Not all citizens get a W-IdNr. assigned. Rather, it is about “economically active persons”, i.e. natural persons, legal entities and associations of persons who are legally obliged to pay sales tax or who are small businesses § 19 UStG are. Anyone who belongs to one of these groups receives a W-IdNr. assigned.
Their purpose is that clear identification in taxation and administrative procedures. However, companies that already have a sales tax identification number (VAT ID number) will notice that the W-IdNr. is constructed the same.
For each economic activity, an additional distinguishing feature is assigned. This means a character string with five additional digits, which is appended with a hyphen. When carrying out multiple economic activities, the BZSt will assign additional distinguishing features from 2027. Example:
- First economic activity: DE123456789-00001
- Second economic activity: DE123456789-00002
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