Peppol ID explained: identifier schemes, how to look one up and how to register or switch provider

Every company on the Peppol network has an address, its Peppol ID: a scheme code plus a national identifier, for example 0245:2121358349 for a Slovak company. Get either part wrong and the invoice has nowhere to go. This guide, part of our Peppol hub, covers how the identifier is built, which scheme each Central European country uses, how to check whether a partner is reachable, and how registration and provider changes work, with Slovakia as the worked example.

What a Peppol ID is: scheme plus identifier

A Peppol participant identifier has two parts separated by a colon: a scheme, a four-digit code from the OpenPeppol code list, and the value issued under that scheme. Three rules from OpenPeppol’s Policy for use of Identifiers (version 4.4.0) matter in daily use:

• Schemes come from one list, the participant identifier schemes in the Peppol eDEC code lists (currently v9.7). Codes below 9900 are ISO 6523 International Code Designators such as 0088 for GLN; codes starting with 99 are OpenPeppol’s own extensions, mostly national VAT numbers.
• Values are case-insensitive. 9929:cz12345678 and 9929:CZ12345678 are the same participant; 0088:abc and 0010:abc are not.
• Values are plain. One to 130 characters from a–z, A–Z, 0–9 and the characters -, ., _ and ~.

Before sending, an Access Point hashes the lowercased identifier, asks the SML (the DNS-based locator run by OpenPeppol) which SMP holds the recipient’s metadata, and reads the receiving endpoint and supported document types from that SMP. Because the whole value is hashed, one extra character produces a different, non-existent participant. The chain is explained in Peppol SMP and Directory explained; the four-corner model is in What is Peppol and how does it work.

Slovak Peppol ID: 0245 plus the DIČ digits

The Slovak Peppol Authority is the Financial Directorate of the Slovak Republic (Finančná správa), and it chose the tax identification number (DIČ) as the national identifier: scheme 0245, value equal to the ten digits of the DIČ, with no “SK” prefix. Verteco digital services, s. r. o. is therefore 0245:2121358349. Practically every taxable person has a DIČ, including non-VAT-payers and sole traders; the Financial Administration is assigning one automatically to about 58,000 entities that so far had only an IČO, mostly civic associations, foundations and non-profits (press release of 23 June 2026), so one scheme will cover everyone who must be able to receive e-invoices from 1 January 2027 (§ 71 par. 5 of the VAT Act, as amended by act 385/2025).

Scheme 0245 is young. OpenPeppol added it to the code list in version 9.5 (23 December 2025) and to Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 with the 3.0.20 hotfix of 27 January 2026, mandatory from 23 February 2026, in both the EAS list (endpoint IDs) and the ICD list (party identifiers).

Two look-alikes cause most of the remaining confusion:

• 9950:SK<DIČ> is the Slovak VAT-number scheme. Under the Slovak PASR rules Slovak subjects must be registered as 0245:DIČ, not 9950 (Financial Administration FAQ, example 23). In the Slovak eFaktúra set-up the 9950:SK form is used on the Peppol test network, where sandboxes such as ours register companies as 9950:SK2121358349. Several dozen legacy 9950 production registrations made outside the central SMP still exist, but certified Slovak providers deliver to 0245, so an invoice addressed to the 9950 form does not reach a company registered only under 0245.
• 0158:<IČO> is the Slovak company registration number. OpenPeppol added 0158 to the code list in v9.7 (2 July 2026), so validators accept it, but the Slovak Peppol Authority registers participants under 0245, not 0158. A lookup for 0158 plus an eight-digit IČO comes back empty.

The most frequent typo is 0245:SK2121358349. The letters “SK” belong to the IČ DPH, not to the DIČ, and because the lookup hashes the whole value, this address points nowhere.

EAS code table for Central Europe and the EU

All rows are “active” in code list v9.7. In the 99xx VAT schemes the value is the full VAT number including the country code; 0245 takes only the digits of the DIČ. A company may hold several IDs, but each resolves to exactly one SMP entry and so to one receiving Access Point.

How to look up a company

Three ways to find out whether a company is reachable, from quickest to most thorough:

1. Peppol Directory search. Our free Peppol ID checker searches the public Peppol Directory, operated by OpenPeppol, by company name, ID or country. One caveat: Directory entries are published by SMPs voluntarily, and OpenPeppol itself states that not every registered receiver can be found there. “Not listed” means “probably not reachable”, not “certainly not”.
2. Peppol Lookup Service at lookup.peppol.org, OpenPeppol’s SMP lookup released on 19 March 2026 to verify whether a participant is currently published on the network.
3. A live SML/SMP query, which is what every Access Point performs before sending. The company check on our portal does this for a DIČ, IČ DPH or Peppol ID and shows the receiving provider and the accepted document types. Developers get the same discovery endpoint in the REST API, see the developer documentation.

Production tools do not see the test network, so a sandbox ID never shows up in them. Expect many empty results: on 10 October 2026 the Verteco Peppol Observatory counted 7,192 Slovak tax numbers on the production network across 29 Access Point providers, about 2.3 % of VAT-registered persons. Global figures: Peppol network statistics.

How registration works in Slovakia

Slovakia has a state-run step. You do not register a Peppol ID yourself and there is no registration fee: the ID exists the moment a certified provider publishes it in the national central SMP, and the provider may do that only after you have selected it on the Financial Administration portal.

