Selling to EU Businesses from Ireland: ViDA, Zero Rate and VIES

staxo team, 2026-09-30

If you are selling to EU businesses from Ireland, your sales keep the 0% rate, and the way you invoice and report them changes on 1 July 2030. From that date, under the EU's VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package, digital reporting based on e-invoicing applies to every intra-EU B2B sale. Each invoice must be a structured e-invoice, issued within 10 days of the chargeable event and reported as it is issued. The VIES statement you file today disappears.

In Ireland the change starts earlier. Revenue's VAT Modernisation Timeline, updated on 20 July 2026, sets Phase 2 for November 2029. From then, VAT-registered businesses engaged in cross-border EU B2B trade that benefit from the 0% arrangements must also issue e-invoices on their domestic B2B sales and report them in real time. From 1 July 2030, running the new system becomes the condition for keeping the 0% rate.

Below: how these sales work today, what changes, and one Kildare shipment to France before and after. We finish with a checklist to start this year.

How B2B sales to the EU work today

Zero rating and the reverse charge

When you sell goods to a VAT-registered business in another EU country and the goods leave Ireland, the sale is an intra-Community supply. You charge VAT at 0%, quote your customer's VAT number on the invoice, and your customer accounts for VAT in their own country. See where the zero rate sits in our guide to Irish VAT rates in 2026.

Most B2B services to a customer in another EU country are taxed where the customer is, so you charge no Irish VAT and the customer self-accounts under the reverse charge. Goods go in box E1 of your VAT3 and services in ES1, as our guide to the VAT3 boxes E1, E2, ES1 and ES2 explains.

VIES statements and the 15-day invoice rule

Under the Value-Added Tax Regulations 2010 (S.I. No. 639 of 2010), Regulation 23, a VAT invoice must be issued within the 15 days following the end of the month in which you made the supply. You also file a VIES statement listing each EU customer and what you sold them. Under Revenue's VIES Traders Manual, the statement is due by the 23rd of the month after the period. It must be monthly once your intra-EU supplies of goods exceed €50,000 in a quarter, and service suppliers can choose monthly or quarterly.

The invoice can be paper or a PDF. Revenue's page Other types of VAT invoices: electronic invoicing says electronic invoicing today needs the agreement of both parties, so your customer can say no.

Selling to EU businesses from Ireland: what changes on 1 July 2030

ViDA was adopted on 11 March 2025 and entered into force on 14 April 2025. Its digital reporting requirements for intra-EU B2B transactions apply from 1 July 2030. Accountancy Europe's VAT in the Digital Age factsheet sets out what that means for a seller:

• The e-invoice becomes the default. Cross-border B2B invoices use a structured format that conforms to the European standard, with no prior authorisation needed.
• The 10-day invoice rule. Invoices for intra-EU supplies are due within 10 days of the chargeable event.
• Reporting at issue. Each transaction is reported when the invoice is issued, or should have been. Where your customer self-bills, the data is due within 5 days.
• The VIES return is abolished. Recapitulative statements are no longer required.
• No refusal. Your customer cannot refuse an e-invoice and ask for another format.
• Summary invoices stay possible. You can issue one invoice for a calendar month's supplies, within 10 days of the month end.
• New invoice fields. Your bank account number (or equivalent identifier), and on corrections the original invoice number.
• Help is allowed. A third party, such as your accountant or software provider, can meet the obligations for you.

For the rest of the package, read our explainer on what ViDA means for Irish businesses. It also covers the platform rules and the One-Stop Shop changes.

Keeping the 0% rate: e-invoicing becomes a condition

The key line is in Revenue's plan, VAT Modernisation: Implementation of eInvoicing in Ireland. Revenue writes that businesses trading across EU borders will need to operate the new e-invoicing systems to keep access to the current 0% VAT arrangements for Single Market trade.

The same document says the changes relate solely to invoicing and reporting: tax rates, payment requirements and liability calculations stay as they are. You still charge 0%, and your customer still accounts for the VAT.

The definition is strict. On its page Large corporates for Phase One of VAT modernisation, Revenue defines an e-invoice as one issued, transmitted and received in a structured format that allows automated processing and complies with European Standard EN 16931, such as XML. A PDF attached to an email does not qualify, and nor does a scanned paper invoice.

In practice, the e-invoice looks set to become part of what supports your zero rate, alongside your customer's VAT number. Revenue has not yet published the detailed rules on how that link will work.

