Company registration
A government-assigned numeric or alphanumeric identifier for a company in an official register.
A company registration number is a unique numeric or alphanumeric identifier for a company assigned by a government body.
The form differs by country and register. A German registration is identified by its register court, section, and number, such as HRB 12345. Companies House in the United Kingdom issues eight characters, while France uses the nine-digit SIREN.
The number identifies the legal entity, not the business as people know it. A group trading under one name through subsidiaries in several countries holds one number per registered company, and a brand that is not itself a legal entity holds none.
A registration number can provide continuity through changes of name or address. Whether a new number is required depends on the register and the transaction, including transfers between registers. When a legal entity disappears in a merger, its registration ceases to be current; a surviving entity may retain its own number.
The national tax number and the VAT identification number serve different administrative purposes and are separate fields. Some national systems share an underlying identifier across these registrations, while others issue independent numbers.
Related definitions
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Legal entity identifier
A 20-character identifier for persons or other entities that engage in financial transactions. -
National tax number
An identifier assigned by a national government to a company, individual, or other entity for taxpayer identification. -
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Ruhrsite-ID
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VAT identification number
An identifier for a business, individual, or other entity registered for Value Added Tax. -
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