VAT invoice requirements in Ireland

A VAT invoice in Ireland must show your VAT number, the customer's details, an itemised list of what you supplied, and the VAT shown separately with its rate — currently 9%, 13.5%, 23%, with 23% as the usual rate for most services.

The Ireland rule that catches people out

The 13.5% reduced rate covers a lot of trade work — construction services, repairs and maintenance to residential property — which catches out tradespeople who assume the 23% standard rate applies to everything they do.

What Ireland adds to the document

Beyond the universal fields: your VAT number (formatted like IE1234567A), and the VAT rate and amount shown separately from the net on each line.

Rates

9%, 13.5%, 23%. Most service work sits at 23%. Rates for hospitality have moved several times in recent years; confirm before invoicing.

Rates change. Checked to mid-2026 and a starting point, not tax advice. The current source is Revenue — and if you are near a registration threshold, twenty minutes with an accountant beats a search engine.

When you have to register for VAT in Ireland

€42,500 for services and €85,000 for goods over a rolling twelve months. The two-tier structure means a business supplying both needs to watch whichever it crosses first.

Most systems test this on a rolling twelve months rather than your financial year — which is where the expensive mistakes happen.

Which VAT rate applies to what

13.5% covers construction, repair and maintenance of residential property, fuel for heating, and many labour-intensive services. 9% has moved between hospitality and utilities repeatedly. A 4.8% livestock rate exists. The flat-rate addition for unregistered farmers is different again.

How often you file in Ireland

VAT3 returns are bi-monthly by default, with four-monthly or bi-annual cycles available where your liability is small. Filing through ROS extends the deadline to the 23rd. There is also an annual Return of Trading Details, which catches people who assumed the bi-monthly returns were the whole obligation.

The 13.5% band catches trades constantly

A plumber or electrician working on a house charges 13.5%, not 23% — but only where the supply qualifies as a construction service, and only where the two-thirds rule is satisfied. If the cost of goods supplied exceeds two-thirds of the total charge, the whole supply is taxed at the rate applying to the goods, which is usually 23%. Replace a boiler with a large materials cost and cheap labour and you can flip the whole invoice into the standard rate without realising.

Relevant Contracts Tax

Subcontractors in construction, forestry and meat processing come under RCT, where the principal contractor deducts tax at 0%, 20% or 35% depending on your compliance record before paying you. Your invoice does not change, but what lands in your account does.

VAT on a discounted invoice

Bill €4,100 with a 5% discount shown on the document and the VAT is €895.85, not €943 — the discounted value is what gets taxed. Discounts, deposits and advance payments covers the cases where that stops being obvious.

Invoicing a customer outside Ireland

Intra-EU B2B services are reverse-charged with the customer's VAT number on the invoice and a VIES return filed. Ireland's proximity to the UK means post-Brexit third-country rules apply to a great deal of routine trade.

Charging tax to a client in another country sets out the general shape; the first time it comes up it is worth an hour with an accountant.

Record keeping in Ireland

Six years. Retention rules mean the document, not a row in a ledger.

Set your country once in EstimateBill and the tax is labelled correctly on every invoice after that — GST and GSTIN in India, VAT in the UK, Sales Tax and EIN in the US, across 58 countries.