Ireland's head start: e-invoicing Phase 2 from November 2029

Phase 1 starts on 1 November 2028 for businesses in Revenue's Large Corporates Division. From that date, according to Revenue's press release Revenue confirms large corporates for Phase One of VAT Modernisation, every business in Ireland must be able to receive structured e-invoices.

Phase 2 is written for exporters: from November 2029 the domestic obligation extends to VAT-registered businesses in cross-border EU B2B trade that use the 0% arrangements. Revenue gives no day. Advisers such as RSM, in Ireland advances mandatory e-invoicing under VAT Modernisation programme, give 1 November 2029, the likely date until Revenue confirms it.

Phase 3, in July 2030, is full ViDA for cross-border EU B2B trade. That gives Irish exporters around eight months of e-invoicing home sales before EU invoices follow, a useful rehearsal. Scope and penalties are covered in our guide to VAT modernisation in Ireland: phases and deadlines.

Revenue says it will publish technical specifications well ahead of each phase, with the reporting data subset specified later. As of 29 September 2026 they are not out.

A Kildare farm supplier selling to France, before and after

Take a fictitious VAT-registered farm supplier in County Kildare. It sells feed and fencing to local farms and co-ops and ships milking parlour parts to a dealer in Brittany, well under €50,000 a quarter.

Today. On 3 March, the supplier ships €6,200 of parts to Brittany. The bookkeeper invoices with the month's other sales, so the deadline is 15 April. The PDF, which the dealer agreed to years ago, shows 0% VAT and the dealer's VAT number, and €6,200 goes into E1. VIES is quarterly, so the January to March statement is due by 23 April.

From November 2029. Its invoices to Irish co-ops and other business customers become EN 16931 e-invoices reported to Revenue in real time. It has been receiving e-invoices since 1 November 2028, for example from a large supplier in Phase 1.

From 1 July 2030. The same shipment needs an EN 16931 e-invoice within 10 days of the chargeable event, or a March summary invoice by 10 April. The data is reported at issue, there is no VIES statement, and the invoice carries the supplier's bank account number. The dealer cannot ask for a PDF. French companies have had to be able to receive e-invoices since 1 September 2026, according to the French tax administration's guide I want to understand electronic invoicing, so the dealer should be ready to accept it.

Brittany is one market among many. See how other customers' countries are moving in our comparison of EU e-invoicing mandates and the lessons for Ireland.

Goods and services: what is reported

ViDA reporting covers zero-rated intra-EU supplies of goods, intra-EU acquisitions of goods, and goods and services under the mandatory reverse charge, which includes B2B services to other Member States. Member States may skip buyer-side reporting; Ireland has not said which way it will go.

Service suppliers who file quarterly VIES today move to the same 10-day rule and reporting at issue as goods. Take a Galway software consultancy that bills a client in Lyon €4,000 a month. Today it can invoice by the 15th of the next month and report the sales in a quarterly VIES statement. From 1 July 2030 each bill is an e-invoice due within 10 days, reported as it is issued.

What to do now: a checklist for Irish businesses selling to the EU

1. List your EU customers. Note VAT numbers, goods or services, and invoices per month.
2. Check how quickly you invoice. Month-end batches need to become invoicing at dispatch or summary invoices within 10 days of month end.
3. Ask your software provider two questions. Can it issue and receive EN 16931 e-invoices? How will it connect to Revenue? Revenue says it will use existing infrastructure including Peppol.
4. Be ready to receive by 1 November 2028. Every business needs this.
5. Plan domestic e-invoicing for November 2029. If you use the 0% arrangements, Phase 2 brings your Irish B2B invoices into the system first. If you only sell services under the reverse charge, ask your adviser how Revenue's wording applies to you.
6. Update your invoice template. Add your bank account number; credit notes quote the original invoice number.
7. Decide who files. Your accountant or software provider can report for you.
8. Keep your records. VAT records are generally kept for six years, per Revenue's page How long do you keep records for?.
9. Watch for Revenue's technical specifications. Questions go to vatmodernisation@revenue.ie.

The work for 2030 starts with knowing exactly what you invoiced, to whom and when. staxo keeps your sales, EU customer details and VAT3 boxes in one place, so e-invoicing starts from records you already hold. Create your staxo account and have your EU sales in order well before November 2029.