EU & UK VAT Invoice Requirements: The Complete Checklist

Last updated: 4 September 2026 · Written by the team behind Bindery VAT Invoices

If you sell to customers in the European Union or the United Kingdom, the invoices you issue are legal documents with legally mandated contents. In the EU the list comes from Article 226 of the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC); the UK kept a near-identical list after Brexit. Tax auditors check invoices against these lists field by field — and an invoice that is missing a required field can cost the buyer their input-VAT deduction and cost the seller penalties.

The short version: a compliant VAT invoice identifies both parties, is numbered without gaps or repeats, shows each VAT rate on its own line with its own taxable amount, and states the legal reason whenever VAT is not charged. Most invoice failures are one of those four things.

What every EU VAT invoice must contain (Article 226)

Field	Detail
Date of issue	When the invoice was created.
Sequential invoice number	From one or more series, with no gaps and no duplicates. You may not renumber or reuse a number, ever — even after a mistake. Corrections are made with a credit note, in its own numbered series.
Your VAT identification number	The number under which you made the supply.
Customer's VAT number	Required when the customer owes the VAT (reverse charge / intra-Community supply).
Your full name and address	The legal name, not just a trading name.
Customer's full name and address
Description of the goods or services	Quantity and nature of the goods, or extent and nature of the services.
Date of supply	When the goods/services were supplied or payment was received, if that differs from the issue date.
Taxable amount per rate	The net amount for each VAT rate or exemption, plus the unit price and any discounts not already included.
The VAT rate applied	Each rate, separately.
The VAT amount payable	In the national currency of the country where VAT is due.
Exemption reference	When no VAT is charged, the invoice must say why — a reference to the Directive article or national provision (for example an intra-Community supply under Article 138, or an export under Article 146), or the words "Reverse charge".

The mistakes that actually fail audits

One blended VAT total. If an order contains a book at the reduced rate and a lamp at the standard rate, the invoice needs a taxable amount, rate and VAT amount for each rate — not one combined tax line. Most generic invoice tools get this wrong because most were built for single-rate countries.
Gaps or duplicates in invoice numbers. Auditors sort your invoices by number and look for holes. A deleted invoice, a re-issued number, or two documents sharing one number are all findings. Credit notes need their own series — a credit note that reuses the invoice prefix can silently collide with a real invoice number.
Zero VAT with no stated reason. Charging 0% on a cross-border sale is only lawful in specific situations, and the invoice must name the legal basis. A common trap: an EU business customer who did not supply a VAT number does not qualify for the intra-Community exemption — without their number, you owe the VAT.
Missing seller identity. Invoices generated from a template nobody finished configuring — no legal name, no VAT ID, no address — are invalid however correct the math is.
Tax-inclusive prices handled backwards. When your shop shows prices with VAT included, the invoice must derive the net amounts correctly per rate; rounding per-line versus per-total differences are a real audit finding in some member states.

UK invoices after Brexit

The UK's full VAT invoice list (HMRC Notice 700/21) mirrors the EU's: sequential number, time of supply (tax point), your name, address and VAT registration number, the customer's name and address, description, and — per item — the unit price, quantity, rate of VAT and the VAT-exclusive amount, plus the total VAT charged. UK-EU sales are now exports/imports, which changes which exemption wording applies.

Check your own invoices

Print your three most recent invoices and check them against the table above, field by field. The most common gaps are the per-rate breakdown, the exemption wording, and the credit-note numbering. Five minutes now is cheaper than an auditor finding it later.

Honest disclosure: this page is published by the maker of Bindery VAT Invoices, a Shopify app that generates invoices meeting every requirement above — each rate broken out, gapless numbering, exemption notices applied automatically, and a warning banner when a legally required field is missing instead of a document that looks valid and is not. There is a free plan. If you use another tool and it passes the checklist above, you don't need us.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. VAT rules change; national implementations differ. For edge cases, ask a tax adviser in the country where VAT is due.