VAT and e-invoicing for removal firms in Ireland
What Revenue says about the VAT on a household removal, what an Irish VAT number looks like, and when the e-invoicing obligations arrive.
The rate on a household removal
The removal of household goods is a service taxed at Ireland's standard rate of VAT, which Revenue lists as 23% (the standard rate since 1 January 2012, set by section 46(1)(a) of the VAT Consolidation Act 2010). No reduced rate applies to it: the 13.5% rate covers named services only.
A VAT-registered firm quoting a consumer shows the price with VAT, and can show the amount before VAT beside it.
The VAT number
An Irish VAT number is IE followed by seven digits and one or two letters (for example IE1234567T, or IE1234567WA for the two-letter form issued since 2013). An older form — one digit, a letter or symbol, five digits and a letter — is still valid.
An Irish business that buys a service from a supplier abroad accounts for the VAT itself under the reverse charge (section 12 of the 2010 Act).
E-invoicing: the dates Revenue has published
Revenue's VAT modernisation timeline phases in electronic invoicing. Every phase requires businesses to be able to receive and process e-invoices from any supplier mandated to issue them, from 1 November 2028.
- 1 November 2028 — VAT-registered large corporates must issue e-invoices for domestic business-to-business sales.
- November 2029 — businesses trading cross-border within the EU on the 0% arrangements.
- July 2030 — all cross-border EU business-to-business transactions.
What that means for a small domestic removal firm
A firm that sells to households and does no cross-border EU trade is not named in any of the published phases as having to issue e-invoices. From November 2028 it must be able to receive them from its own suppliers — usually a job for its accounting software.
How Cerrax handles it
Cerrax prices before VAT and adds Irish VAT on the quote, so a customer sees the price with VAT and the firm sees both. The firm's VAT number is checked against the Irish format before it is printed on a quote.
Sources
Facts checked against their sources on 19 September 2026.
General information, not legal or tax advice. The law and the rates change; check the source, and ask your solicitor or accountant about your own business.