Tax Ids

This crate offers a solution for validating tax IDs (VAT/GST) for businesses operating within the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Norway.

Currently, the library provides the following functionalities:

• Validates the syntax of a tax ID against its type-specific regex pattern.
• Verifies the tax ID in the relevant government database (based on the tax ID type).

The library has been inspired by the valvat library for Ruby.

Available features / tax id types

Feature	Description	Default
eu_vat	European Union VAT	✓
gb_vat	United Kingdom VAT
ch_vat	Switzerland VAT
no_vat	Norway VAT

More info at Tax Id Types.

Installation

With default feature eu_vat:

[dependencies]
tax_ids = "0.1.0"

With eu_vat and gb_vat features enabled:

[dependencies]
tax_ids = { version = "0.1.0", features = ["eu_vat", "gb_vat"] }

Usage

use tax_ids::TaxId;
use tax_ids::VerificationStatus::{Verified, Unverified, Unavailable};
use tax_ids::UnavailableReason::{ServiceUnavailable, Timeout, Block, RateLimit};

fn main() {
  // Instantiate a new TaxId object. This can raise a ValidationError.
  let tax_id = match TaxId::new("SE556703748501") {
    Ok(tax_id) => tax_id,
    Err(e) => {
      println!("ValidationError: {}", e);
      return;
    }
  };

  assert_eq!(tax_id.value(), "SE556703748501");
  assert_eq!(tax_id.country_code(), "SE");
  assert_eq!(tax_id.tax_country_code(), "SE");
  assert_eq!(tax_id.local_value(), "556703748501");
  assert_eq!(tax_id.tax_id_type(), "eu_vat");

  // The country code is the 2-char ISO code of the country.
  // It's often the same as the tax country code, but not always.
  // For example, the country code for Greece is GR, but EL for the Greek VAT number.

  // The United Kingdom has a country code GB and tax country code GB.
  // However, due to Brexit, businesses in Northern Ireland
  // have a country code GB but use VAT number/tax country code XI when trading
  // with the EU.

  // Verification

  // Perform a verification request against the country's tax ID database.
  // This can raise a VerificationError.
  let verification = match tax_id.verify() {
    Ok(verification) => verification,
    Err(e) => {
      println!("VerificationError: {}", e);
      return;
    }
  };

  assert_eq!(verification.status(), &Verified);

  // VerificationStatus can take one out of three different statuses:
  // - Verified - The tax ID is legitimate.
  // - Unverified - The tax ID is not legitimate.
  // - Unavailable(UnavailableReason) - The verification couldn't be performed due to some reason.

  // These statuses are what you want to act upon.
  match verification.status() {
    Verified => {
      // Proceed with payment
    }
    Unverified => {
      // Ask the customer to provide a proper tax ID
    }
    Unavailable(reason) => {
      // Process payment and verify the tax ID later?
      
      match reason {
        ServiceUnavailable | Timeout => {},
        Block => {
          // Adapt to your IP / VAT being blocked
        }
        RateLimit => {
          // Consider how to avoid rate limiting
        }
      }
    }
  }

  // The full verification object:

  println!("{:?}", verification);

  // The data field is experimental and subject to change or removal.
  // It will contain different data depending on what tax ID type is being verified.
  // And what response the verification service provides.

  // Verification status: Verified
  // Verification {
  //    performed_at: 2024-05-15T14:38:31.388914+02:00,
  //    status: Verified,
  //    data: Object {
  //        "address": String("REGERINGSGATAN 19 \n111 53 STOCKHOLM"),
  //        "countryCode": String("SE"),
  //        "name": String("Spotify AB"),
  //        "requestDate": String("2024-05-15+02:00"),
  //        "valid": String("true"),
  //        "vatNumber": String("556703748501"
  //    )}
  // }
}

Tax Id Types

Tax Id Type	Authority	Manual lookup	Documentation
eu_vat	VIES	🔍	📖 + Availability
gb_vat	HMRC	🔍	📖
ch_vat	BFS	🔍	📖
no_vat	Brønnøysundregistrene	🔍	📖

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.