How to Invoice as a Sole Trader in Ireland (VAT Rules)

Short answer: As a sole trader in Ireland, if you are not registered for VAT, Irish law sets no fixed invoice format — include your name and address, the customer’s details, a unique sequential number, the date, what you supplied and the total due, and charge no VAT. Once you register (compulsory above the 2026 thresholds of €42,500 for services, €85,000 for goods), you must issue a full VAT invoice showing your VAT number, the rate, and the VAT amount in euro, by the 15th of the month after supply. Keep every copy six years.

Invoicing in Ireland runs on two regimes, and which one you are in depends entirely on whether you have registered for VAT. Below the threshold there is no prescribed layout; above it, Revenue specifies the contents of a VAT invoice line by line. If you have not registered as self-employed yet, start with registering as self-employed, or see self-employed taxes in Ireland for what you will owe.

What has to go on an invoice if I am not registered for VAT?

Nothing, strictly. Irish VAT law prescribes the contents of a VAT invoice, and those rules do not reach you if you are not an accountable person for VAT. What does reach you is section 886 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997: your records must be adequate to work out your income tax liability.

A workable non-VAT invoice shows:

• The word Invoice, and a unique sequential number
• Your own name, plus any trading name you use
• Your business address and a contact detail
• The customer’s name and address
• The invoice date, and the date you did the work if it differs
• A clear description of the goods or services, with quantity and unit price
• The total due, in euro
• Payment terms and how to pay — IBAN, or a payment link

One rule is absolute even here: do not show a VAT amount or a VAT number if you are not registered. Revenue’s wording is that a trader not registered for VAT “should not issue an invoice showing an amount of VAT. Any trader who does so will be liable for the VAT shown on the invoice. Such a person may also be liable to penalties” (invoices issued by unregistered persons). A line reading “VAT @ 23%” when you have no registration is a bill you will end up paying.

When do I have to register for VAT and start charging it?

Registration becomes compulsory once your turnover passes the threshold for what you supply, or once you can reasonably expect it will. The statutory test in section 6 of the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 is whether the consideration “has not exceeded and is not likely to exceed” the threshold “in any continuous period of 12 months”.

These are the thresholds in force for 2026, as published by Revenue:

What you supply	Registration threshold
Services only	€42,500
Goods	€85,000
Acquisitions of goods from other EU member states	€41,000
Distance sales and cross-border electronic services (EU-wide)	€10,000

Two edge cases sit off that table: the lower €42,500 figure also catches a trader supplying goods at the reduced or standard rate that they made from zero-rated materials, and the €85,000 figure covers mixed goods-and-services businesses where 90% or more of turnover is goods. Check yours against Revenue’s VAT thresholds page.

The two headline figures rose from €40,000 and €80,000 with effect from 1 January 2025 under section 78 of the Finance Act 2024, and are unchanged for 2026. They measure turnover, not profit — a contractor billing €45,000 and keeping €28,000 after costs is over the services threshold. You may register voluntarily below it, which lets you reclaim VAT on purchases but obliges you to charge it on sales and file a VAT 3 return, on the default two-monthly taxable period, by the 19th of the month after each period ends (the 23rd if you file through ROS). The Collector-General can authorise four-monthly or six-monthly returns for smaller liabilities.

What must a full VAT invoice show in Ireland?

Once registered, the contents are prescribed rather than optional.

Field	Non-VAT invoice	Full VAT invoice
Unique sequential number	Advisable	Required
Date of issue	Advisable	Required
Date of supply	Advisable	Required
Your name and address	Advisable	Required
Your VAT registration number	Must not appear	Required
Customer’s full name and address	Advisable	Required
Description, quantity, extent of supply	Advisable	Required
VAT-exclusive unit price	Optional	Required
Discounts or price reductions	Optional	Required
Breakdown by VAT rate	Must not appear	Required
Total VAT payable	Must not appear	Required

Revenue’s full list adds a few items most sole traders never meet — the payment received net of VAT, the date of a payment on account where it differs from the invoice date, triangulation wording, and a tax representative’s details. One that does bite: an intra-Community supply of goods needs the customer’s VAT number and the notation “intra-Community supply of goods”.

