VAT invoice requirements in the United Kingdom

A VAT invoice in the United Kingdom 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 5%, 20%, with 20% as the usual rate for most services.

What goes on the document

On top of the universal fields — invoice number, dates, both parties, line items and total — the United Kingdom expects:

• Your VAT number (formatted like GB123456789)
• The VAT rate applied to each line
• The VAT amount, shown separately from the net
• The total payable including VAT

The the United Kingdom rule that catches people out

You only charge VAT once you are registered, and registration is compulsory above a turnover threshold that HMRC revises periodically. Charging VAT before you are registered is an offence, not a shortcut — and the reverse, forgetting to charge it after you cross the threshold, leaves you paying it out of your own margin.

Rates

5%, 20%. Most service work sits at 20%. The 5% reduced rate covers a narrow list including domestic fuel and children's car seats — not "cheaper things" generally.

Rates change. Checked to mid-2026 and a starting point, not tax advice. The current source is HMRC VAT guidance — 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 the United Kingdom

£90,000 of VAT-taxable turnover on a rolling twelve-month basis. Rolling is the word that matters — it is not your financial year, so you can cross in the middle of a quarter and owe from the first day of the second month after.

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

5% covers domestic fuel and power, children's car seats, mobility aids for the elderly and some energy-saving materials. Zero-rated — most food, books, children's clothes, new-build construction — is different again: you charge 0% but the sale still counts toward your threshold and you can still reclaim input VAT.

Flat Rate Scheme, and why it can cost you

The Flat Rate Scheme lets smaller businesses pay a fixed percentage of gross turnover instead of tracking input VAT. It is simpler, and for a service business with almost no purchases it used to be profitable. The "limited cost trader" rate of 16.5% removed most of that benefit for businesses spending little on goods — which is most consultants and designers. Run the arithmetic on your own numbers before joining.

The domestic reverse charge in construction

If you are a subcontractor supplying construction services to another VAT-registered contractor, you generally do not charge VAT at all. You state on the invoice that the domestic reverse charge applies and the customer accounts for it. This caught out a large number of trades when it started in 2021, because the invoice suddenly looks wrong — no VAT line on a job that plainly has VAT on it.

Tax on a discounted invoice

One that gets miscalculated constantly: when you show a discount on the invoice, VAT is charged on the discounted amount, not the list price. Bill £4,100, discount 5%, and the taxable value is £3,895 — not £4,100. At 20% that is £779 of VAT, not £820. Getting this backwards means you collect more tax than you owe and hand it over, out of your own margin — on every invoice you issue until someone notices.

Invoicing a customer outside the United Kingdom

Services to a business customer outside the UK are generally outside the scope of UK VAT, with the customer accounting for it under the reverse charge. Services to overseas consumers usually follow your own location instead. Since 2021 sales to the EU follow third-country rules.

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 the United Kingdom

Six years, and if you are on Making Tax Digital the records have to be kept digitally with a digital link between them. 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.