How to Find Your VAT Number in South Africa (and Someone Else's)

Where to find your own VAT number

If you're registered for VAT, SARS has already given you the number. It turns up in more places than people expect:

1. Your VAT Notice of Registration. On eFiling, open SARS Registered Details, choose Notice of Registration and select VAT. A company does this from the Organisations tab. Our VAT103 guide has the full route.
2. Your VAT201 returns. Every VAT return carries your VAT registration number, so any return you've filed on eFiling shows it.
3. The email or letter from SARS. If you registered without an eFiling profile, SARS sends the Notice of Registration to the email address on your application, or posts it. Search your inbox.
4. Invoices from your suppliers. A full tax invoice of R5,000 or more has to show the buyer's VAT number when the buyer is a vendor, so if you've given suppliers your number, it's printed on their invoices to you.
5. Your accountant or bookkeeper, if someone else registered you or files your returns.

You can also look yourself up on SARS's free VAT Vendor Search. Without an eFiling login it only finds exact names: a sole proprietor types their surname, a space and their initials, and a company types its full registered name, "(Pty) Ltd" included. VAT 404 suggests the same search for checking whether your registration has gone through.

Still stuck? VAT 404 says you can call SARS for a copy of your Notice of Registration. The contact centre number is 0800 00 7277.

What a South African VAT number looks like

It has 10 digits and starts with 4, with no letters and no "ZA" in front. South Africa calls it a VAT registration number or VAT number. If a form asks for your "VAT ID", it means the same thing.

It's easy to confuse with two other numbers a business may have:

A sole proprietor has an income tax number but no company registration number. A company has both. Neither gets a VAT number until SARS registers it for VAT.

Do you have a VAT number at all?

Only if you've registered for VAT. Registering for income tax or turnover tax doesn't give you one, and neither does registering a company with CIPC. You have to register once your taxable sales pass R2.3 million in any 12 months, and you can choose to register from R120,000. Both thresholds have applied since 1 April 2026.

If you aren't registered, you have no VAT number and you can't charge VAT. Your invoices say "Invoice", not "Tax Invoice", as our guide to invoicing when you're not VAT registered explains. If you do need to register, the eFiling registration guide takes you through it.

How to find another business's VAT number

• Look at a tax invoice from them. A vendor has to print its VAT number on every tax invoice it issues.
• Ask for their VAT Notice of Registration. Registered businesses get asked for it all the time, and it's the strongest proof there is.
• Search their name on the VAT Vendor Search. Use the exact registered name with its punctuation, so "Ndlovu Construction (Pty) Ltd" rather than "Ndlovu Construction". If you're logged in to eFiling, you can type the start of a name and see every vendor whose name begins with it.

The search works by VAT number or by name, not by company registration number, so the number on a company's CIPC certificate won't lead you to its VAT number. If a business doesn't come up at all, it may not be registered, which matters before you pay VAT to it. Our guide to checking a VAT number covers what to do next.

Where your VAT number has to appear

Once you're registered, your VAT number goes on every tax invoice you issue, whatever the amount, and on your credit notes. The full checklist is in our SARS tax invoice requirements guide, and the credit note guide covers the rest.

Ask your VAT-registered clients for their numbers as well. A full tax invoice of R5,000 or more needs the client's VAT number on it, and their bookkeeper may hold back payment on an invoice without it.

Doing this in Invo

Save your VAT number once in your business settings and Invo prints it on every tax invoice and credit note. Add a client's VAT number to their record and it appears on their invoices too. Invo heads a document "Tax invoice" when it carries VAT and "Invoice" when it doesn't, so a business that isn't registered never shows a VAT number by mistake. See VAT and reports, start on the free plan, or compare plans on the pricing page.

Questions people ask