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What the lookup in the Peppol register returns
The Peppol check for Belgium takes a Belgian enterprise number and tells you whether the company can receive e-invoices over Peppol, and under which Peppol ID. It reads two sources. The network register (the SML) lists every address on the Peppol network with the service provider that manages it. The public Peppol Directory holds the business card: name, country, registration date and the documents the company accepts. A company can be in the register without a card in the Directory, and an old card can linger after the register has dropped the number, so the checker reads both.
Belgium made structured e-invoices mandatory between Belgian VAT-registered companies on 1 January 2026, in practice over Peppol, the European network for electronic business documents. A PDF by e-mail no longer counts between them. If you sell to Belgian companies from the Netherlands, Germany, France or the UK, your customers now run their accounts payable on Peppol, and an invoice that arrives there lands in their books without retyping. To check at the same time that a VAT number is valid in VIES, use the EU VAT number check.
How many Belgian companies are on the network is in our Peppol statistics for Belgium.
| Result | What it means | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | In the register and the Directory, for invoices or credit notes | Send to the Peppol ID from your invoicing software |
| Yes, without a card | In the register, not in the Directory | Send as usual: your software reads the provider's address book when it sends |
| Partly | In the Directory, but not for invoices or credit notes | Ask which ID the company receives invoices on |
| Doubtful | A card in the Directory, but no longer in the register | Ask for the current Peppol ID or the new provider |
| Not in the register | In neither | Ask the company for its Peppol ID, or agree on another channel for now |
Before you invoice a Belgian customer
Five minutes per customer, once.
- Get the enterprise numberIt is on every Belgian invoice and letterhead: ten digits, or the VAT number without BE.
- Run it through the checkerYou see whether the company receives over Peppol, under which ID and with which documents.
- Confirm the IDOn a doubtful or empty result, ask the customer's accounts team for its Peppol ID.
- Pick the channelPeppol through your provider where the customer receives; a PDF where it cannot yet.
- Keep a noteThe date of the check and the answer, so a missing invoice is a five-minute question.
Peppol lookup by enterprise or VAT number
A Peppol ID is a four-digit scheme, a colon and a number. Belgian companies use two. 0208 is the enterprise number from the Belgian company register (KBO in Dutch, BCE in French), and it is the agreed minimum in Belgium: every certified provider registers its Belgian customers on it. 9925 is the Belgian VAT number, with be in front. Enterprise number 0403.170.701 gives 0208:0403170701 and 9925:be0403170701. The VAT number of a Belgian company is its enterprise number with BE in front, so either one on your customer's invoice will do.
The checker validates the number before it asks anything. A Belgian enterprise number has ten digits and starts with 0 or 1; the last two are 97 minus the remainder of the first eight divided by 97. For 0403.170.701: 4,031,707 divided by 97 leaves 96, and 97 minus 96 is 01. A typo shows at once.
Peppol Directory and the network register
The Directory is a public search page and an API, and our checker queries it under both schemes. The network register is a DNS zone: each Peppol ID maps to a name, and the record behind it points at the address book (SMP) of the company's provider. Since 1 September 2026 OpenPeppol, the association behind the network, runs that register instead of the European Commission, and the checker reads the new zone. Your own invoicing software does the same lookup every time it sends.
| Country | Scheme | What the number is |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 0208 | Enterprise number (KBO/BCE) |
| Belgium | 9925 | Belgian VAT number |
| Netherlands | 0106 | Chamber of Commerce (KvK) number |
| Netherlands | 0190 | Government organisation number (OIN) |
| Germany | 9930 | German VAT number |
| France | 9957 | French VAT number |
| Worldwide | 0088 | Global Location Number (GLN) |
Your own company registers under the scheme of its own country, through any certified provider. Peppol is a four-corner model: you, your access point, your customer's access point and your customer, so your provider and theirs do not have to be the same.
Peppol ID, network register and address book
The lookup, with 0403.170.701 as the example
Enterprise number
0403.170.701
Ten digits, the last two a check on the first eight.
Peppol ID
0208:0403170701
Scheme 0208 plus the number. With the VAT number: 9925:be0403170701.
Network register (SML)
registered
Says whether the ID is on the network, and with which provider.
Address book (SMP)
smp.tickstar.com
At that provider: which documents arrive, at which access point.
Peppol Directory
The public business card: name, country, since when. The provider publishes it; the check reads it beside the register.
