VAT invoices in Ireland: what Revenue requires

Once you're registered for VAT in Ireland, every sale to another business or to a public body needs a VAT invoice. It's what lets your customer reclaim the VAT, so Revenue sets out exactly what it must contain (Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010, section 66, and regulation 20 of the VAT Regulations).

The free Irish invoice generator prints all of it for you.

What a VAT invoice must show

1. The date you issue it.
2. A unique number from a sequence, so each invoice can be identified.
3. Your full name, address and VAT number — printed like VAT No. IE 6388047V.
4. Your customer's full name and address.
5. The date of supply, if it isn't the invoice date.
6. What you supplied: the quantity and kind of goods, or the extent and kind of services.
7. The unit price excluding VAT, and any discount not already in it.
8. The amount excluding VAT at each rate — 23%, 13.5%, 9% or 0%.
9. Each VAT rate that applies.
10. The total VAT payable, in euro.

Some sales need one more line: a zero-rated sale of goods to another EU country needs your customer's EU VAT number and the words "Intra-Community supply of goods"; a service your EU customer accounts for needs their VAT number and "Reverse charge applies". The construction reverse charge has its own wording.

When to issue it

A VAT invoice is due within 15 days after the end of the month in which you made the supply. Work done on 20 August needs its invoice by 15 September. Invoice Native warns you if the invoice date is later than that.

Invoices in another currency

You can invoice in sterling or dollars, but the VAT must also be shown in euro, converted at the Central Bank’s latest selling rate when the VAT becomes due — normally the date of supply. Invoice Native prints the exchange rate and the VAT in euro under the totals.

Credit notes

To reduce an invoice — goods returned, a price agreed lower, a mistake — issue a VAT credit note. It shows its own date and number, both businesses' details, the original invoice's number, the reason, the amount credited, and the VAT credited at the rates on the original invoice. A catering invoice from June 2026 at 13.5% is credited at 13.5%, even though catering moved to 9% on 1 July 2026.

Companies

A company's invoices also show its name and legal form, its CRO number, where it's registered and its registered office (Companies Act 2014, section 151): for example "Liffey Digital Ltd · Registered in Ireland No. 654321 · Registered office: 14 Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7". Invoice Native prints this line when you choose "Company" and add your CRO number.

Not registered for VAT?

Then you don't charge VAT, and your invoice is a plain "Invoice" with no VAT number or VAT. See the VAT registration thresholds for when that changes.

A worked example

Say you run a small Dublin web studio, Liffey Digital Ltd, registered for VAT. On 1 October 2026 you bill a Cork building firm for a website redesign (€3,800) and for repairs to its office after a fit-out (€800). Your VAT invoice shows:

• Liffey Digital Ltd, your address and VAT No. IE 6388047V;
• the invoice number, INV-0042, and the date, 01/10/2026;
• Lee Valley Builders Ltd and their address in Cork;
• each line with its description and VAT rate — 23% for the web work, 13.5% for the repairs;
• the net at each rate (€3,800 and €800), the VAT at each (€874 and €108), the VAT total (€982) and the invoice total (€5,582);
• your CRO number and registered office, because you're a company.

Add a bank transfer and the invoice also prints your IBAN, with a QR code your customer's banking app can scan to fill in the amount and reference.

Common mistakes

• Leaving out your VAT number — your customer can't reclaim the VAT without it.
• One VAT figure for mixed rates — show the net and VAT for each rate.
• Reusing or skipping numbers — numbers must run in one sequence; Invoice Native numbers each issued invoice for you.
• Charging VAT before you're registered — until Revenue registers you, don't add VAT or call your invoice a VAT invoice.

Keeping records

Revenue requires you to keep copies of the VAT invoices and credit notes you issue for 6 years. Signed-in Invoice Native businesses keep every issued document, numbered and unchangeable once issued.