Irish VAT Invoice Requirements: Full Checklist and 2028 Plans

Quick answer: Irish VAT invoice requirements, set by Revenue, include the issue date, a unique sequential number, both parties' names and addresses, the supplier's VAT number, a description and date of supply, VAT-exclusive prices, a breakdown by VAT rate and the total VAT. Invoices up to EUR 100 can be simplified, and mandatory e-invoicing starts with large companies in November 2028.

Ireland's invoice rules follow the EU VAT Directive but add a few local details, such as the 15-day issuing window and the euro conversion rule for foreign currency invoices. This guide gives you a full checklist of Irish VAT invoice requirements as of 2026, explains simplified invoices, credit notes and reverse charge wording, and sets out Revenue's e-invoicing roadmap. You can build an invoice that meets the checklist in our free invoice generator.

Note: This is general information, not tax advice. Check Revenue guidance or ask a chartered accountant or tax adviser about your own situation.

Who must issue a VAT invoice in Ireland

If you are registered for VAT in Ireland, you must issue a VAT invoice when you supply goods or services to:

• another VAT-registered business, or any business or public body, in Ireland
• a business customer in another EU Member State (intra-Community supplies)
• a customer in certain distance-selling or cross-border situations
• a customer who has paid you in advance for a taxable supply

Sales to private consumers do not normally need a full VAT invoice, though a receipt is good practice. The invoice must generally be issued within 15 days of the end of the month in which the supply took place, and Revenue applies the same 15-day window to credit notes. If you are not yet registered, see our general VAT invoice guide for how registration affects what you can charge; you must not show VAT on an invoice if you are not registered.

Irish VAT invoice requirements: the full checklist

Revenue's page on information required on a VAT invoice lists the details. Here they are in a checklist with practical notes.

Requirement	Always needed?	Practical note
Date of issue	Yes	The date you create the invoice
Unique sequential number	Yes	No gaps or duplicates; use one series per business
Supplier's full name, address and VAT number	Yes	Irish VAT numbers start with IE
Customer's full name and address	Yes	Use the legal entity name
Quantity and nature of goods, or extent and nature of services	Yes	Describe clearly enough to identify the supply
Date of supply	Yes	Can differ from the issue date
Date of payment on account	Only for advance payments	Show it if different from the issue date
VAT-exclusive unit price	Yes	Per unit, before VAT
Discounts or price reductions	If given	Show them if not already in the unit price
Payment received, net of VAT	If relevant	For partly prepaid supplies
Breakdown by VAT rate	Yes	Net amount at each rate
Total VAT payable	Yes	In euro
Customer's VAT number and reverse charge notation	Reverse charge supplies	"Reverse charge applies", no VAT shown
Customer's VAT number and intra-Community notation	Intra-EU supplies of goods	Zero-rated with notation
Margin or auction scheme endorsement	Those schemes only	No VAT amount shown

A sequential number is easy to get wrong when you use several tools. Our invoice number generator and the guide to invoice numbering systems help you keep one clean series.

VAT rates you may see on an Irish invoice

Revenue's rate history lists four main positive rates, plus the zero rate:

• 23% standard rate: most goods and services, including most professional services
• 13.5% reduced rate: items such as fuel, building services and certain repairs
• 9% second reduced rate: items such as newspapers and certain sporting facilities
• 4.8% livestock rate: livestock and related supplies
• 0%: items such as most food, oral medicines and children's clothing, and qualifying exports

The rate for a particular supply can change in an annual Budget, so check Revenue's VAT rates database for your exact item. If your invoice covers items at two rates, show the net total and VAT separately for each rate. To work back from a VAT-inclusive price at 23%, divide by 1.23: a EUR 123 price contains EUR 100 net and EUR 23 VAT.

Simplified invoices, electronic invoices and foreign currency

Simplified invoices up to EUR 100

Revenue's page on other types of VAT invoices allows a simplified invoice where the amount is not more than EUR 100, or where sector practice makes the full rules hard to meet. It needs only the issue date, the supplier's name, address and VAT number, a description of the goods or services, and either the VAT payable or the VAT-exclusive price. It cannot be used for intra-Community supplies.

Electronic invoices today

You can issue invoices electronically, including a PDF by email, as long as the customer agrees. Your system must store the records, reproduce them on request and guarantee their integrity and origin, with a reliable audit trail. That is today's rule; structured e-invoicing comes later under the roadmap below. In other words, an emailed PDF is acceptable for now, but it will not satisfy the structured e-invoicing rules once they apply to you.

Sales to customers in other EU countries

Cross-border invoices are where most Irish errors happen. For goods sent to a VAT-registered business in another Member State, the invoice is zero-rated and must show the customer's VAT number and the intra-Community supply notation; check the number on the EU VIES system before you invoice. For most business-to-business services, the place of supply is where the customer is established, so the invoice shows no Irish VAT and carries the reverse charge notation. Sales of digital services to consumers in other EU countries follow the One Stop Shop rules instead; see our EU VAT One Stop Shop guide.

Foreign currency invoices

You may invoice in dollars, sterling or any other currency, but the VAT amounts must also be shown in euro, converted at the Central Bank selling rate at the time the invoice is due. Revenue can agree an alternative method on application. Our foreign currency invoice guide has wording examples.

Advance payments and deposits

If a customer pays a deposit or payment on account before you supply the goods or services, VAT is generally due on that payment and you should issue an invoice for it. Show the date the payment was received if it differs from the invoice date. When you later invoice the full supply, deduct the amount already invoiced so VAT is not charged twice. Putting the deposit invoice number on the final invoice makes this easy for both you and the customer.