Then your invoice travels along four corners
1You
Your software builds the invoice in Peppol BIS.
2Your access point
Looks the ID up in SML and SMP, and sends.
3Your customer's access point
Receives and passes it on.
4Your customer
Gets the invoice in its books, without retyping.
Looked up on 22 October 2026. You and your customer may each use a different provider: the network connects them.
Who the Belgian mandate binds
| Situation | Must receive over Peppol | Must send over Peppol |
|---|---|---|
| Belgian VAT-registered company invoicing companies | Yes | Yes |
| Belgian small business under the VAT exemption (up to EUR 25,000 turnover) | Yes | Yes, to Belgian VAT-registered customers |
| Belgian company selling only to consumers | Yes, from its suppliers | No |
| Foreign company without a fixed establishment in Belgium | No | No, even with a Belgian VAT number |
| Foreign company with a fixed establishment in Belgium | Depends on the establishment | Depends on the establishment |
So the mandate does not bind a supplier abroad. It does bind your Belgian customer, who must be able to receive and who, since the tolerance ended in spring 2026, risks EUR 1,500 for a first finding of missing means, EUR 3,000 for a second and EUR 5,000 for each one after, at least three months apart. More in Belgium's e-invoicing penalties. The full picture of who is in scope is in is Peppol mandatory in Belgium, for small firms in Peppol for small businesses and for associations in Peppol for non-profits.
Selling to a Belgian public body is a separate track: e-invoices there have been required since 1 March 2024 for contracts from EUR 3,000 excluding VAT published since then. And two dates sit further out. Belgium plans near real-time e-reporting of invoice data for 2028, not yet law (e-reporting 2028). The EU's VAT in the Digital Age package, adopted on 11 March 2025, brings digital reporting for cross-border B2B supplies from 1 July 2030.
Three suppliers, three answers
A Dutch wholesaler delivers to forty Belgian shops. It is not bound, but its customers are. Run each customer through the checker once: those that answer "Yes" get their invoices over Peppol, which saves them retyping and saves you the "we did not receive it" calls. The wholesaler registers under its KvK number (0106) with a provider and sends from the software it already uses.
A German software company bills Belgian SMEs every month. One Peppol connection in its billing system covers every customer that can receive; the rest keep getting a PDF until they can. Add the Belgian structured payment reference to each invoice and the payment matches by itself in the customer's bank.
A UK consultancy with a Belgian branch may be bound through that branch. When a foreign company has a fixed establishment in Belgium, the rules are complex and the Belgian tax authority sets them out case by case; ask a Belgian accountant before you decide.
What the checker does not see
- Whether a company can send. No register shows that.
- Which software your customer uses. The checker shows the host of the address book, which belongs to its provider.
- Registrations under other numbers than 0208 and 9925, such as a GLN.
- Companies outside Belgium. The checker takes Belgian enterprise numbers only.
- Whether the company is VAT-registered. VIES, the EU's VAT number check, answers that.
Peppol for suppliers to Belgium
What is a Peppol ID?
The address a company receives e-invoices on. For a Belgian company it is usually 0208 followed by its enterprise number, such as 0208:0403170701, or 9925 with its VAT number, such as 9925:be0403170701. Your invoicing software sends the invoice to that address.
My customer is not in the directory. Now what?
Ask for their Peppol ID: they may be registered under another number. If they cannot receive for technical reasons, a Belgian supplier may invoice on paper or as a PDF; a foreign supplier is not bound by the mandate and can keep sending PDFs until the customer is ready.
Do I need Peppol as a supplier outside Belgium?
The Belgian mandate binds Belgian companies, and foreign companies only through a fixed establishment in Belgium. You can still connect through any certified Peppol provider under your own country's scheme, and your invoices then land in the Belgian customer's books without retyping.
Is there a free Peppol lookup?
Yes. The public Peppol Directory has a search page, and this checker is free and needs no e-mail. It adds the network register, which also finds companies that have no card in the Directory.
What are the Belgian penalties?
For a Belgian company without the means to send or receive e-invoices: EUR 1,500 at a first finding, EUR 3,000 at a second and EUR 5,000 for each one after, each at least three months after the previous one, on top of the usual VAT fines.
Is the number I enter stored?
No. It goes to our function, which asks the network register and the Peppol Directory and answers. We only count how many checks run per day, not which numbers.