The EORI number: the EU customs ID, and how to get one

What an EORI number is

EORI stands for Economic Operators Registration and Identification. It is the EU-wide reference number that customs authorities use to identify a business in every customs procedure: import declarations, export declarations, transit, and the lodging of summary declarations. One number is recognised across all 27 member states, so a Dutch BV's EORI works whether goods land at Rotterdam, Antwerp or Hamburg.

The system replaced a patchwork of national trader numbers. The principle is simple: each economic operator has exactly one EORI within the EU, issued by the customs authority of the member state where it is established. For a company based in the Netherlands, that authority is Dutch Customs (Douane), working alongside the Belastingdienst and the Chamber of Commerce (KvK).

When you actually need one

You need an EORI number whenever your business interacts with EU customs, in other words, whenever goods cross the EU's external border. In practice that means:

• Importing physical goods from outside the EU, the classic case: inventory from China, the US, or post-Brexit the UK, arriving at a Dutch port or airport.
• Exporting goods to non-EU countries, where the EORI identifies you as the exporter on the declaration.
• Acting as the declarant or consignee on a customs document, even if a freight forwarder or customs agent files it on your behalf, the declaration references your EORI.

You do not need an EORI for purely intra-EU trade. If your BV only buys and sells within the single market, those movements are handled under the VAT system (and, for cross-border B2C, the One Stop Shop), with no customs declaration and no EORI. The trigger is the external customs border, not the volume or value of what you sell.

EORI vs VAT number, the difference

This is the question that trips up most first-time importers, because in the Netherlands the two numbers look almost identical. They are not the same thing:

For a Dutch business the EORI is, in practice, the VAT number with the country prefix NL in front, but the two are administered separately. Customs systems read the EORI; the tax system reads the VAT number; the trade register holds your KvK number. An importing BV will typically use all three. If you want the full picture of how these registrations fit together when you incorporate, the non-resident BV guide walks through the registration chain.

How EORI relates to an Article 23 licence

This is where the two topics connect, and where founders building an import operation need to get the sequence right. Article 23 is the Dutch import-VAT deferment licence: instead of paying 21% VAT to customs at the moment of import and reclaiming it weeks later, you defer it to your next periodic VAT return, where it nets to zero. On €1M of annual imports that frees roughly €50,000 of working capital that would otherwise sit in customs receipts.

The EORI number sits underneath Article 23 as a prerequisite, not an alternative to it:

• The EORI lets you clear goods at all. Without it, customs cannot process your import declaration, with or without deferment.
• Article 23 changes the cashflow of the VAT on those cleared goods. It assumes you already have a customs identity to import under.
• You need both to run an efficient import operation: the EORI to declare, the Article 23 licence to defer the VAT, and a Dutch VAT registration to file the return where the two net out.

Because of this dependency, EORI registration is something we handle as part of the Article 23 application rather than as a separate errand. It is one of the line items in that service. If you want to model the cashflow impact for your own import volumes, the Article 23 calculator does the arithmetic.

Applying for a Dutch EORI number

For a company established in the Netherlands, the EORI process is mercifully light, because most of the work is already done by your other registrations. The path runs through Dutch Customs (Douane), which draws on the KvK trade register and the Belastingdienst:

1. Register the BV with the KvK. Incorporation gives you a KvK number and triggers your VAT registration with the Belastingdienst.
2. The EORI is generated off that registration. In many cases, when a Dutch entity files its first customs declaration, the EORI is issued automatically based on the existing KvK and VAT data, so there is nothing extra to do.
3. Where a manual request is needed, for example an entity not yet fully in the Dutch registers, you apply to Douane directly. Issuance for a clean, already-registered entity is typically a few working days (verify the current processing time with Douane before you commit a shipment date).
4. Verify the number is live in the EU's EORI validation database before your first import, so a forwarder is not held up at the port over an unactivated number.

You do not need to travel to the Netherlands for any of this, the registration is administrative and handled remotely, in keeping with the rest of the formation process. See how it works for the end-to-end timeline.

The non-resident and non-EU case

If the importing company is not established in the EU, a US LLC bringing inventory through Rotterdam, say, the picture is more involved, and it overlaps closely with the Article 23 eligibility rules:

• A non-EU business can obtain an EORI in the member state where it first lodges a declaration, but it generally cannot defer import VAT under Article 23 in its own name without an EU establishment.
• The common solution is to appoint a fiscal representative, who handles the Dutch VAT obligations, while the goods are declared under an appropriate customs identity. We arrange general fiscal representation through partners.
• The cleaner long-term route for a serious import business is to form a Dutch BV. That gives you your own KvK registration, your own NL EORI, and direct access to Article 23 in your own name, without an ongoing representation fee.

Which route is right depends on your volumes and how permanent the operation is. Talk to us about your import setup → and we will map the EORI, VAT and Article 23 pieces to your situation.

What the number actually looks like

An EU EORI is the two-letter country code of the issuing member state followed by a unique numeric sequence. A Dutch EORI takes the form NL followed by the entity's RSIN or VAT digits, for example NL123456789 (illustrative only). The country prefix tells customs across the EU which authority issued it; the digits tie it back to your Dutch registration.

Practically, this means once you know your Dutch VAT number you can usually anticipate your EORI, but you should still confirm it has been activated in the customs systems before relying on it. The EU keeps a public validation tool where you can check that any EORI is registered and active.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming the VAT number alone is enough. Customs needs the EORI specifically; a forwarder cannot clear goods against a VAT number on its own.
• Leaving it to the last minute. A held shipment at the port is expensive. Confirm the EORI is live before goods are in transit, not when they have already arrived.
• Confusing the EORI with the Article 23 licence. The EORI lets you import; Article 23 defers the VAT on what you import. You need both, and they are applied for separately.
• Forgetting the GB side post-Brexit. Your NL EORI covers the EU import; clearing goods out of the UK may require a separate GB EORI. See the BV vs UK Ltd comparison for the wider cross-border picture.
• Not deregistering on dissolution. If you wind the BV down, the EORI should be closed along with the other registrations. Our dissolution guide covers the full deregistration checklist.

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