VIES Activation & Restoration
Activation and restoration of VIES status for non-resident companies, enabling intra-EU B2B transactions. Managed end-to-end alongside fiscal representation and the required VIES guarantee.
How VIES Activation Works
An Italian VAT number and a VIES listing are not the same thing. Registration gives you the number; inclusion in VIES is what makes that number visible to the counterparties and the systems that check it across the EU. A company can hold a valid Italian VAT number and still be absent from VIES, because inclusion is a separate step that has to be requested — whether the VAT number itself came from a fiscal representative or from VAT Direct Identification.
The consequence usually shows up on the counterparty’s side first. Before treating a cross-border supply as an intra-EU one, an EU business validates the other party’s VAT number against VIES; if the lookup returns nothing, it will normally charge domestic VAT or hold the order rather than proceed. The same applies in the other direction: without a VIES entry your own intra-EU supplies cannot be reported as such, and recapitulative statements have no valid number to carry. Orders tend to stall silently at this validation step rather than being formally refused, which is why the gap is often noticed late.
For a company resident outside the EU or EEA that meets its Italian VAT obligations through a fiscal representative, inclusion is not granted on the strength of the request alone: a guarantee has to be lodged first, and the guarantee has its own issuing, signing, and delivery steps. That sequence, not the request itself, is what governs how long activation takes — which is why the guarantee and the VIES request are prepared in parallel rather than one after the other.
Who Needs VIES Activation
- Non-EU companies registering for Italian VAT and trading B2B with EU partners
- EU-based companies with an Italian VAT position needing intra-EU B2B status
- Businesses whose VIES status has been revoked or never activated
- Companies whose intra-EU transactions are being blocked at the validation step
What We Cover
- Submission of the VIES activation request to the Italian Revenue Agency
- Coordination of the required guarantee (see Regulated VIES Guarantee)
- Restoration procedure for revoked VIES status
- Liaison with the Revenue Agency until status is confirmed
- Verification of correct registration on the public VIES system
Legal Basis
Inclusion in VIES is governed by Article 35 of Presidential Decree 633/1972: the intention to trade intra-EU is declared under Article 35(2)(e-bis), and Article 35(7-bis) makes it result in immediate inclusion in the database under Article 17 of Regulation (EC) No 904/2010.
Where no recapitulative statement is filed for four consecutive quarters, intra-EU trading is presumed to have stopped and the Revenue Agency removes the number — but only after a specific notice, and without prejudice to Article 35(15-bis).
By way of derogation, Article 35(7-quater), introduced by Legislative Decree 13/2024, requires a guarantee first where the taxable person is not resident in an EU or EEA State and meets its Italian VAT obligations through a fiscal representative appointed under Article 17(3). The Ministerial Decree of 4 December 2024 sets the terms: government securities, a bank guarantee or a surety policy, a maximum insured value of at least EUR 50,000 (Article 1(2)), a minimum duration of 36 months from delivery (Article 2(1)), lodged with the Provincial Directorate for the representative’s tax domicile. The procedure is Revenue Agency ruling prot. no. 178713/2025 of 14 April 2025.
Why Choose Us
VIES activation is handled jointly with your Italian VAT registration and guarantee, so the moving parts are coordinated from a single operational platform — no fragmented timelines between fiscal representative, insurance provider, and Revenue Agency.