On 8 October 2025, Revenue issued VAT guidance announcing the introduction of domestic B2B eInvoicing and real-time reporting in Ireland. This guidance marks a significant milestone, with Ireland joining other EU Member States in establishing its own domestic regime ahead of the EU Digital Age (ViDA) Directive coming into effect in July 2030.

Guidance highlights

We have summarised the key points of the guidance below:

1. A Phased Implementation Approach

• Phase 1 – From November 2028: Large VAT-registered corporate entities will be required to implement mandatory e-Invoicing and real-time reporting for domestic B2B transactions.
• Phase 2 – From November 2029: Mandatory domestic B2B e-Invoicing and real-time reporting will be extended to all VAT-registered businesses engaged in cross-border B2B trade within the EU.
• Phase 3 – From July 2030: All cross-border EU B2B transactions will be subject to mandatory eInvoicing and real-time reporting. Access to the current 0% VAT rate for intra-EU trade will be contingent on compliance with these new digital requirements.
  
  Additionally, from November 2028, all businesses will be required to have the capability to receive e-Invoices, regardless of whether they are yet obligated to issue them.
  

2. The link to the ViDA Directive

The ViDA Directive, effective 1 July 2030, mandates structured eInvoicing and real-time reporting for cross-border B2B transactions within the EU. Compliance is critical for businesses to retain the 0% VAT rate on intra-EU trade. The directive aims to significantly reduce VAT fraud and lower administrative costs across Member States. 

3. Technical Requirements

e-Invoices must comply with European Standard EN16931, utilising structured data formats to enable automatic processing. Traditional PDF or scanned invoices will no longer meet compliance standards. Ireland will leverage existing infrastructure such as the PEPPOL network, already in use for public sector eInvoicing, to support secure and standardised electronic document exchange. Revenue is collaborating with the Office of Government Procurement and industry experts to ensure effective technical implementation. 

4. Stakeholder Engagement

Revenue’s initial public consultation began in October 2023, with findings published in June 2024. There was strong support for the efficiencies digital reporting will bring, alongside calls for clear guidance and support, particularly for SMEs. Revenue will continue active engagement with businesses, tax practitioners, software providers, and industry groups through direct communications, forums, and the Tax Administration Liaison Committee (TALC). This ongoing dialogue aims to ensure a practical and business-friendly implementation. 

5. Revenue’s next Steps

Revenue is conducting detailed legislative, operational, and IT system preparations. Detailed guidance and technical specifications will be published well ahead of each phase to allow adequate preparation and testing. The phased rollout provides businesses time to adapt and ensures Ireland’s VAT system aligns with international best practices.

Revenue is committed to supporting businesses throughout the transition to deliver long-term benefits in compliance efficiency and fraud reduction.

Deloitte Insights

A lead time of 3 years will be warmly welcomed by Irish businesses. However, this time should be used wisely, as a full end-to-end implementation of e-Invoicing and e-Reporting requires a significant time investment, depending on the nature of a business, current VAT compliance processes and the IT landscape.

While eInvoicing and e-Reporting falls under the umbrella of VAT Modernisation, its impact is much broader than simply changing how a business manages its VAT compliance and reporting. Invoicing is a critical business function that fundamentally impacts a business’ ability to trade with vendors and buyers – if you cannot validly receive/issue invoices, you cannot operate or be paid! Early engagement with key external stakeholders is pivotal to an effective implementation.

Based on experience, we strongly encourage companies/groups to establish a business wide e-Invoicing and e-Reporting Steering Committee, made up of key internal stakeholders across all aspects of the business including tax and IT, and supported by tax professional advisors and e-Invoicing technology providers, in order to create a Roadmap for implementation to November 2028.

While Revenue’s 2023 consultation indicated many Irish businesses possess a degree of digital capability, the transition to mandatory e-Invoicing and e-Reporting will require time and resource investment in the necessary system upgrades and process changes. In particular, businesses will need to assess the quality of their underlying data and their reliance on manual invoicing/compliance processes.

To prepare effectively, businesses should initially consider:

• On-boarding a trusted and experienced e-Invoicing and e-Reporting Partner to support with the creating of a SteerCo, development of a Roadmap and project manage implementation right through to operate;
• Conducting a comprehensive review of current “as-is” state of invoicing, accounting, and reporting systems in order to create a step plan for change management;
• Assessing the potential impact of e-Reporting on end-to-end sales and supply chain processes, recognising that the requirement for accurate, complete, and consistent data across systems may necessitate changes to current workflows and directly affect daily operations;
• Assessing the capability of various software providers to understand eInvoicing & e-Reporting capabilities, integration options and undertake vendor selection;
• Monitoring ongoing guidance from Revenue and relevant industry bodies. 

The implementation of eInvoicing and e-Reporting in Ireland is of course a small part of the EU wide VAT in the Digital Age requirements, and so it is important businesses strategically consider a global e-Invoicing strategy, where trading outside of Ireland.