Verification VAT numbers VIES website

[speedway]

Hi,

I'm trying to create a flow that verifies if a VAT number is active according to the EU website http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/?locale=en

They have an API that can be used to verify this: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl

I started for this from an other API flow but I do not see how I can reuse this in this case.

The enlcosed flow has a VAT number in a second file input file which can be validated via the AP.

Thanks for the support.

[ck2024]

Hi maha7060

Couldn't agree more.  As I didn't get a further response on this, I set about investigating what I could do myself based on what @KevinP had done.  

I've uploaded my version and multiple lines of data will result in multiple checks being carried out - I have only included one mocked up version in this upload but the same would apply. The file is also based on an Oracle OBIEE output so you'd need to amend it appropriately based on your file structure.

Interested in any other use cases you have for indirect tax as well...!  I have been working on taking this VAT validation a step further to help prepare EC Sales lists (to the extent we need them in the UK going forwards!). .

[Mahadevaswamyb]

Thank u very much @ck2024 for sharing the workflow, can you please share the sample file of VAT Number.xlsx & modified TX8 to know what are the columns should have to customize further and since I am new learner you sample file help me to modify as we required. 

[ck2024]

Hi again - those files you refer to are actually the output files just to see the output at various points - to get them to work for you you need to amend the path as you won't have the same folder structure as me. HTH!

The critical columns you would need to amend from memory are customer country code and customer VAT registration number. The workflow is then appending the results of the search to the original file.

I'm about 4/5 weeks into Alteryx so still learning too!

[Mahadevaswamyb]

Thank you so much..!!! I will take this forwarded and will further modify as required and will be connected for more workflows related to Indirect Tax..!!

[Erik_Rautenberg]

Fantastic! Thank you very much! This helped me save a lot of time for setting this up for our company!

[ChristophVW]

Hi all, 

First of all, thank you all for your input. This has already helped me a lot! Attached I have added my current version. 

However, there is still one big flaw and I hope someone would be so kind to try to help me out.

Currently, I only receive the input "true" (i.e. VAT number valid) or "false" (i.e. VAT number recognised but not valid) or "null/blank" (i.e. the rest category). When null/blank I have currently converted this to "invalid input". This means that currently the input "MS_UNAVAILABLE" is also flagged, but I should really be able to distinguish between "MS_UNAVAILABLE"  and "INVALID_INPUT" (e.g. non-EU VAT numbers). See distinction below, which I have found on the first page of this discussion.

100 = Valid request with Valid VAT Number
200 = Valid request with an Invalid VAT Number
201 = Error : INVALID_INPUT
301 = Error : MS_UNAVAILABLE

 Unfortunately, in my version I am currently only receiving "true" (response "100") and "false" (response "200"). I can't seem to find in my file where this conversion is taking place and how I could also manage to receive the inputs "INVALID_INPUT" and "MS_UNAVAILABLE". Currently, I only receive true, fals or nulls/blanks. I should really be aware if the answer was "MS_UNVAILABLE", in order to know that I should check these VAT numbers at a later moment, instead of just flagging them as "INVALID".

Anyone who could be so kind to help me out? Potentially I am using an incorrect/older url or is there just something incorrectly configured in one of the tools in my flow?

Already many many thanks and much appreciation for any help!

Kind regards, 
Christoph

[Mahadevaswamyb]

Dear All,

do we have any similar workflow to validate the UK VAT id post brexit cases.

[DavidSta]

Hi @Mahadevaswamyb,

you can find a sample workflow for the UK here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Post-Brexit-UK-VAT-ID-Validation/m-p/7....

Best regards,

David

[mahadevaswab]

Dear All,

We are getting the below error in VAT ID validation using VIES website.

Error: XML Parse (599): whitespace expected at Line:1 and Column:10 at row # 1

Kindly help to rectify the same.

@speedway @DavidSta @ChristophVW 

Regards

Mahadev

[taxhead]

I face the same issue. Seems the error is caused by receiving an "HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error" from VIES server. I guess parseing error results as no information is available to parse.