When registering in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE), each entity is assigned a company number (unique identification number). This company number is activated by the VAT administration as a VAT number. In terms of format, a VAT number and a company number are therefore in fact identical.
Currently, all company numbers – and therefore also the VAT numbers – start with the number 0: “0xxx.xxx.xxx”.
The structure of the company number was established by Royal Decree of 23 June 2003 and has the form Zxxx.xxx.xxx, where the first digit is a 0 or a 1.
Source VAT Consult