What an Irish invoice must include

01Two kinds of invoice

What your invoice must show depends on one thing first: are you registered for VAT?

• Registered for VAT. Your invoices are VAT invoices. Irish VAT law sets out the details they must carry, and Revenue lists them. A VAT invoice is a document issued by an accountable person, which means a VAT-registered business, setting out the details of a taxable supply.
• Not registered. Your invoice is a bill and a record of the job. It must not show VAT, and you still need to keep it for your tax records.

Most of this guide is about VAT invoices, because that’s where the rules are strictest. The last sections cover businesses that aren’t registered, and records for everyone.

02What a VAT invoice must show

Revenue’s list of the information required on a VAT invoice is below, in the order a trade invoice usually shows it.

Revenue’s list also has items most trades never meet: notes for intra-Community supplies, triangulation, margin schemes, and a tax representative. If you invoice in a foreign currency, the invoice must also show the figures in euro.

The number matters. “Unique sequential” means each invoice gets the next number and no number is used twice. Don’t skip numbers, and don’t delete an invoice to reuse its number. If an invoice was wrong, correct it with a credit note (below).

03Who needs a VAT invoice, and by when

A registered business must issue a VAT invoice when it supplies another VAT-registered business, a Government department, a local authority, a body set up by statute, or someone running an exempt activity, among others. Revenue’s list doesn’t include private individuals, so a VAT invoice for a homeowner isn’t required by that rule. Most trades give homeowners a full invoice anyway: it’s how you get paid, and it’s your record of the job.

The deadline: within 15 days of the end of the month in which you did the work. Finish a job on 3 March and the VAT invoice is due by 15 April.

Deposits. When you must give a VAT invoice and the customer pays something before the work is done, Revenue says a VAT invoice is due for each payment, by the 15th of the following month. The final invoice then shows the deposit already paid, net of VAT, with its date.

Mistakes. If the price changes after the invoice, through a discount or allowance, or the VAT rate on it was wrong, you correct it with a credit note, issued within the same 15-days-after-the-month deadline. You don’t edit the old invoice.

04A worked example

A made-up electrician, registered for VAT, rewires a kitchen for a homeowner. The work is construction, so it’s at 13.5% (see our VAT guide).

Above the lines the invoice shows its number, the date, the date of supply, the electrician’s name, address and VAT number, and the customer’s name and address.

05Working for a main contractor under RCT

If you’re a VAT-registered subcontractor and the main contractor operates Relevant Contracts Tax on your payments, the invoice is different. It shows everything a VAT invoice shows except the VAT rate and VAT amount, includes your VAT number, and carries the words “VAT on this supply to be accounted for by the principal contractor”. You don’t add VAT; the main contractor accounts for it. Our RCT guide explains how those jobs work.

06If you’re not registered for VAT

Then your invoice must not show any VAT: no VAT line, no rate, no VAT number. Revenue says a trader who isn’t registered and shows VAT on an invoice is liable for the VAT shown, even though they had no right to charge it.

VAT law doesn’t set a list of fields for an invoice from someone who isn’t registered. A clear invoice still helps you get paid and backs up your tax return, so it’s worth showing the same basics: a number, the date, your name and contact details, the customer’s name and address, what you did, the price, and when and how to pay.

Trading as a limited company? Then, registered for VAT or not, company law says the company’s name must be on all its invoices and receipts.

07How long to keep your records

VAT records. Revenue expects full and true records of all VAT-related business transactions: your books, invoices, credit notes, receipts and bank statements among them. Keep them for six years, or longer if a matter with Revenue isn’t finished. Electronic records are kept under the electronic invoicing rules, and invoices you issued on paper are kept on paper.

Records for income tax. Registered or not, if you’re self-employed you must keep full records of your business from the start: what you bought and sold, and all money in and out, with supporting records such as invoices, bank statements and receipts. Not keeping them for the necessary six years is a Revenue offence.

A simple habit covers both: keep every invoice you send, every receipt you get, and your bank statements, sorted by year.

08What QuotePaid does for you

QuotePaid puts every detail from Revenue’s VAT invoice list that a trade invoice uses on each invoice it makes, and numbers invoices when you send them, in order, with no gaps and no number used twice. A sent invoice can’t be edited. The deposit your customer paid shows on the final invoice, net of VAT, with its date. If you’re not registered for VAT, QuotePaid leaves VAT off your quotes and invoices completely. You and your customer can download any invoice as a PDF.

Choosing between apps? Our roundup of quoting and invoicing apps for Irish trades puts them side by side, says where each one is better, and links every fact to the company’s own page.