VAT records in Ireland: what to keep and for how long

Think of it as everything needed to prove each figure on each VAT return.

• Sales invoices and credit notes you issued.
• Purchase invoices and credit notes you received.
• Import documents for goods brought in from outside the EU.
• Bank statements and payment records.
• Your ledgers and the workings behind each VAT return.
• Till or cash register records if you sell to the public.

The general rule is six years. Revenue lists situations where it runs longer: records relating to a VAT claim, a Tax Appeals Commission appeal or a Revenue inquiry must be kept for six years or until the matter is finalised, whichever is later. Records tied to certain property transactions have their own rules.

You need Revenue’s written permission to keep documents for a shorter period.

Revenue allows electronic records, kept in line with its electronic invoicing rules. Invoices issued on paper must be kept on paper, and paper records must stay in the State unless Revenue agrees otherwise. In practice, most small businesses now receive bills by email, which makes a digital record the natural one.

A box of receipts meets the letter of the rule but not the spirit. If Revenue asks about a figure, you need to find the documents behind it quickly. Attaching each document to the transaction in your accounting software means a VAT return figure can be traced to the invoices that make it up in a couple of clicks.

That traceability also helps your accountant, who can answer questions from the ledger rather than asking you to dig.

These are the records small businesses most often struggle to produce.

• Receipts for small cash purchases.
• Credit notes that were agreed by phone and never issued.
• Import paperwork for goods bought from the UK.
• Evidence for VAT reclaimed on mixed business and personal costs.

When Revenue reviews VAT, it typically picks figures from returns and asks to see what is behind them: the invoices for a large purchase claim, the sales records for a period, or the evidence for a zero-rated sale to another EU country. The faster you can produce them, the shorter and smoother the review.

Practise once, before anyone asks, and fix whatever slowed you down. Pick a recent VAT return and try to produce every invoice behind one of its boxes, using only what you have on file today. If that takes more than a few minutes, your records are kept but not organised.

Sales to VAT-registered customers in other EU countries need evidence that the customer is registered and that the goods left Ireland, such as transport documents. Imports need customs paperwork. These documents are easy to lose because they often arrive separately, from couriers, freight forwarders or customs agents rather than the supplier, so attach them to the transaction as soon as they come in.

Switching accounting software does not reset the six-year clock. Export your old ledgers and documents in a readable format, or keep read-only access, until every year in the old system has passed the retention period. Note where the old records are kept so anyone answering a Revenue query in future can find them.

HelloBooks stores bills and receipts against the transactions they support, so each VAT3 figure drills back to its documents. Its AI reads the supplier, date, amounts and VAT from each document for you to confirm. Keep your HelloBooks account active, or export your records, for the full retention period.