How do taxID and vatID identify a company in structured data?

Definition: taxID and vatID are separate Organization properties with different meanings. taxID represents an organization's tax or fiscal ID; vatID represents its value-added tax ID and may include a national prefix.

Key facts

• Google's Organization structured data documentation lists both taxID and vatID as recommended properties and says that no Organization properties are required.
• Schema.org defines taxID as the tax or fiscal ID of an organization or person, with the TIN in the US and CIF/NIF in Spain as examples.
• Schema.org defines vatID as a value-added tax ID with a national prefix, giving IT123456789 as an example and relating it to iso6523Code when the proper prefix is used.

What is the difference between taxID and vatID?

Google describes taxID as the tax ID associated with an Organization. Its guidance says that the value should match the country supplied in the address field. This makes taxID the field for the organization's tax or fiscal identifier in the relevant jurisdiction.

vatID is narrower. Google defines it as the VAT, or Value Added Tax, code associated with the Organization when it applies to the country and business. The same documentation says that users can look up a business in public VAT registries. Schema.org adds that a VAT ID has a national prefix, such as IT in IT123456789.

The two properties therefore describe different identifier concepts even when a jurisdiction uses related numbers. Schema.org lists both Organization and Person as types that can use each property, while this entry concerns an Organization node.

How can both identifiers appear in an Organization object?

Both fields are placed as properties of the same Organization object when both identifiers belong to that organization. Google describes each as a Text property. Its Organization example uses JSON-LD, an address object with addressCountry set to FR, and the VAT value FR12345678901.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressCountry": "FR"
  },
  "taxID": "<tax ID>",
  "vatID": "FR12345678901"
}

The tax value belongs in taxID, not in vatID, when it is the organization's tax or fiscal ID. The VAT value belongs in vatID when it is the applicable value-added tax code. The country in address should agree with the taxID value under Google's documented guidance.

How should the markup be checked?

Google recommends validating structured data with the Rich Results Test and fixing critical errors. Its general workflow also says to deploy a few pages containing the markup and use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees a page. The page must be accessible to Google and not blocked by robots.txt, a noindex tag, or login requirements.

The Schema.org definitions provide the vocabulary meaning and expected type, while Google's Organization documentation provides the Search Central property guidance and the JSON-LD example. A validation result can therefore be read alongside the source markup to check that the node uses the two property names and that each value represents the corresponding identifier.

Related terms

• Organization structured data
• Structured data
• JSON-LD
• How can an organization supply an ISO 6523 identifier to Google?

FAQ

Should taxID and vatID be combined into one value?

No. The vocabulary defines them as separate properties with separate meanings. Use the property that matches the identifier type, and use both when both identifiers apply to the same Organization.

What value type do taxID and vatID use?

Both are documented with the expected type Text. Schema.org lists Organization as a type that can use each property.

Does vatID include a country prefix?

Schema.org documents a national prefix for vatID and gives IT123456789 as its example. Google also shows a French-prefixed VAT value, FR12345678901, in its Organization JSON-LD example.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Organization (Organization) structured data", 8 September 2026
2. Schema.org, "taxID", August 2026
3. Schema.org, "vatID", August 2026

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