Fix Online Validation of VAT Registration Nos for older Versions

Did you know that Business Central and older Dynamics NAV Versions are able to validate the VAT Registration No. of your Customers, Vendors or Contacts?

Get more details for Business Central here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/finance-how-validate-vat-registration-number

Or for our german friends:

https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/dynamics365/business-central/finance-how-validate-vat-registration-number

But anyway: It is your responsibility to check that the data is valid. Business Central or Dynamics NAV are using the VIES VAT Number Validation service by default:

Web Service:

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/services/checkVatTestService

Get more details about that service on the website of the European Commission:

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/#/vat-validation

We've created a hotfix for Business Central SaaS and OnPrem here:

https://github.com/byndit/BeyondAL/blob/main/BeyondAL/src/Hotfixes/VatRegNoValidationFix.Codeunit.al

But customers and partners are getting an error since two days when they use the service in older Dynamics NAV Versions/Builds:

You should upgrad to the latest build ;-) but anyway here is how to fix it:

Codeunit 248 procedure SendRequestToVatRegistrationService:

You need to set the content type to text/xml:

//+++HOTFIX
SOAPWebServiceRequestMgt.SetContentType('text/xml; charset=utf-8');
//---HOTFIX

Codeunit 1290 procedure BuildWebRequest:

be aware that newer build are already aware of setting the ContentType by using the global variable "GlobalContentType" !

//+++HOTFIX
IF GlobalContentType = '' THEN
  GlobalContentType := ContentTypeTxt;
HttpWebRequest.ContentType := GlobalContentType;
//HttpWebRequest.ContentType := ContentTypeTxt;
//---HOTFIX

That's it!

Instead of running your Dynamics NAV on older versions you should upgrade to Business Central SaaS ;-) Feel free to contact us for more details, help or just sharing best practices.