Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

VAT definition

What does VAT mean? VAT is a consumption tax on most supplies of goods and services made by taxable businesses to businesses or consumers. In practice, it underpins pricing (plus VAT), invoicing, cross‑border trade and many property transactions. The charge and key concepts are set out in the UK Value Added Tax Act 1994 and, in Ireland, the Value‑Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 (implementing the EU VAT Directive). In Northern Ireland, EU VAT rules continue to apply to goods under the Windsor Framework; services follow UK rules. Core features include: output tax charged at standard, reduced or zero rates; exempt supplies (for example, certain...

UK VAT invoicing: when required, mandatory content, timing and tax points, self‑billing and simplified invoices, electronic invoicing (mandatory from April 2029), and HMRC discretion where no VAT invoice exists

Published by a LexisNexis Tax expert

Practice notes

FORTHCOMING CHANGE

At Budget 2025, the government confirmed that, from April 2029, all VAT invoices must be issued electronically. It has also stated it will work with stakeholders to devise an implementation roadmap, which will be published at Budget 2026. Ordinarily, when a VAT‑registered person supplies Goods or services to another VAT‑registered person, a VAT invoice must be provided. A VAT invoice is a document that sets out specified information about the supply. VAT invoices are significant not only for administrative and record‑keeping purposes, but also because they can influence the amount and timing of VAT payments. In particular:

Issuing a VAT invoice may create a tax point under the VAT time of supply rules (triggering liability to account for output tax)—for more details, see Practice Note: VAT time of supply rules—when is a supply made?
The recipient of a supply will require a VAT invoice to reclaim input tax. For more information on VAT recovery, see Practice Note: When can a person recover VAT?

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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