That the old-fashioned VAT No. is history in Belgium and replaced by the Enterprise No. is probably well spread by now. But how this Enterprise No. should be mentionned is less familiar to most people.

For companies who already had a VAT No. (xxx.xxx.xxx) the Enterprise No. is composed as follows: 0xxx.xxx.xxx. If your customer or vendor is located in Belgium (and you fill in the country code as BE) NAV will check whether this number is correct by performing the MOD 97 test and it will prohibit you from filling in the VAT No.. For customers or vendors from abroad NAV will only allow you to fill in the VAT No. and not the Enterprise No..

However, there is more to it than that. The Enterprise No. should be proceeded by:

• BTW 0xxx.xxx.xxx or TVA 0xxx.xxx.xxx- for companies who only operate in Belgium
• BTW BE 0xxx.xxx.xxx or TVA BE 0xxx.xxx.xxx – for companies who also operate outside Belgium in the EU

For companies of the type 'vennootschap' the Enterprise No. should also be followed by RPR ('rechtspersonenregister') and the location of the legal court ('arrondissementsrechtbank') to which the company belongs:

• BTW BE 0xxx.xxx.xxx RPR Brussel

Why is it so important to fill this in correctly in NAV 5.0 SP1? If you forget to mention BTW / TVA (depending in which language you are using NAV) that customer will not appear on your yearly VAT listing!

You can always find more information about our wonderfull Belgian Enterprise No. on the following website: www.ondernemingsnummers.be