Vertex Validator

Vertex Validator offers a real-time business-to-business (B2B) validation service that fits into your users’ workflows and helps fulfill several use cases. This service is especially valuable as the tax treatment can vary from the business-to-consumer (B2C) channel in many locations.

The service's API provides a way to manage your tax ID verification across multiple regions. This helps you to meet demanding and diverse requirements of various tax authorities.

The solution offers the following capabilities:

  • Support for more than 50 countries and regions. See Validation Type per Country.
  • Support for multiple validation types. For example, real-time, scheduled and batch validations are all supported.
  • Validation can be configured to require a CAPTCHA. See Configuring CAPTCHA Validation.
  • Dual number validation. For example, in Canada it can validate both GST and HST. See Validating Multiple Tax IDs for Canada.
  • Some sellers are required to validate a businesses’ tax number before applying a reverse charge and zero rating the transaction. Vertex’s B2B validation service supports this.
  • Customers who may want to integrate supplier verification into their supplier onboarding process can also utilize this service.
  • The Reverse Charge mechanism enables a seller to shift obligation to collect tax from the seller to the buyer. The buyer subsequently pays and deducts the tax simultaneously in their tax return. Reverse charge is only supported for B2B sales and the tax authorities place onus on the seller to validate their buyer’s tax registration before utilizing the Reverse Charge mechanism.
  • You can use the service to verify their buyer’s business status before commencing commercial relationship.
  • You can also check a batch of Tax IDs. See Bulk Tax ID Validations. This can be useful for standalone users.

Users send their business or tax numbers for validation. This number is sent to Vertex using the API. Vertex checks this number against a database or using a syntax check. The API returns a true or false response, as well as other information. See Vertex Validator Output Schema.

Integration Options

You can integrate Vertex Validator in one of the following ways:

Integrated (with other Vertex Products)

If you are an existing Vertex Advantage, Vertex Advantage Plus or Taxamo Assure by Vertex customer, this module is included and integrated alongside the other features. Tax IDs are validated as part of the process for Business-to-Business (B2B) transactions, as specified in your configuration. See Integrated Vertex Validator.

In the context of other products like Vertex Advantage, a valid Tax ID means the transaction will be processed as a B2B transaction. If the ID is not valid, it can be processed as B2C or rejected, depending on your configuration.

Standalone

If you are solely a Vertex Validator customer, you need to use the API to integrate the service with your webstore. See Standalone Vertex Validator.

Prerequisite Settings

Before you can use the service, you need to enable the Tax calculation setting for that region or country in the UI. You can review the supported countries in the Validation Type per Country topic.

Settings are also available to configure the behavior for validation. See the B2B Settings section of the Country Settings topic for more information.

Other Settings

The following variations can apply:

VAT Status Caching

After a tax number is validated, its status can be stored in the cache. See VAT Status Cache.

Configuring CAPTCHA Validation

Some countries require additional validation such as CAPTCHAs. See Configuring CAPTCHA Validation.

Validating Multiple Tax IDs for Canada

Some Canadian provinces require that you validate more than one Tax ID simultaneously. See Validating Multiple Tax IDs for Canada.

Redacted Responses

See Redacted Responses.