What is a VAT invoice?
A VAT invoice is the invoice a VAT-registered business gives for a sale that carries VAT. It says who sold what to whom, on which date, at which VAT rate, and how much VAT is due. Your business customers need it: their accountant books the purchase from it.
A card receipt often does not name the buyer's company, so it does not help them. That is why online sellers get the same email after a sale: "Can you send us an invoice with our company name and VAT number?"
Full invoice or simplified invoice
In the EU, a small sale can get a shorter document, the simplified invoice. Every member state must allow it up to EUR 100, and a member state may allow it up to EUR 400 (Directive 2010/45/EU, art. 220a and 238, EUR-Lex, last verified 23 October 2026). Each country sets its own limit inside that range. The table above shows the limits we have read, each with its source.
A simplified invoice needs at least four things (art. 226b, same source):
- the date of issue,
- who supplies the goods or services,
- what was supplied,
- the VAT amount, or what you need to calculate it.
Two cases never get a simplified invoice: an intra-EU supply of goods, and a sale where the buyer pays the VAT (reverse charge) (art. 220a(2), same source). For those, issue a full invoice.
In the UK, the line is £250: "You must issue a full VAT invoice if the transaction is for: more than £250 / £250 or less but the customer requests one" (VAT Notice 700, section 16.6.2, GOV.UK, last verified 23 October 2026).
The full list of what a VAT invoice shows in the EU, in the words of article 226 of the VAT Directive, is on the EU VAT invoice requirements page.
What the template puts on the invoice
The generator above makes a full invoice layout. It holds:
- your company: name, address, country and VAT number,
- your customer: name, address, country and VAT number,
- the date of issue, and the date of supply when it is different,
- one line per product or service: quantity, unit price, VAT rate, net amount, VAT and total,
- the VAT per rate and the totals,
- your notes, for example payment terms or bank details.
You choose the VAT rate of each line. The tool multiplies and adds; it does not decide which rate applies to your sale. Your accountant or your tax office does.
The footer says which country rules the template used. Today every country uses the generic template, because no country's rules have a dated review yet. The table above shows it per country.
Why the template has no invoice number
In the EU, every invoice carries "a sequential number, based on one or more series, which uniquely identifies the invoice" (Directive 2006/112/EC, art. 226(2), EUR-Lex, last verified 23 October 2026). That sequence belongs to your company. A free tool cannot know your next number, so the file leaves the number box empty: write it in before you send the invoice.
Inside an InvoiceCow account, each company keeps its own number sequence, and every invoice takes the next number by itself.