What is the VAT registration threshold in Ireland?

EUR 42,500 for services and EUR 85,000 for goods, from 1 January 2025. If you supply both, the goods threshold applies only where at least 90% of your turnover is goods; otherwise the lower one does.

Is the threshold measured over the calendar year?

No. It is any continuous period of twelve months - a rolling window. A business turning over EUR 40,000 in each of two calendar years can still cross the services threshold in the twelve months spanning them.

When do I have to register?

Before you exceed it, not after. The obligation arises when it becomes likely you will cross the threshold in the next twelve months, so the decision is made on a forecast rather than on a figure you already have.

What changes on my invoices once I register?

Every invoice needs your VAT number, the rate and the VAT amount shown separately, and totals split into net, VAT and gross. You also start filing a VAT3 and can reclaim VAT on your costs from the date of registration.

VAT registration thresholds Ireland: 42,500 and 85,000 euro

The number is the easy part. What catches people is that it is a rolling twelve months, and that you register before you cross it.

Last reviewed 1 September 2026

Two numbers, in force since 1 January 2025:

You mainly supply	Threshold
Services	€42,500
Goods	€85,000

If you supply both, the higher threshold applies only where at least 90% of your turnover is goods. A trade fitting kitchens is generally supplying services with materials, not goods, and lands on €42,500.

Rolling twelve months, not your financial year

This is the part that catches people. The test is any continuous period of twelve months — a window that moves with you, not a line drawn at 31 December.

A consultant billing €40,000 in 2026 and €40,000 in 2027 has crossed nothing on a calendar view. If €25,000 of the first year fell in its second half and €20,000 of the second fell in its first, the twelve months from July to June carried €45,000 — and the threshold was passed in a period nobody was looking at.

You register before you cross it

The obligation arises when it becomes likely that you will exceed the threshold in the coming twelve months. That is a forecast, not a receipt. Waiting until the figure is in the bank means registering late, and the VAT is then due on supplies already made at prices that did not include it — out of your margin, because the customer has already paid.

The expensive version of this mistake is quiet. Nobody writes to tell you the window closed. It surfaces later, with VAT owed on turnover you invoiced without it, and interest on top. If you are within sight of the number, the conversation with an accountant is worth having early rather than accurately.

What changes on the invoice

From the date of registration, every invoice carries:

Your VAT number
The rate applied, and the VAT as its own line — not folded into a total
Net, VAT and gross shown separately
The customer’s VAT number too, where the reverse charge applies

And two things begin that did not exist before: a VAT3 return every period, and the right to reclaim VAT on your costs. The second is why some businesses register voluntarily below the threshold — if you sell zero-rated goods and buy standard-rated inputs, registering is money back rather than money out.

The decision to make at the same time

At registration you choose how you account: the invoice basis, where VAT is due when you issue the invoice, or the cash receipts basis, where it is due when you are paid. For a business whose customers pay late, that choice is worth more than anything else on this page.

Plain-English summary, not tax advice. Revenue’s guidance on who should register is the authority, and thresholds are set in legislation that changes.

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