RIF

Definition

Registro de Información Fiscal: Venezuela's tax identifier consisting of a letter (J/V/E/G/P) and 9 digits + check digit.

The RIF (Registro de Información Fiscal) is Venezuela's tax identifier, issued by SENIAT (Servicio Nacional Integrado de Administración Aduanera y Tributaria). It's mandatory for every taxpayer — natural persons, legal entities, public bodies. Structure: an initial letter indicating type, followed by 9 digits and a check digit. Example: `J-12345678-9`. Valid prefixes: - `V`: Venezuelan natural person. - `E`: resident foreigner. - `J`: legal entity (company). - `G`: government body. - `P`: passport (non-resident foreigner). The check digit is computed with a custom modulo 11 that assigns a weight to the prefix (`V`=1, `E`=2, `J`=3, `P`=4, `G`=5) plus weights `3, 2, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2` over the first 8 digits. Formula: `11 - (weighted_sum mod 11)`, with 0 if the result is 10 or 11. For natural persons, a V or E RIF is usually built from the Cédula de Identidad by appending the check digit. Normadata validates prefix, charset, length, and check digit. Verifying existence requires querying the SENIAT portal.

See also