The thresholds in one table
Revenue’s page “What are the VAT thresholds?” lists what it calls the principal thresholds. Registration is obligatory when your annual turnover exceeds the one that applies to you.
| Threshold | Who it applies to (Revenue wording, shortened) |
|---|---|
| €42,500 | Persons supplying services only |
| €42,500 | Persons supplying goods at the reduced or standard rate which they have manufactured or produced from zero-rated materials |
| €85,000 | Persons supplying goods |
| €85,000 | Persons supplying both goods and services where 90% or more of turnover is from goods (other than the goods in the second row) |
| €10,000 | Intra-Community distance sales of goods and cross-border telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic (TBE) services into Ireland, counted across all EU member states |
| €41,000 | Persons making acquisitions of goods from other EU member states |
The second €42,500 row is the one people miss. A baker who buys zero-rated flour and sells 13.5% cakes is supplying goods made from zero-rated materials, so Revenue gives that business the €42,500 figure, not €85,000. If you make what you sell from zero-rated inputs, read that row as yours.
How Revenue counts your turnover
The page is specific. To calculate annual turnover you total the 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. Three things are left out:
- occasional disposals of your business assets, such as buildings, vehicles or machines,
- transfers of goods to a non-EU country without there being a supply,
- exempt cross-border supplies of new means of transport from one member state to another.
Revenue’s worked example: an Irish trader sells goods worth €70,000 in the 2025 calendar year and, in a once-off transaction, sells a delivery van for €20,000. The total is €90,000, but the van is an incidental disposal of a business asset, so the turnover for threshold purposes is €70,000. Under the €85,000 goods threshold, no registration is required.
Two practical points follow. First, the year is the calendar year, January to December, not your accounting year. Second, the figures are VAT-exclusive. If you have been charging VAT-inclusive prices without being registered, you have not been charging VAT, so the whole receipt counts. If you are already registered and checking whether you could deregister, take the VAT out first with the reverse VAT calculator.
Near the line: what changes when you cross it
Once registered you add VAT to every taxable sale at the rate for what you sell: 23% for most services, 13.5% for building and repair work, 9% for hairdressing and catering, 0% for most food. For a consultant that means a €1,000 invoice becomes €1,230. Business customers reclaim the €230 and do not care. Private customers pay it and do. The VAT on services page lists which rate applies to which service, and the calculator above shows what any price becomes at 23%.
You also start reclaiming the VAT on your own costs, file a VAT3 return (normally every two months) and an annual Return of Trading Details. The registration guide covers the TR1 and TR2 forms and the two-tier system; the VAT3 guide covers the return.
Registering below the threshold
Revenue’s page “Who may elect to register for VAT?” says farmers, fishers and businesses that do not exceed the thresholds may elect to register. You cannot backdate an election; it runs from a current date. After that your obligations are the same as if you had been obliged to register. Electing makes sense when your customers are VAT-registered and your costs carry VAT you would like back. It rarely makes sense when you sell to the public.
Selling into other EU countries: the SME scheme
Irish thresholds only protect you in Ireland. Revenue’s overview of the EU VAT SME scheme explains that an Irish trader making supplies in another member state generally has no de minimis threshold there and must register at once. Since 1 January 2025 the SME scheme lets a small Irish business use the other country’s domestic threshold instead, provided it is established for VAT only in Ireland, stays under that country’s threshold, stays under the Union-wide limit of €100,000, registers with Revenue for the scheme and files quarterly reports. The scheme is optional.
No threshold at all: services bought from abroad
One threshold does not exist. Revenue’s page on self-accounting for received services says that when you receive services from abroad for business purposes you may have to register and account for Irish VAT, and that there is no registration threshold for received services. A VAT-registered business puts the VAT on its own return at the Irish rate and usually reclaims it in the same return; Revenue’s example is a €100,000 consultancy fee from Germany carrying €23,000 of Irish VAT. A VAT-exempt business, such as a bank or an insurer, has to register just to account for it. This is the rule that catches small exempt businesses buying software or advertising from abroad.