Irish VAT registration thresholds: €42,500 and €85,000

Most small businesses in Ireland start out not registered for VAT. You only have to register once your sales cross a threshold — and which threshold depends on what you sell.

The two thresholds

The test is any continuous 12-month period, not the calendar year, and it applies when your sales pass the threshold or are likely to. Both figures have applied since 1 January 2025.

Invoicing before you register

Below the threshold you don't charge VAT. Your invoice is a plain Invoice: your details, your customer's, what you supplied and the price. It has no VAT number, no VAT rate and no VAT total. That's how the free Irish invoice generator starts.

Once you register

From your registration date, charge VAT at the right rate on every taxable sale, and issue VAT invoices with your VAT number. In Invoice Native, switch your VAT setting to "Registered for VAT", add your VAT number, and new invoices are titled "VAT Invoice" with VAT worked out on each line. See what a VAT invoice must show.

Registering voluntarily

You can register below the threshold. It's worth thinking about when your customers are VAT-registered businesses — they reclaim the VAT you charge, so it costs them nothing — and you have VAT on your own purchases to reclaim. It's usually less attractive when you sell to the public, since your prices go up by the VAT.

The EU VAT SME scheme

Since 1 January 2025, an Irish small business whose total EU turnover is €100,000 or less can apply to use the VAT exemption of other EU countries for sales there, under their own thresholds. Revenue runs the scheme for Irish businesses; registered businesses get a number ending in EX for it.

Working out whether you've passed it

Add up the sales you made in Ireland over the last 12 months that would be taxable if you were registered — standard-rated, reduced-rated and zero-rated sales all count. Leave out exempt sales, and leave out most services you supply to businesses in other countries, because those are taxed where the customer is.

A Galway graphic designer who invoiced €3,800 a month for a year has made €45,600 of sales of services, which is over €42,500: they should already be registered. A Kilkenny craft shop that sold €70,000 of goods in the same period is still under its €85,000 threshold.

Look ahead as well as back. If one large contract will take you over the threshold, you're expected to register before you go over, not after.

Mixed businesses

The €85,000 threshold is only for businesses whose turnover is at least 90% goods. A café that sells food to take away and runs catering events, or a plumber who supplies parts and labour, usually has to use the €42,500 threshold because the services are more than 10% of the turnover. If you're unsure which applies, Revenue's guidance on thresholds has worked examples, and an accountant can help.

After you register

Revenue gives you a VAT number and a date from which you're registered. From that date:

• charge VAT on every taxable sale, at 23%, 13.5%, 9% or 0% depending on what you sell (see Irish VAT rates in 2026);
• issue VAT invoices within 15 days of the end of the month you made each sale;
• file a VAT3 return for each period — usually every two months (see the VAT3 return);
• keep your VAT records for 6 years.

Invoices you issued before your registration date stay as they are, with no VAT.

Deregistering

If your sales fall back below the threshold, you can ask Revenue to cancel your registration. Your invoices then go back to showing no VAT. Think about the VAT you've reclaimed on equipment you still use first: Revenue may ask for some of it back.

Keeping an eye on your sales

Signed-in Invoice Native businesses that aren't registered see their sales over the last 12 months against the threshold on the dashboard, with a nudge as they get close.