When you have to register for VAT

There is no single Irish VAT threshold, and the question “what is the VAT threshold in Ireland?” has four answers depending on what you sell and to whom. Two of them are the ones most people mean; the other two catch cross-border trade at figures small enough to surprise a business that thinks of itself as local.

The two that apply to most people

If you supply services only, the figure is €42,500. If you supply goods, it is €85,000 — and the same higher figure applies where you supply both and ninety per cent or more of your turnover comes from goods.

The split trips people up because the intuition runs the other way: a service business has lower costs, so surely it gets the more generous threshold? It does not. A consultant crosses the line at roughly half the turnover a shop does.

There is a third case in Revenue’s list that reads oddly until you see what it is for: the lower figure also applies to a person supplying goods liable at the reduced or standard rates which they have manufactured or produced from zero-rated materials. That is the baker rule — buy flour at zero, sell a standard-rated product, and you are treated like a service supplier for threshold purposes.

The two that ignore your size entirely

The distance-sales figure is a European one and it is not a threshold in the same sense. It applies to intra-Community distance sales of goods and to cross-border telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services into the State — and Revenue is explicit that it is calculated on the supplier’s total value of such sales to customers in all EU Member States, not just into Ireland. It only applies at all where the supplier is established in one Member State; otherwise Irish VAT registration is required for those supplies regardless.

The acquisitions figure applies to a person making acquisitions from other EU Member States — a business buying in, not selling out.

And there is a case with no threshold at all. A person not established in the State who supplies taxable goods or services to taxable customers here must register and account for VAT irrespective of the level of turnover, unless they avail of the VAT SME Scheme.

What counts as turnover

Revenue gives the rule and, usefully, an example of when it does not bite. Turnover for these purposes is the total value, excluding VAT, in a calendar year, of supplies of taxable goods and services, supplies of immovable goods, certain financial transactions, and insurance and reinsurance services.

Excluded from the count are occasional disposals of your own business assets — buildings, vehicles, machines — transfers of goods to a non-EU country without a supply, and exempt cross-border supplies of new means of transport between Member States.

Revenue’s worked example is the one people need: a trader selling €70,000 of goods in a calendar year who also sells a delivery van for €20,000 has not crossed the goods threshold, because the van is an incidental sale of a business asset and comes out of the count.

Source: Revenue — What are the VAT thresholds? (published 6 May 2026), and Who should register for VAT?

Below the threshold is not the same as exempt

An unregistered trader charges no VAT and reclaims none, which looks from the outside exactly like an exempt business. It is not the same thing, and the difference matters the moment you approach the line — that comparison has its own page. A trader below the threshold may also elect to register, which is worth doing when your customers are themselves registered and your input VAT is significant.