checks across eight areas.

4. Run it in volume. An API, or batch uploads of up to 50,000 tax ID validations each, depending on subscription, with re-validation before payment runs and filings.

5. Keep the proof. Every check leaves audit-ready evidence of its timestamp, source and result.

Someone who only needs their own Steuer-ID will find it on their last tax assessment or can ask the BZSt to post it again. The duty to verify a German supplier or customer stays with the business; TaxDo supplies the check and the evidence.

09 · Recent Changes

The latest dated change to a German tax identifier is the W-IdNr’s second stage, from the fourth quarter of 2026.

Fourth quarter of 2027 (planned). W-IdNr stage 3 and further suffixes; a query procedure for financial institutions.

Fourth quarter of 2026. Stage 2: corporation-tax payers and filers of declarations of findings receive their W-IdNr.

1 October 2026. The customs portal becomes mandatory for EORI applications; form 0870 is accepted only in exceptional cases.

30 November 2025. The BZSt’s XML-RPC interface for VAT number confirmation became obsolete; the BZSt offers a REST API.

3 December 2024. A USt-IdNr held on 30 November 2024 also serves as the W-IdNr, after issue started in November 2024 under the WIdV.

10 · Related Reading

Global guide to tax identification numbers: the TIN guides for every country.

Germany VAT guide: rates, registration, returns and the reverse charge.

Germany TIN verification and VAT validation: the compliance team’s side of the same numbers.

Austria TIN guide, Netherlands TIN guide and Denmark TIN guide: neighbouring systems.

Product: TIN lookup · Business registry