VAT for Irish tradespeople: rates, registration and invoices

5 min read · Last reviewed July 2026 · Always confirm current rates on revenue.ie

VAT trips up more tradespeople than almost anything else — the wrong rate on a job, or a missing detail on an invoice, can cost you. Here's the plain-English version for a sole trader or small crew in Ireland.

Do you have to register for VAT?

You must register for VAT once your turnover goes over the registration threshold in any rolling 12-month period. There are two separate thresholds — one for supplying services, a higher one for supplying goods.

Below the threshold you don't have to register — but you can choose to register voluntarily. The trade-off: you'll charge VAT to your customers, but you can also reclaim the VAT you pay on tools, van costs and materials. If most of your customers are businesses (who reclaim VAT anyway), voluntary registration often makes sense; if they're homeowners, it makes you 23%/13.5% dearer than an unregistered competitor.

23% or 13.5% — which rate do you charge?

The standard rate of 23% applies to most goods and professional services. The reduced rate of 13.5% applies to most construction, repair, maintenance and installation work on property — the day-to-day work of most trades.

Some supplies have their own rates (for example the sale of the property itself, or certain energy products), so if a job is unusual, check the specific rate rather than assuming.

What a VAT invoice must show

If you're VAT-registered, every invoice you issue has to include certain details or it isn't a valid VAT invoice:

• Your business name, address and VAT registration number
• The customer's name and address
• A unique, sequential invoice number
• The date of issue (and the supply date if different)
• A clear description of the goods or services
• The VAT rate(s) applied and the VAT amount for each rate
• The total excluding VAT, the total VAT, and the total including VAT

Grafta builds all of this for you — your VAT number sits on every invoice, VAT is applied per line at the rate you set, numbering is sequential automatically, and the totals are calculated for you.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Charging 13.5% on a materials-heavy job that breaches the two-thirds rule (should be 23%)
• Forgetting your VAT number on the invoice once you're registered
• Non-sequential or duplicated invoice numbers
• Not registering once you've crossed the threshold — Revenue can backdate your registration, leaving you owing 23% VAT on invoices you never charged it on (so you either claw it back off customers or eat it)