Article 18 › 3
Unless he has information to the contrary, the supplier may regard a customer established outside the Community as a taxable person: (a) if he obtains from the customer a certificate issued by the customer’s competent tax authorities as confirmation that the customer is engaged in economic activities in order to enable him to obtain a refund of VAT under Council Directive 86/560/EEC of 17 November 1986 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes – Arrangements for the refund of value added tax to taxable persons not established in Community territory ( 2 ); (b) where the customer does not possess that certificate, if the supplier has the VAT number, or a similar number attributed to the customer by the country of establishment and used to identify businesses or any other proof which demonstrates that the customer is a taxable person and if the supplier carries out a reasonable level of verification of the accuracy of the information provided by the customer, by normal commercial security measures such as those relating to identity or payment checks.
Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as consolidated on 2025-04-14; changes after this date are not shown.