Reduced rate · 2026

13.5% VAT calculator for Ireland

The reduced rate, preset. Type a net amount to add 13.5%, or switch to Remove VAT and type the gross from a builder's invoice, a hotel bill or a heating oil delivery. Below: what Revenue puts at 13.5% and what it does not.

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VAT rate

Reduced rate. Hotel and guesthouse lettings, cinema and museum admissions, heating oil and other fuels, building services, repairs, cleaning, short-term hire, tour guides.

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Irish VAT breakdown · 2026

Net: €100.00
VAT @ 13.5%: €13.50
Gross: €113.50

Reduced rate

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What the 13.5% rate applies to

Revenue’s reduced rate page lists the categories. The ones people meet most often:

Accommodation. Hotel lettings, guesthouses, caravan parks and camping sites. Hotels stayed at 13.5% when restaurants moved to 9% in July 2026.
Admissions. Cinemas, theatres, certain musical performances, museums, art galleries, exhibitions, fairground amusements and open farms.
Fuels. Home heating oil, solid fuel and other fuels not covered by the 9% rate for electricity and gas. The Revenue database lists heating oil at the reduced rate. Petrol and diesel for cars are 23%.
Building and repairs. Construction services, repair services, and cleaning and maintenance generally. Car repairs are 13.5% for the labour, but parts such as tyres and batteries supplied during the repair are charged at 23%.
Short-term hire. Car hire to the same person for less than five weeks in any twelve months, along with boats, caravans and similar.
Some food. Cakes, flour and egg-based bakery products, and biscuits without chocolate. The chocolate-covered ones are 23%. See VAT on food for the full picture.
Other. Certain printed matter such as brochures and leaflets (not books), photographic prints, live horses not intended for food, greyhounds, and tour guide services.

How to calculate 13.5% VAT

Adding: gross = net × 1.135. A plumber quotes €400 net for a repair: 400 × 1.135 = €454.00, of which €54.00 is VAT.

Removing: net = gross ÷ 1.135. A hotel bill of €340 includes €40.44 of VAT: 340 ÷ 1.135 = €299.56 net. Do not take 13.5% off the €340; that gives €294.10, which is €5.46 too low. The reverse VAT calculator explains why.

Worked examples at 13.5%

Adding 13.5% to common net amounts:

Net	VAT at 13.5%	Gross
€50.00	€6.75	€56.75
€100.00	€13.50	€113.50
€250.00	€33.75	€283.75
€1,000.00	€135.00	€1,135.00
€12,500.00	€1,687.50	€14,187.50

And the same €1,000 gross worked at each Irish rate, for comparison:

Rate	Net	VAT	Gross
23%	€813.01	€186.99	€1,000.00
13.5%	€881.06	€118.94	€1,000.00
9%	€917.43	€82.57	€1,000.00
4.8%	€954.20	€45.80	€1,000.00
0%	€1,000.00	€0.00	€1,000.00

The rate has not moved in years

The current-rates table on revenue.ie shows the reduced rate at 13.5% in every row back to 2020, including the months from September 2020 to February 2021 when the standard rate dipped to 21% and came back. What changes is not the percentage but the list of things it covers, which is why restaurants could leave it in July 2026 while hotels stayed. EU law lets a member state run two reduced rates, and Ireland uses both: 13.5% and the 9% second reduced rate.

Watch the boundaries

The 13.5% rate is where most VAT arguments happen because it sits between two other rates. A builder supplying labour and materials is at 13.5% unless materials exceed two-thirds of the price. A garage charges 13.5% on the service and 23% on the tyres. A bakery sells bread at 0%, a cake at 13.5% and a chocolate biscuit at 23%. When a quote or invoice depends on it, check the specific item in Revenue’s VAT rates database rather than assuming the category.

For the standard rate, use the main VAT calculator. Every Irish rate with examples is on the VAT rates page.

13.5% VAT questions

It is the reduced rate. Revenue applies it to hotel and guesthouse lettings, admissions to cinemas, theatres and museums, certain fuels including heating oil, building services, repair services, cleaning and maintenance, short-term hire and tour guide services, among other things. The standard rate for everything else is 23%.

To add it, multiply the net by 1.135: €200 × 1.135 = €227, so the VAT is €27. To remove it from a gross price, divide by 1.135: €227 ÷ 1.135 = €200 net. The VAT fraction for 13.5% is 13.5/113.5, about 0.119 of the gross.

No. Revenue moved catering and restaurant meals, hot takeaway food, hot tea and coffee, and hairdressing from 13.5% to 9% on 1 July 2026. They had been at 13.5% from 1 September 2023 to 30 June 2026. Hotel lettings did not move and remain at 13.5%.

Most construction services on property are at 13.5%, but there is a two-thirds rule: if the cost of the materials supplied exceeds two-thirds of the total price, the whole supply is taxed at the rate of the materials, usually 23%. Materials bought on their own are 23%. Ask the builder to show the rate on the quote.

Sources and method

Every rate on this site was checked against the pages below on 3 September 2026, and an automated check compares our rates with the Revenue tables every week. We compute VAT the way Revenue does: adding VAT multiplies the net by (1 + rate), removing VAT divides the gross by (1 + rate), and every figure is rounded half-up to the cent.

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