Three variations catch people out. Invoices of €100 or less can be simplified — date, your name, address and VAT number, a description, and the tax payable or price excluding tax — though never for an intra-Community supply of goods or services. (The same simplified form is open where sector practice makes the full requirements impractical.) Foreign-currency invoices must also show the corresponding figures in euro, using the selling rate recorded by the Central Bank at the time the invoice is due to be issued. Reverse-charge supplies carry the customer’s VAT number and a notation that a reverse charge applies, with no VAT amount shown — but note that this particular notation does not apply to construction services subject to Relevant Contracts Tax, which have their own wording, below.

On rates: the standard rate is 23% and the second reduced rate is 9% — the figures in Revenue’s current rate table, effective 1 January 2025. From 1 July 2026 the 9% rate applies to catering and restaurant supplies, hot take-away food, hot tea and coffee, and hairdressing services — but not to alcohol, soft drinks or bottled water, which stay at the standard rate. Hotel and guesthouse lettings remain at the 13.5% reduced rate. Check your own supply against Revenue’s VAT rates search rather than assuming.

When must the invoice actually be issued?

VAT invoices are not open-ended. Revenue’s wording is that “a VAT invoice must issue within 15 days of the end of the month in which goods or services are supplied” — in practice, by the 15th of the following month. It matters because VAT becomes due at the earlier of the date you issue the invoice and, if you have not issued it, the date by which you should have issued it. Sitting on paperwork does not defer the liability, and the rate that applies is the rate in force on whichever of those dates bites. If you are not VAT registered, no statutory deadline applies; invoice promptly anyway.

How should I number my invoices?

Numbers must be unique and sequential — an explicit VAT requirement, and a sensible habit regardless, because gaps are the first thing an auditor asks about. Any of these work:

• Plain running sequence: 001, 002, 003
• Year-prefixed: 2026-001, 2026-002
• Per-client: OKEEFFE-001, OKEEFFE-002

Pick one and never reuse or delete a number. If a job falls through, issue a credit note against the invoice instead — invoice vs receipt covers why you keep both documents.

What payment terms should I set, and what if a client pays late?

State them on the invoice. If the contract is silent, the European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2012 default to 30 days after the purchaser receives the invoice. A period longer than 60 days from delivery must be expressly agreed and not grossly unfair. When a business customer pays late, you then have a statutory entitlement rather than a negotiating position.

Entitlement	Amount
Late payment interest, 1 July to 31 December 2026	10.4% per annum (ECB main refinancing rate 2.40% + 8 points)
Automatic compensation, debt not exceeding €1,000	€40
Automatic compensation, debt over €1,000 up to €10,000	€70
Automatic compensation, debt over €10,000	€100

The compensation is set by the Schedule to the Regulations, is due under Regulation 9 without a reminder letter, and does not stop you also claiming reasonable recovery costs above it. The interest rate is not fixed: Regulation 5 resets it every 1 January and 1 July to the ECB main refinancing rate in force plus eight percentage points, so confirm the current figure before putting a number on a demand. Naming the entitlement in your invoice footer moves a surprising number of invoices up a payables queue — more tactics in how to get clients to pay.

Does anything change if I am a subcontractor in construction?

Yes, and it is the biggest single departure from a normal invoice. Where a subcontractor supplies construction services to a principal contractor, VAT reverse charge applies and you do not charge VAT. Revenue’s construction services guidance is specific about the document: your invoice shows everything a VAT invoice normally shows except the VAT rate and VAT amount, it carries your own VAT registration number, and it must contain the statement “VAT on this supply to be accounted for by the principal contractor”. The principal then accounts for the VAT. Note this differs from the general reverse-charge notation described earlier — do not use the customer’s VAT number here.

Relevant Contracts Tax operates separately. The principal deducts at 0%, 20% or 35% depending on your compliance record, and calculates it on the VAT-exclusive amount. The same RCT rates apply in forestry and meat processing.

