---
name: vat-tools
description: Use VAT.tools to validate VAT registrations through VIES for the EU-27 and Northern Ireland goods, and to search, resolve, verify, or discover VAT evidence for companies in supported jurisdictions through MCP.
---

# VAT.tools

Use the VAT.tools MCP server when a task needs company identity or VAT evidence that should remain structured and source-linked.

## Check current coverage

- VAT validation covers the EU-27 plus Northern Ireland goods through VIES.
- Company search and verification currently cover Estonia, France, and Ireland.
- VAT discovery currently covers Estonia and France.
- Guided company resolution is currently France-only and requires a configured resolver.
- Treat the connected server's live capability catalogue as authoritative before promising an operation or jurisdiction.

## Choose the operation

- For a known VAT identifier, call `validate_vat`.
- For a full or partial company name in a known jurisdiction, call `search_companies`. Present plausible candidates and distinguishing fields; do not silently choose an ambiguous result.
- For broader guided resolution, call `resolve_company` only when that operation is available for the requested jurisdiction.
- For an exact registry identifier or a user-selected candidate, call `verify_company`.
- To find VAT evidence for a selected legal entity, call `discover_vat`, then validate any returned VAT candidate separately when requested.

## Preserve the evidence boundary

- Keep the operation environment, source, observation time, jurisdiction, and registry identifier with the answer.
- Treat `invalid` only as an explicit authority outcome. Keep `unavailable`, `unknown`, `not_found`, and `unsupported` distinct.
- Do not infer a VAT identifier from a company or registry number unless the returned evidence explicitly supports that association.
- Describe a company status as the source's administrative status. Do not treat it as proof of trading activity, solvency, physical occupancy, or trustworthiness.
- Keep withheld and absent fields unknown. A source-scoped no-hit is not proof that a company does not exist.
- Use one environment consistently across related calls and retain the structured result when handing work to another agent.

Check the VAT.tools integration guide and live capability catalogue again when availability matters to the answer.