Belgium Value Added Tax Number

Detects Belgium Value Added Tax Number patterns. This pattern is based on a Microsoft Purview built-in sensitive information type. VAT numbers have country-specific prefixes that aid detection accuracy.

Type

regex

Engine

universal

Confidence

high

Confidence justification

High confidence: the BE prefix followed by 9-10 digits with optional leading zero is distinctive to Belgian VAT numbers.

Detection quality

Verified

Jurisdictions

be, eu

Regulations

GDPR

Data categories

financial, business-identifier

Scope

narrow

Risk rating

5

Platform compatibility

Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\bBE0?\d{9,10}\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

VAT, BTW, TVA, value added tax, belasting, VAT number, Mehrwertsteuer, Umsatzsteuer, VAT registration, BTW-nummer, numéro de TVA, Steuernummer, tax number, tax registration, taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, adószám, imposta sul valore aggiunto, intracommunautaire, IVA, numéro d'identification TVA (+15 more)

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

• BE0123456789 — Belgian VAT number with leading zero
• BE1234567890 — Belgian VAT number 10-digit format
• BE0987654321 — Belgian VAT with BE prefix

Should not match

• BE12345 — Too few digits for Belgian VAT number
• NL0123456789 — Dutch prefix, not Belgian VAT format

Known false positives

• Other identifier schemes that coincidentally share a similar prefix and digit structure Mitigation: Validate the complete format including prefix and digit count. Layer with document context to confirm financial or tax-related content.
• Test or example VAT numbers used in documentation or training materials Mitigation: Maintain an allow-list of known test/example numbers. Use document classification to distinguish production data from training content.

References

• Belgium Value Added Tax Number entity definition - Microsoft Learn