First of all, please allow us two comments on this question:
- Please note that only some EU organizations and companies have EU VAT numbers, not all of them.
Private persons usually don’t have such a number at all.
Therefore, the VAT number of the receiver of the invoices can usually not be a mandatory item on invoices. - Furthermore, the VAT number of the receiver of the invoices is usually only needed on intra-community invoices
if both parties want to apply the reverse-charge procedure to avoid VAT.
However, conference fees are excluded from this procedure, please see:
Which place of taxation (VAT) applies to participants from other European countries?
If you still require the
VAT number of your clients/participants that are from the EU, please go to:
Overview => Settings => Main Settings for Participant RegistrationIn the section "Invoices and Taxes" enable the option "Ask for EU VAT ID of the Receiver of the Invoice" by setting it to "Yes, optional" (see Image 1).
We do not recommend using "Yes, required" as many people might not have an identification number at all.
Now, users will be prompted to enter their EU VAT ID when they register for participation.
The ConfTool software will run a check to see if the VAT number is valid. It will try to contact the VIES system of the EU to verify if the number exists in the official EU database. However, the EU system is often overloaded and usually offline during nighttime. In these cases, this test will be skipped.
The EU VAT ID will also be printed on all invoices.