Record keeping

Revenue expects VAT records, including copies of the invoices and credit notes you issue and receive, to be kept for six years. Electronic copies are fine as long as you can produce them on request and they have not been altered. Store them somewhere backed up, not only in one person's email inbox.

Credit notes and corrections

Ireland is strict about how you fix an invoice. You do not edit an issued VAT invoice. Instead:

• Price reduction or wrong VAT rate: issue a credit note within 15 days of the end of the month of supply. It must state the reason, cross-reference the original invoice, show the amended consideration and the VAT at each rate.
• Price increase: issue a supplementary invoice showing the VAT-exclusive increase and the VAT on it.
• Customer-issued debit note: a customer can issue a debit note that is treated as a credit note, but only if the supplier accepts it and before the supplier issues its own credit note.

Our credit note guide covers layout, and how to correct an invoice walks through the process step by step.

How to create a compliant Irish VAT invoice: step by step

1. Confirm the VAT treatment. Decide whether the supply is standard, reduced, zero-rated, exempt or reverse charge.
2. Add your details. Your full legal name, address and Irish VAT number.
3. Add the customer's details. Full name and address; add their VAT number for reverse charge or intra-EU supplies.
4. Number and date the invoice. Use the next number in your series, the issue date and the date of supply.
5. List the supply. Quantity, description and VAT-exclusive unit price for each line, plus any discount.
6. Calculate VAT by rate. Show the net amount and VAT for each rate and the total VAT.
7. Add notations if needed. "Reverse charge applies", intra-Community supply wording, or a margin scheme endorsement.
8. Issue within the time limit. Send it within 15 days of the end of the month of supply, and keep a copy for your records.

Worked example: a consultancy invoice at 23%

A Dublin IT consultant invoices an Irish company for 20 days of work at EUR 250 a day, agrees a fixed EUR 250 discount, and has already received a EUR 2,000 payment on account.

Line	Amount (EUR)
IT consultancy, 20 days at 250	5,000.00
Discount	-250.00
Net amount at 23%	4,750.00
VAT at 23%	1,092.50
Invoice total	5,842.50
Paid on account	-2,000.00
Balance due	3,842.50

Check the figures: 20 times 250 is 5,000; less 250 is 4,750; 23% of 4,750 is 1,092.50; 4,750 plus 1,092.50 is 5,842.50; and less the 2,000 already paid leaves 3,842.50. If the 2,000 was received before the supply, the invoice should also show the date that payment was made. In our invoice generator, enter the line, a fixed 250 discount, a 23% tax rate and 2,000 in the amount paid field to get the same balance.

If the same consultant billed a business in Germany instead, the invoice would show no Irish VAT, include the customer's German VAT number and the note "Reverse charge applies". See our reverse charge invoice guide for examples.

Ireland e-invoicing plans: the 2028 to 2030 roadmap

Revenue has published a phased plan to bring in structured e-invoicing and real-time reporting, aligned with the EU's VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package. According to Revenue's implementation phases page:

Phase	Date	Who is covered
Phase One	November 2028	VAT-registered large corporates: e-invoicing and real-time reporting for domestic B2B. All businesses must be able to receive e-invoices.
Phase Two	November 2029	VAT-registered businesses in cross-border EU B2B trade involving zero-rated goods or reverse charge services
Phase Three	July 2030	All intra-EU B2B transactions under the ViDA rules

The important point for small businesses is the receive obligation: from November 2028 every business must be able to receive and process e-invoices from suppliers that are mandated to send them. Revenue has signalled the European standard EN 16931 for the data, and Peppol is widely expected to be the exchange network. Our guides to what Peppol is and the EN 16931 e-invoice fields are a good place to start, and the e-invoicing mandates list shows how Ireland compares with other countries.

How to prepare for e-invoicing now

Even if you are not a large corporate, the receive obligation in November 2028 means every VAT-registered business needs a plan. Sensible steps for 2026 and 2027:

1. Ask your accounting software provider about its Peppol and EN 16931 roadmap and when it will support sending and receiving structured invoices.
2. Clean up customer and supplier master data: legal names, addresses and VAT numbers.
3. Make sure every invoice already carries all the details in the checklist above, because structured e-invoices make missing fields obvious.
4. Review how invoices arrive in your business today. If staff retype PDFs into the accounts, plan to replace that with automatic import.
5. Watch Revenue's VAT modernisation pages for technical specifications and any changes to the phase dates.

Common mistakes on Irish VAT invoices

• Missing the date of supply when it differs from the issue date
• Showing VAT on a reverse charge invoice, or forgetting the notation
• Gaps in the invoice number sequence after a cancelled invoice; use a credit note instead
• Foreign currency invoices with no euro VAT figure
• Issuing invoices months after the supply instead of within the 15-day window
• Charging VAT before your registration takes effect

Meet the Irish VAT invoice requirements every time

Irish VAT invoice requirements are straightforward once you build them into a template: sequential numbers, full details for both parties, VAT-exclusive prices, a breakdown by rate and the right notations for reverse charge or intra-EU supplies. Plan now for the receive obligation in November 2028. Create a compliant invoice in our free invoice generator or start from a clean classic invoice template; if you also bill in other markets, compare the rules in our Turkey e-invoice guide. No sign-up is needed, and your PDF invoice is ready to send in a few minutes.