Confirm the treatment on Revenue’s reverse charge page and its construction services guidance before your first invoice — VAT charged in error is awkward to unwind once the principal has paid it.

How long do I keep copies, and where do invoices fit at Pay and File?

Six years covers both regimes. For income tax, section 886(4) TCA 1997 requires records to be retained “for a period of 6 years after the completion of the transactions, acts or operations to which they relate” — and longer if you filed the return late, in which case the six years run from the end of the year in which you did file. Revenue’s self-assessment guidance calls failure to keep records for “the necessary six years” a Revenue offence. For VAT, Revenue’s record retention page says that where you have made a claim, appealed to the Tax Appeals Commission, or are under inquiry or investigation, records should be kept “for six years or until the matter at issue is finalised”.

You do not send invoices with your return. The Form 11 has ‘Extracts from Accounts’ pages instead, and the documents behind them stay with you for any assurance check — see the Form 11 explained and expenses and receipts.

Where does Keel fit into this?

An invoice is only half a record. The other half is the receipts proving what a job cost you and the trips you made doing it — the parts that go missing, because nobody photographs a diesel receipt at eleven at night.

Keel: Invoice Maker & Receipts, by Ilura Technology OU, runs entirely on your iPhone. No account, no sign-in, no bank connection; the App Store privacy label reads “Data Not Collected”. You build invoices as PDFs with your own numbering sequence, logo, brand colour and a payment link as a QR code, photograph receipts for Apple Intelligence to read on device, log mileage, and export the year as one file for your accountant.

The honest tradeoff: nothing imports itself. With no bank feed, every invoice is typed and every receipt is photographed — the direct cost of data never leaving the phone. What you get back is an append-only, hash-chained ledger held on your device and nowhere else. Keel is on the App Store; the free tier gives unlimited invoices, receipts and mileage with a “Made with Keel” footer, and Keel Pro is a one-time $249.99 Lifetime purchase, not a subscription.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to be registered for VAT to send an invoice in Ireland? No. A sole trader below the threshold invoices under their own name with no VAT number and no VAT line. What you must not do is show a VAT amount without being registered — Revenue holds any unregistered trader who does so liable for the VAT shown on that invoice, with penalties possible on top.

What is the VAT registration threshold for a sole trader in Ireland? For 2026, €42,500 of turnover in any continuous twelve-month period if you supply services only, and €85,000 if you supply goods. Both rose on 1 January 2025 under the Finance Act 2024 and are unchanged for 2026. They measure turnover, not profit. You may register voluntarily below the threshold, but you then charge VAT on everything you sell.

Do I have to put my PPS number on an invoice? No. There is no requirement to print your PPS number on an invoice, and good reason not to. If you are VAT registered you show your VAT registration number instead. A principal contractor setting up an RCT contract will ask for your tax reference separately, which is a private exchange rather than something printed on every document.

When must a VAT invoice be issued in Ireland? Revenue’s rule is that a VAT invoice must issue within 15 days of the end of the month in which the goods or services were supplied — so, by the 15th of the following month. The deadline matters because VAT becomes due at the earlier of the date you issue the invoice and the date by which you should have issued it, so delaying the paperwork does not delay the liability.

Can I charge interest on a late invoice in Ireland? Yes, on business-to-business debts. For the period 1 July to 31 December 2026 the statutory late payment interest rate is 10.4% per annum, being the ECB main refinancing rate of 2.40% plus eight percentage points. The rate is reset each 1 January and 1 July, so check the current one. You are also automatically entitled to compensation of €40, €70 or €100 depending on whether the debt is up to €1,000, over €1,000 up to €10,000, or above €10,000.

How long do I have to keep copies of my invoices? Six years. Section 886 TCA 1997 requires income tax records to be kept for six years after the transactions they relate to are completed, and longer where the return itself was filed late. For VAT, Revenue says that where a claim, an appeal to the Tax Appeals Commission, or a Revenue inquiry or investigation is live, records are kept for six years or until that matter is finalised — however long it takes.

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This article is general information, not tax advice. Consult a qualified Irish tax professional.