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). 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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