What is the Polish VAT White List?
The VAT White List (officially: the Register of VAT Payers) is a register kept by Poland's Ministry of Finance where you can check whether your counterparty is an active VAT payer, and see the bank account numbers they've reported to the tax office. It's a core due diligence tool for verifying a Polish company.
This tool queries the White List API directly from your browser and shows VAT status, REGON, address and bank accounts for a given tax ID (NIP) — free, no login required.
The legal basis for the Register is Article 96b of the Polish VAT Act — the register is public and updated once every business day, so a status checked a week ago may already have changed (e.g. a taxpayer struck off the register). For any significant transaction, it's worth checking the tax ID fresh rather than relying on an earlier check.
When checking the White List is mandatory
For payments on a VAT invoice over 15,000 PLN (Article 19 of the Entrepreneurs' Law), a transfer to an account outside the VAT Register carries two specific tax consequences:
- Joint and several liability for the counterparty's VAT arrears on that transaction (Article 117ba of the Tax Ordinance).
- The payment cannot be counted as a tax-deductible expense (Article 15d of the CIT Act / Article 22p of the PIT Act).
You can protect against both consequences by filing a ZAW-NR notification with the tax office responsible for the invoice issuer — within 7 days of ordering the transfer. Verify the counterparty's account number separately with the Account verification tool.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check whether a company is an active VAT payer?
Enter the counterparty's tax ID (NIP) in the search box above. You'll get the VAT status (active, exempt, or unregistered), registry data and bank accounts from the Register — straight from the Ministry of Finance.
What do the "active", "exempt" and "unregistered" statuses mean?
"Active" is a taxpayer settling VAT. "Exempt" uses an exemption (e.g. a turnover threshold or a subject-matter exemption). "Unregistered" means there's no entity in the VAT Register for that tax ID.
Why should I also check the counterparty's bank account?
For payments over 15,000 PLN, paying into an account outside the VAT Register creates tax risk. Verify the account number with the Account verification tool.
Is the data current, and does it cost anything?
Data is fetched live from the official Ministry of Finance API. Using it is free and requires no registration.
Is checking a tax ID in the White List legally required?
The check itself isn't explicitly mandated by law, but for payments over 15,000 PLN it's the only way to avoid joint and several liability for the counterparty's VAT and keep the right to deduct the expense.
What if I already paid into an account outside the White List?
File a ZAW-NR notification with the tax office responsible for the invoice issuer within 7 days of ordering the transfer — this removes the joint liability and preserves the right to deduct the payment as a cost.