Last updated November 6, 2026
Rules and figures from other sources checked on November 6, 2026. They change, so confirm with the source before you rely on them.
General information, not tax or legal advice. The rules depend on your country and your situation, so check anything with a tax or legal consequence with your accountant.
To invoice a business client in another EU country, check their VAT number in VIES, charge no VAT on most services or on goods that physically leave your country, print both VAT numbers, and add "Reverse charge" for services or an exemption reference for goods. Then report the sale on your EC Sales List.
Private customers work differently, and that is the only place the €10,000 threshold comes in. Everything here assumes you are VAT-registered in an EU country. A UK client sits outside all of this, because the UK left the EU VAT area.
How does the reverse charge work on an EU invoice?
The reverse charge on an EU invoice moves the VAT from you to your client: you charge none, and they declare it in their own return at their own rate. Most services between businesses are taxed where the client is established (Article 44 of the VAT Directive), and the client owes the tax when the seller isn't established in that country (Article 196).
Here's an invented example. A consultancy in Estonia bills a company in Germany €5,000 for a review of its processes. The German standard rate is 19%.
| Consultancy's invoice | Client's VAT return in Germany | |
|---|---|---|
| Net amount | €5,000 | €5,000 |
| VAT charged by the seller | €0 | |
| VAT the client declares as due | €950 | |
| VAT the client deducts, if it can deduct in full | −€950 | |
| VAT actually paid over | €0 | €0 |
The client pays €5,000. A business that can't deduct in full, such as a bank or an insurer, ends up bearing some of that €950, which is the point of taxing the sale where the client is.
Services connected with land, admission to events, passenger transport, and restaurant and catering have their own rules in Articles 47 to 55, so they don't follow this pattern automatically. The Your Europe summary flags these as exceptions.
What must an invoice to an EU business show?
An invoice to an EU business must be a full VAT invoice with both VAT numbers and a mention of why no VAT was charged. The points below come from Article 226, and the rest of the invoice follows the standard VAT invoice fields.
| Detail | Services | Goods | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your VAT number | Yes | Yes | Article 226(3) |
| Client's VAT number | Yes | Yes | Article 226(4) |
| Mention | "Reverse charge" | Reference to the exemption | Article 226(11a) and (11) |
| VAT amount added | None | None | |
| Deadline to issue | 15th of the following month | 15th of the following month | Article 222 |
| Simplified invoice allowed | No | No | Article 238(3) |
So work finished on 20 March has to be invoiced by 15 April. Your home country's invoicing rules apply to both cases (Article 219a), and the guide to reverse-charge wording has text to copy and a checklist.
Run the client's number through VIES before you send the invoice. Under Article 18 of Implementing Regulation 282/2011, confirming the number and its associated name and address is how you may regard the client as a business.
How do sales of goods to EU businesses differ from services?
Sales of goods to EU businesses are exempt rather than reverse-charged, and the exemption has conditions that a sale of services doesn't. Article 138 needs all of these:
- The goods physically travel to another EU country.
- The client is VAT-identified in an EU country other than the one the goods leave from, and has given you that number.
- Your EC Sales List shows the sale correctly (Article 138(1a)).
- You can prove the transport.
The proof is where sellers come unstuck. Article 45a of the Implementing Regulation presumes the goods moved if you hold two non-contradictory items of evidence from two independent parties, such as a signed CMR note from the carrier and the insurance policy for the shipment. If the client collects the goods, you also need their written statement by the 10th of the following month. Without evidence, a tax inspector can treat the sale as domestic and ask you for the VAT, so chase the paperwork at the time.
What about private customers in other EU countries?
Private customers in other EU countries never go on the reverse charge: you charge VAT, and the type of sale decides whose VAT.
| Sale to a private customer | VAT to charge |
|---|---|
| Ordinary services, such as consulting, design or repairs | Your own country's rate, with no threshold (Article 45) |
| Digital services or goods you ship, under the threshold | Your own country's rate |
| Digital services or goods you ship, over the threshold | The customer's country rate |
The EU-wide threshold is €10,000, excluding VAT. Digital services here means telecoms, broadcasting and electronically supplied services. According to Irish Revenue's summary of the conditions, the threshold is for sellers established in one EU country and looks at the current and the preceding calendar year.
Here's an invented example. A seller has €6,500 of online course sales and €4,000 of goods shipped to private buyers across the EU this year, which makes €10,500. The sale that crosses €10,000 and everything after it are taxed in each customer's country, and the next calendar year starts over the limit too, because the preceding year counts.
From there, the One Stop Shop lets you register in one EU country and declare all of those sales there, instead of registering in each one.
Do you have to report EU sales separately?
EU sales to businesses go on a recapitulative statement, usually called an EC Sales List, in addition to your VAT return (Article 262). The default is monthly. Under Article 263, a country may allow quarterly filing for services, and for goods up to €50,000 a quarter. The name, form and exact deadline depend on your country.
The list shows each client's VAT number and the value you supplied to them, and tax authorities exchange those figures through VIES. A wrong or missing entry for goods can cost you the exemption itself under Article 138(1a), unless you can justify the error to your tax authority. Use the same figures in the list and the return, so the two reconcile.
Will the EU cross-border invoicing rules change?
The EU cross-border invoicing rules change on 1 July 2030, when digital reporting based on e-invoicing starts for cross-border sales between businesses. Until then, the rules above apply. Individual countries can already require e-invoices for domestic sales under certain conditions, so that part may reach you sooner.
Invoicing EU clients in ERPFlow
In ERPFlow, you set this up once and then choose per line. In Settings > Tax rates, create a rate with the type Reverse charge at 0%, and one with the type Exempt at 0% if you sell goods. Then pick the right one on each invoice line, since a new line starts with your default rate.
- What prints: your VAT number and the VAT ID from the customer record, and a row such as "Reverse Charge 0%" in the totals. Add an exemption reference or a longer sentence in Notes, which also print.
- Rates by plan: Free holds one tax rate, so a standard rate plus a reverse-charge rate needs Starter or above. Starter holds two, Growth three, and Business and Enterprise any number.
- What it won't decide: there is no VIES lookup, and no automatic rate by customer country.
- What it won't file: no EC Sales List, VAT return or One Stop Shop return. The CSV exports give each invoice line's tax type and each customer's VAT ID, for whoever prepares them.
One limit matters if you send e-invoices. The Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 XML export sets the tax category from the rate alone, so every 0% line goes out as zero-rated (category Z), even when you picked Reverse charge. Peppol's reverse-charge category, AE, also needs an exemption reason that the export doesn't produce. The PDF states the reverse charge correctly. If a client asks for a reverse-charge e-invoice, talk to your e-invoice operator before relying on the file. ERPFlow exports the XML and doesn't send it over the Peppol network itself.