1. Open vpds.financnasprava.sk. The list of certified providers and their intermediaries is visible without logging in. Verteco is one of several dozen on it. Selecting a provider is a statement of interest, not a contract; the contract is concluded with the provider afterwards. Which provider you pick is your choice, but some certified provider must register you before 1 January 2027 so that you can receive e-invoices through the delivery service (§ 71 par. 5).
2. Log in with slovensko.sk (eID card or the Slovensko app) or with your Financial Administration portal ID and password. Per the Financial Administration’s handbook on selecting a provider (v05), any portal user authorised to represent the company can do this, not only the statutory representative; an accountant or accounting firm with the authorisation qualifies.
3. Pick the tax subject, enter a contact e-mail and phone number, allow the transfer of the subject’s data and confirm.
4. The Financial Administration passes your basic identification data together with a verification value to the chosen provider. The central SMP accepts a new 0245 registration only together with that value, so nobody can register your DIČ in the Slovak central SMP without your consent. Foreign SMPs are outside this check: the Financial Administration’s FAQ notes cases where a Slovak DIČ was registered abroad without the company asking, and advises contacting that provider to cancel the registration (the FS call centre can tell you which provider holds it).
5. The provider verifies the data and registers you. With Verteco, activation and the SMP registration under 0245:DIČ normally take a few minutes. If no contract is concluded with the provider you picked, you can repeat the selection with another one.

The central SMP is run by the Slovak Peppol Authority; our Access Point only publishes its endpoint there. The SML is operated by OpenPeppol, which took it over from the European Commission in 2026 (final cut-over 2 September 2026). More on the provider’s role in Peppol service provider: what it does.

One receiving provider, many senders

A Peppol ID can be published in exactly one SMP entry pointing to one receiving Access Point: the “receiving provider” in the Financial Administration’s wording. Sending is different: any certified provider you have a contract with may send on your behalf, and your accounting system decides which one carries a document. Two consequences:

• Selecting a second provider on the FS portal does not move your receiving. The existing registration stays with the old provider until a migration code is used.
• “Receiving elsewhere” is a legitimate set-up: you keep receiving with your current provider and use another, for example Verteco, for sending only. The FS selection is still required because it delivers the verification value that enables sending; in our portal you then mark that receiving intentionally stays elsewhere.

Switching provider: migration code, timing, deregistration

Changing provider does not change your Peppol ID. 0245:DIČ stays the same; only the SMP entry behind it is re-pointed. The procedure in Slovakia:

1. Select the new provider on the FS portal. It receives the verification value and can activate you for sending immediately.
2. Ask your current provider for a migration code. It opens your registration in the central SMP, sets the code and hands it to you or to the new provider.
3. The new provider enters the code. Receiving moves within minutes with no gap. Until then invoices keep arriving at the old provider, so plan the change rather than terminating first.
4. Deregistration. When a contract ends, the outgoing provider has to remove your registration from the central SMP within 3 working days and tell you; Verteco commits to the same period in its published terms. If a provider does not deregister you, you can complain to the Financial Directorate. The Financial Administration does not notify providers of changes, so the migration code is the only hand-over mechanism. Export your archive before the old contract ends.

The full to-do list for the switch is in the Peppol checklist 2027.

Registration in Czechia, Germany and Austria

None of the three neighbours has a state portal like vpds.financnasprava.sk: your Access Point registers you in an SMP it works with, usually within a day. Our own Access Point registers Slovak participants in the national central SMP; elsewhere, ask any provider you shortlist which SMP it will publish your ID in.

• Czechia has no domestic e-invoicing mandate and no national Peppol Authority: OpenPeppol lists none for the country and acts as the authority where none exists. Czech companies use 9929:CZ<DIČ>; a GLN (0088) is an alternative for entities without a VAT number. The practical trigger is a Slovak customer who must issue structured e-invoices from 2027.
• Germany has KoSIT as its Peppol Authority. Businesses use 9930:DE<USt-IdNr.>; public bodies use 0204:<Leitweg-ID>, and the same Leitweg-ID must also appear in the buyer reference (BT-10). Receiving e-invoices has been mandatory for domestic B2B since 1 January 2025, issuing follows in 2027 and 2028, and Peppol is one permitted channel, not the mandatory one.
• Austria has no national Peppol Authority listed by OpenPeppol either. Businesses use 9914:ATU<UID>. The federal government receives all e-invoices under a single ID, 9915:b, through e-Rechnung.gv.at and routes them by the order reference inside the document; via Peppol it accepts UBL 2.1 Invoice and CreditNote per Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.

Common errors: recipient not found, wrong scheme, test vs production

Next step

If your company is Slovak, your Peppol ID already has a fixed form, 0245:<DIČ>, and the only decision left is which certified provider publishes it. Verteco digital services, s. r. o. operates its own certified Access Point (PA SK ID EFSK000031, seat PSK001128); receiving without the Data archive is free within fair use, and the complete service costs €2 plus VAT per company per month from 1 January 2027. Compare providers in how to choose an Access Point, or register your company and complete the FS selection in a few minutes. Questions about identifiers: Miriama Mrkávková, via our contact page.