What must be included on a VAT invoice in Ireland?

Revenue requires twelve items: the date of issue, a unique sequential number, your full name, address and VAT number, the customer's full name and address, the quantity and nature of goods supplied, the extent and nature of services rendered, the VAT-exclusive unit price, any payment received net of VAT, discounts or price reductions, the breakdown by VAT rate, the total VAT payable, and the date on which the goods or services were supplied.

How long do I have to issue a VAT invoice?

A VAT invoice must issue within 15 days of the end of the month in which the goods or services were supplied. Work done on 3 March therefore has to be invoiced by 15 April, not whenever the paperwork gets done.

Do I need the customer's VAT number on the invoice?

Only where it matters: on a reverse-charge supply and on an intra-Community supply of goods, where the customer's VAT number and a specific notation are both required. On an ordinary domestic sale their name and address are enough.

What if I invoice in a foreign currency?

The invoice must also show the corresponding figures in euro, converted at the Central Bank selling rate. The foreign-currency figures can stay; the euro ones have to be there as well.

What happens if the invoice is wrong?

The practical consequence lands on your customer: a VAT-registered buyer needs a valid VAT invoice to reclaim the VAT they paid you. An invoice missing a required item is the reason a customer's accountant sends it back.

What has to be on a VAT invoice in Ireland

Twelve items, one deadline, and a couple of additions that apply only sometimes. Get one wrong and your customer cannot reclaim.

Last reviewed 21 September 2026

An invoice that is missing something is not a small problem, because the document is what lets your customer reclaim. Revenue’s list is specific, and it is longer than most templates.

The twelve items

#	What Revenue requires
1	The date of issue
2	A unique sequential number
3	Your full name, address and VAT registration number
4	The customer’s full name and address
5	The quantity and nature of the goods supplied
6	The extent and nature of the services rendered
7	The VAT-exclusive unit price
8	Any payment received net of VAT
9	Discounts or price reductions
10	The breakdown by rate of VAT
11	The total VAT payable on the supply
12	The date on which the goods or services were supplied

Two of those are worth sitting with.

Sequential, not just unique

Item 2 asks for a sequential number, not merely a distinct one. A random reference per invoice satisfies “unique” and fails the requirement, because the point of a sequence is that a gap in it is visible. If you have ever wondered why accounting software refuses to let you renumber a document, this is why.

The supply date is not always the invoice date

Item 1 is when you wrote it; item 12 is when the work happened. For a great many small businesses those fall on the same day and one date does both jobs. They part company the moment you invoice in arrears — a month of work billed on the 1st was supplied across the previous month, and the document is supposed to say so.

The deadline almost nobody knows

A VAT invoice must issue within 15 days of the end of the month in which the goods or services are supplied.

That is Revenue’s wording, and it is a real limit rather than a convention. Work delivered on 3 March is inside the March supply month, so the invoice is due by 15 April. Work delivered on 31 March has the same deadline. The clock runs from the end of the month, not from the job.

It matters more than it sounds, because invoicing late usually also means declaring the VAT in the wrong period if you are on the invoice basis — the liability arises when the invoice issues, so a document written six weeks late lands in a return that has already been filed.

Who has to issue one at all

An accountable person must issue a VAT invoice when supplying goods or services to any of:

another accountable person;
a Department of State, a local authority, or a body established by statute;
a person carrying on an exempt activity;
a non-registered person in another EU Member State;
a person in a Member State where the reverse charge applies.

A sale to a private consumer in Ireland is the common case that falls outside the list. You may still issue a document — most businesses do — but the obligation is not the same one. Invoicing as a sole trader covers what to put on a document when you are not VAT registered at all.

The additions that apply only sometimes

Situation	What the invoice must also carry
Reverse charge	The customer’s VAT number and the notation that reverse charge applies. No VAT is shown.
Intra-Community supply of goods	The customer’s VAT number and the notation intra-Community supply of goods.
Triangulation	An explicit reference to EC triangulation simplification, and that the recipient is liable.
Foreign currency	The corresponding figures in euro, at the Central Bank selling rate.
Margin or auctioneer scheme	No VAT amount, plus the specific endorsement for the scheme.

The reverse-charge guide goes through the first of those properly, including the wording and where that turnover is reported.

What this looks like when the software does it

Most of the twelve are simply fields, and the ones that go wrong by hand are the ones that require arithmetic to stay consistent: the unit price excluding VAT, the breakdown by rate, and the total VAT. A document with three lines at three different rates has three subtotals, three VAT figures and one total, and every one of them has to agree.

Kayment builds the invoice from the lines up. Each line carries its own rate, the summary shows the taxable amount and VAT per rate rather than one merged figure, numbering is sequential and cannot be edited into a gap, and the customer’s VAT number appears on the document when the supply calls for it. What it does not yet have is a separate supply date — it uses the issue date — which is fine when they are the same day and is something to be aware of when they are not.

Plain-English summary, not tax advice. Revenue’s own list of required invoice information is the authority, and it is short enough to read in full.

The breakdown by rate, without the arithmetic

Every line carries its own Irish VAT rate. The totals, the VAT summary per rate and the amount due build as you type, the numbering runs in sequence, and the same figures appear on the emailed copy and on the page your customer opens to pay.

See how it works

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