Re: [OFF TOPIC] Company No, VAT Num & bank account validation

[Stuart Grimshaw <stuart@xxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday 19 Aug 2003 12:58 pm, Chris Bond wrote:
> People like Equifax/Experian do a service that can check things like
this
> but theres a monthly/yearly fee.  I think it was expensive last time
> investestgaed it.

I've found the alorythm for checking VAT numberrs, for reference it's:

Starting with the left-most digit of
the VAT number you multiply each digit in turn by a weighting of 8, 7,
6, 5, 4, 3, and 2, summing the result of each multiplication up to give
you a single total. You then add on the number represented by the last 2
digits and divide the grand total by 97. If the result of the division
is zero, then the VAT number is valid. In other words, the last 2 digits
of the VAT number are a modulus 97 check sum.
So if you are given a VAT number of 590 8503 24, for instance, the maths
works out like this:
(8 * 5) + (7 * 9) + (6 * 0) + (5 * 8) + (4 * 5) + (3 * 0) + (2 * 3) + 24
giving a grand total of 193, and a remainder of 96 after division by 97.
So 590 8503 24 is therefore not a valid VAT number.

(from Google Groups)