How to Verify a Peruvian Supplier Before You Pay

Last reviewed 2026-11-14 · HALPII S.A.C.

Before you add a Peruvian company to your vendor master or release a payment to it, confirm five things: the RUC is valid, the company is active with SUNAT, SUNAT can locate it at its address, the name matches your paperwork, and the bank account belongs to that company. This checklist is written for accounts-payable, procurement and vendor-onboarding teams in the U.S.

The checklist

1. Get the RUC in writing. Ask for it on the supplier's letterhead, W-8BEN-E or onboarding form, and compare it with the one printed on the invoice. A company RUC has 11 digits and starts with 20. (What is a RUC?)
2. Check the format and check digit. A wrong 11th digit means a typo. Do not "fix" it yourself; ask the supplier to confirm.
3. Confirm the taxpayer status is ACTIVO. Statuses that start with BAJA mean the RUC has been deregistered. SUSPENSION TEMPORAL means the company has temporarily suspended its activities. (All status codes)
4. Confirm the address condition is HABIDO. NO HABIDO or NO HALLADO means SUNAT could not locate the company at its fiscal address. (HABIDO vs NO HABIDO)
5. Match the legal name. The name in SUNAT's registry should match the contract, the invoice and the W-8 form. Trade names often differ from the legal name, so ask which entity you are contracting with.
6. Compare the fiscal address. The district and department in the registry should be plausible for the address the supplier gave you.
7. Verify the bank account owner. The beneficiary name on the wire instructions should be the company's legal name. Treat any request to pay a third party or an individual as a red flag, and confirm changes to bank details by calling a number you already had on file.
8. Re-check before paying. Status and address condition change over time. Run the check again close to each payment, not only at onboarding.
9. Keep a record. Save what you saw and when: the RUC, status, condition, and the registry date shown with each result. Our API returns that date as source.data_as_of.

Doing it by hand or with the API

For a single supplier, type the RUC into the Peru RUC lookup: it runs steps 2 to 4 and shows the legal name and fiscal address for steps 5 and 6. For a vendor-onboarding workflow or an AI agent that vets suppliers, call the REST API or connect the remote MCP server. Each answer ends in a pass, review or fail verdict with the reasons in English, so the result can drive an approval rule.

curl https://taxid.halpii.com/v1/pe/ruc/20100047218 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY"

What this check does not cover

• Individuals. For RUCs that start with 10, 15, 16 or 17 we only validate the number; we do not return names or addresses (Peru's Ley 29733). Use SUNAT's lookup for those.
• Sanctions and watchlists. Your compliance program may also require sanctions screening, for example against OFAC lists. This service does not do that.
• Brand-new companies. A company registered after the date of our latest registry copy comes back as not found, with a review verdict.
• Bank account ownership. No public registry links a RUC to a bank account. Confirm it with the supplier and your bank.

SUNAT's own lookup at e-consultaruc.sunat.gob.pe is the authoritative source. Use this checklist and our tool as a fast first pass, and go to SUNAT and your advisers for anything high-value or unusual.

This guide is general information, not legal, tax or accounting advice. Peru RUC Check is an independent service run by HALPII S.A.C. and is not affiliated with or endorsed by SUNAT. Rules change; for a decision that matters, check SUNAT's own pages and ask a qualified adviser.