Check Cyprus VAT numbers
Validate Cypriot VAT numbers (ΦΠΑ) against the EU VIES registry. Cypriot numbers are 11 characters: the CY prefix, 8 digits, and a trailing capital letter. The letter is part of the number and cannot be omitted. Every response includes the company name, registered address, and validity at query time.
Try it
curl -X POST "https://api.vatverify.dev/v1/validate" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $VATVERIFY_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"vat_number":"CY10012345C"}'Facts
Format
- Prefix
- CY
- Digits
- 9
- Regex
- ^CY\d{8}[A-Z]$
CY10012345CCY10012345ACY1001234CVAT rates (EUR)
hotel accommodation, restaurant meals, some agricultural products
food staples, pharmaceuticals, books, newspapers, passenger transport
What we return for Cyprus
{
"data": {
"valid": true, // boolean validity at query time
"vat_number": "DE129273398",
"country": {
"code": "DE",
"name": "Germany",
"vat": { "standard_rate": 19 }
},
"company": {
"name": "SIEMENS AG", // legal entity name
"address": "..." // when VIES provides it
},
"verified_at": "2026-04-25T10:00:00Z"
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "019dc...", // for audit trail correlation
"source": "vies",
"source_status": "live", // live | cached | degraded
"cached": false,
"latency_ms": 234
}
}
Test against production VATs
Real numbers from publicly-documented corporate filings. Click to see the live result.
Watch out for
- Cypriot ΦΠΑ numbers have a mandatory trailing letter; CY12345678 without the letter is invalid, must be CY12345678X.
- Only the Republic of Cyprus (south) issues CY-prefix numbers. Northern Cyprus is outside EU VAT territory.
- Cyprus has two official languages (Greek and English); VIES may return company names in either.
Format: 9 characters
Cypriot VAT numbers are 9 characters prefixed with CY: 8 digits
followed by 1 letter. The full structure is CY followed by 8
digits and a trailing letter (for example CY12345678X).
The trailing letter is part of the canonical form, not a check
character that can be omitted. Validators that accept only
CY\d{9} (purely numeric) reject correctly-formed Cypriot
numbers; the right pattern is CY\d{8}[A-Z].
vatverify validates the structural form and routes through VIES. The Cypriot VAT number carries a check letter that is verifiable offline.
Tax Department is the authority
The Cypriot tax administration is the Tax Department of the Republic of Cyprus, part of the Ministry of Finance. The Tax Department maintains the VAT register and pushes updates to VIES on a regular batch cadence.
The public portal at mof.gov.cy exposes domestic VAT details including registration date. For VIES-equivalent checks the public portal is the right tool when you need additional fields beyond the binary valid flag.
VAT rates
Cyprus runs four rates: 19% standard, 9% reduced, 5% reduced, and 3% super-reduced. The 9% bracket covers accommodation, restaurant services, and several other categories. The 5% bracket covers food, books, pharmaceuticals, and a defined list of additional supplies. The 3% super-reduced bracket is narrow and covers a specific list of essential goods.
There is also a 0% rate for exports, intra-Community supplies, and a defined set of additional categories. Date-aware lookups against current Tax Department publications remain the safer default; specific bracket assignments have shifted in recent budget cycles.
Divided island: VAT applies only to government-controlled areas
Cyprus has been politically divided since 1974, with the northern third of the island administered by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), an entity recognized only by Turkey. EU VAT rules apply only to the government-controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus.
Practically:
- Government-controlled areas (south): standard EU member-state treatment applies. Cypriot VAT (CY-prefixed) numbers in VIES represent businesses domiciled here.
- Northern Cyprus: outside EU customs territory and outside the EU VAT zone. Supplies to or from northern Cyprus are not intra-Community supplies under EU VAT law.
For invoicing systems handling Cypriot counterparties, the practical effect is: any Cypriot business with a VIES-registered VAT number is in the south; northern Cyprus counterparties have no EU-recognized VAT identifier.
Cross-border within the EU
Cyprus is an island state in the eastern Mediterranean with no land borders to other EU members. Greece is the most active EU trading partner, with strong linguistic and historical ties. Standard EU intra-Community reverse-charge applies to B2B supplies between Cyprus and other-EU VAT-registered businesses.
The UK retains two Sovereign Base Areas on the island (Akrotiri and Dhekelia), which are constitutionally part of the UK rather than the Republic of Cyprus. Specific arrangements apply to supplies to and from the SBAs; most invoicing systems do not encounter these directly because the SBAs operate primarily as military installations.
Financial services and corporate counterparties
Cyprus hosts a meaningful corporate-services and financial-services sector. Many EU and non-EU corporate structures use Cypriot holding entities. For non-Cypriot sellers invoicing Cypriot holding companies, the buyer's VIES validation is the standard audit-trail requirement; the corporate-services nature of many counterparties does not change the VAT treatment.
Caching against the Tax Department cycle
The Cypriot Tax Department pushes registration changes to VIES on a regular batch. Newly-registered Cypriot VAT numbers are generally visible in VIES within 24 to 48 hours. vatverify's default TTLs (30 days for valid, 24 hours for invalid) line up with this cadence.
Automate Cyprus VAT checks in your stack
Replace manual lookups with one API call against VIES. Drops into invoicing, checkout, and signup flows in any language. 500 free validations per month, no credit card.