Sole trader invoice template for Ireland: what goes on it, with an annotated example

Two kinds of sole trader, two kinds of invoice

Revenue treats a sole trader like any other business for VAT. What matters is registration, not legal form. Below the threshold (€42,500 a year for services, €85,000 for goods, measured over the current and previous calendar years) you issue a plain invoice with no VAT on it. Once registered, every invoice becomes a VAT invoice and has to carry the extra fields Revenue lists.

The “required” column comes from Revenue’s list of what a VAT invoice must show. We go through that list item by item in VAT invoice requirements in Ireland. The rest of this page is about the more common case: a sole trader who is not registered.

The example invoice

Dara Nolan is a carpenter in Ennis, under the services threshold, so not VAT registered. This is what his invoice for a shelving job looks like. The numbered markers are explained underneath.

What each part is doing

1. The word “Invoice”. Not “VAT invoice”, because this one is not. Not “quote” or “proforma” either (see the proforma guide).
2. Number, issue date, due date. The number runs in sequence. The due date is a real calendar date.
3. The VAT statement. Two short sentences that stop a business customer looking for a VAT number and stop anyone treating the total as VAT-inclusive.
4. Your details. Your own name, the trading name if you use one, a postal address, and a way to reach you.
5. Customer details. Name and address. For a company, the exact legal name, not the name of the person who rang you.
6. Lines a stranger could understand. Materials and labour separately, with quantities and unit prices.
7. One total. No net, no VAT line, no “VAT 0%”. Just the amount owed.
8. Bank details and a payment reference. IBAN and BIC, and the invoice number as the reference so you can match the lodgement.
9. Terms in plain words. How, and by when.

You can build the same layout in the free invoice generator: leave the VAT number field empty, set every line to 0% and put the statement in the notes box. The generator has no sole trader preset yet, so it takes a minute by hand.

How to say you are not registered for VAT

Revenue’s wording is blunt: “A trader not registered for Value-Added Tax (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.” The same trader “may also be liable to penalties”, and the fixed penalty Revenue lists for the issue of a VAT invoice by a non-registered person is €4,000.

So the rule is negative: show no VAT. The positive statement is your choice, and there is no prescribed form. Any of these work:

• “Not registered for VAT. No VAT has been charged.”
• “Supplier is not VAT registered; this is not a VAT invoice.”
• “VAT not applicable (supplier below the VAT registration threshold).”

What to avoid: a VAT column, a “VAT 0%” line, the words “including VAT” or “VAT invoice”, and a blank “VAT No:” label. Zero per cent is a real VAT rate that registered traders apply to things like exports and children’s clothes; writing it on your invoice implies you are registered. We cover this in more depth in invoicing without a VAT number.

If you are a VAT-registered sole trader

Add your VAT number under your name, show the VAT-exclusive unit price on every line, and finish with a breakdown by rate: net, VAT and gross for each rate used, then the total VAT. Revenue also fixes the timing: a VAT invoice “must issue within 15 days of the end of the month in which goods or services are supplied”. A job finished on 20 September needs its invoice out by 15 October. The generator handles the per-rate breakdown automatically.

Numbering

Revenue requires “a unique sequential number” on a VAT invoice, and the same habit is worth keeping before you register, because your income tax records need to be complete. Pick one format and stay with it: INV-0027, 2026-027, or plain 27. No gaps, no reuse, no separate sequence per customer. If you void an invoice, keep the voided copy. Quotes and proformas get their own references so they never eat a number from the invoice run.

Payment terms and late payment

Fourteen days is a fair default for a sole trader; thirty is normal when invoicing a larger company. Write the actual due date. For business customers there is law behind you. Under the European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 580 of 2012), if no payment date was agreed, interest runs from 30 days after the customer receives the invoice. The statutory rate is 8 percentage points above the European Central Bank reference rate, and you are also entitled to fixed compensation costs without sending a reminder. Between two businesses, an agreed term longer than 60 days must be set out expressly in the contract and cannot be grossly unfair to you. None of this applies to invoices sent to private consumers.

Keep every invoice for six years

Two separate laws say six years. Section 886 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 requires income tax records to be kept “for a period of 6 years after the completion of the transactions”. Section 84 of the VAT Consolidation Act 2010 sets the same period for VAT records, and adds that a business which is not an accountable person must still keep all the invoices it receives. Save the PDF of every invoice you issue, keep supplier invoices and bank statements alongside, and back the folder up.

Registering as a sole trader in the first place

You register for income tax with Revenue, not with the CRO. Revenue says you must register as self-employed if your net income is above €5,000, and the route is online: the eRegistration service in ROS, or “Tax registrations” in myAccount if you are already a PAYE employee. Paper Form TR1 is only for people who cannot register online. You then file a Form 11 and pay preliminary tax by 31 October each year. VAT registration is a separate box on the same form, ticked only when you need it.

Frequently asked questions