Invoice examples, worked out line by line

Two UK invoices: without VAT and with VAT

In the UK, the first thing that decides what your invoice looks like is whether you're registered for VAT. VAT (Value Added Tax) is the tax that registered businesses add to most of their sales and pay to HMRC, the UK tax authority. A business that isn't registered sends a plain invoice with no tax on it. A registered business sends a VAT invoice, which has to show more. The two examples below bill similar creative work, so you can see what changes and what stays the same, and the UK invoice guide has the full checklists for both.

A sole trader who isn't VAT registered

Sam Okafor is a freelance photographer in Bristol who covered a client's staff party on 31 October 2026. Invoice 2026-031 is dated 3 November and asks for payment by bank transfer within 14 days.

Each line names one piece of work with its quantity and price. That lets the client check the six hours against what they booked and see why editing costs less per hour than shooting. There's no VAT on the invoice because Sam isn't registered, and the rule behind that is simple. You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or you expect it to go over £90,000 in the next 30 days (threshold since 1 April 2024; deregistration threshold £88,000). Below that you may stay unregistered, and then you cannot charge VAT or issue VAT invoices, and have no VAT number to show. No wording is legally required; some businesses add "Not registered for VAT".

Sam's turnover is well under that threshold, so £660.00 is the whole price. The invoice ends with the optional note, which reads in full: Not registered for VAT. It costs nothing to add, and it stops the client's bookkeeper from wondering whether VAT was left off by mistake.

A VAT-registered design studio

Northgate Studio Ltd is a VAT-registered design company in Leeds. It is invoicing a retail client for a brand identity it delivered on 31 October 2026. The invoice, INV-0412, is dated 3 November and gives the client 30 days to pay.

Because this is a VAT invoice, it shows four things the photographer's invoice doesn't need: the studio's VAT registration number (written like GB123456789), the VAT rate on each line, the total before VAT, and the VAT itself. Both lines carry the standard rate, because the reduced rates of 5% and 0% only apply to particular goods and services. The client's accounts team will look for exactly these details, since this invoice is their record of the £540.00 of VAT they paid.

The numbering is stricter on a VAT invoice too. Every invoice needs a unique identification number, and a VAT invoice needs a sequential number, from one or more series, that uniquely identifies it. So INV-0412 follows INV-0411, whichever client that invoice went to. As a limited company, Northgate also prints its full registered name and its company number, so the client knows exactly which legal entity it is dealing with.

A US contractor: services and one taxed sale

There's no VAT in the US, and much of an invoice's layout is a matter of custom rather than law. The tax that does appear on some invoices is sales tax. The rules for it differ from state to state, so the same work can be invoiced differently in two places.

Dana Reyes runs a one-person IT business that sets up networks for small offices. Invoice 1047 is dated November 3, 2026 and printed on US Letter paper. It bills a dental practice for an afternoon's work and the router installed during it.

Sales tax is worked out line by line, which is why it appears only on the router. Whether a sale is taxable, and at what rate, depends on where it is taxed. This example simply assumes the setup work isn't taxable there and the router is, and the 8.25% is only an illustration. Your own invoice uses the rate that applies to your sale. Charging tax that isn't due doesn't leave you with a little extra, either. As a rule, sales tax you charge by mistake, or charge too much of, is not yours to keep: in California it must be returned to the customer or else paid to the state, and in Texas the state will not refund a seller until the seller has refunded or credited the customer. The details differ by state, so check with each state where you collect sales tax.

At the bottom of the invoice, "Net 30" means payment is due 30 days after the invoice date. Two ways to pay are listed: a bank transfer with the routing and account number, or Zelle. Spelling this out saves the client from sending an email to ask how to pay. The US contractor guide covers the rest of a US invoice in more detail.

Two German invoices: small business and reverse charge

In Germany, VAT is called Umsatzsteuer (USt) and the standard rate is 19%. So when a German invoice shows no VAT, the client will want to know why. In the two cases freelancers meet most often, the small business scheme and a sale to a business in another EU country, the invoice itself has to give that reason. The Germany guide lists everything a German invoice must show.

A Kleinunternehmer under the small business scheme

A Kleinunternehmer is a small business owner who uses the Kleinunternehmerregelung (§ 19 UStG), a scheme that lets them invoice without VAT. Whether you qualify depends on your turnover. The test is this: Net turnover up to €25,000 in the previous calendar year and not above €100,000 in the current year. If you're starting out this year, the limit works differently. In the year the business starts, only that year's actual turnover counts, and the limit is €25,000, not €100,000. The sale that takes the year's turnover over €25,000 is already taxed normally, and the exemption is also lost for the next year, because the previous year's turnover was then over €25,000. The Kleinunternehmer invoice guide explains the scheme in more detail.

Jonas Weber, a translator in Leipzig, has been in business for several years and is well within those limits. The invoice below is for a product catalogue Weber has just translated for a manufacturer in Munich.

The total is a single price with no VAT. Under it, Weber's invoice gives the reason in the sentence German clients expect to see: Gemäß § 19 UStG wird keine Umsatzsteuer berechnet (Steuerbefreiung für Kleinunternehmer). On an English invoice, the same note reads: No VAT is charged under § 19 UStG (small business exemption). Without that note, the client's accountant can't tell a deliberate exemption from VAT that was simply forgotten.

Weber's Steuernummer appears under the address. This is the tax number the local tax office (Finanzamt) gives a business for its tax returns. It isn't the same as the USt-IdNr., which is the VAT ID used for trade with other EU countries. For a client in Germany, the Steuernummer is enough.

A German business billing a client in another EU country

Kai Hoffmann is a VAT-registered web developer in Hamburg who normally adds 19% German VAT. This invoice goes to a design agency in Amsterdam. Because the agency is a VAT-registered business in another EU country, the invoice uses reverse charge instead.

In plain words, reverse charge moves the VAT from the seller to the buyer. Hoffmann doesn't add German VAT and pay it to the German tax office. Instead, the agency accounts for the VAT itself in the Netherlands. The invoice states this in one line, either in English as Reverse charge: the customer is liable for the VAT or in German as Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers.

The VAT IDs matter most on this kind of invoice. The official description of the German VAT ID explains why: DE followed by 9 digits; on domestic invoices the tax number from the local tax office (Steuernummer) may be shown instead, but invoices for tax-free intra-EU supplies of goods and for EU reverse-charge services need the USt-IdNr. of both parties. So Hoffmann's invoice shows Hoffmann's own USt-IdNr., written like DE123456788, and the agency's Dutch VAT number.

Both German examples go wrong in the same way when VAT appears where it shouldn't. If an invoice shows more VAT than is due (a too-high rate, VAT on an exempt supply or a service taxed abroad, or any VAT on a Kleinunternehmer's invoice), the issuer owes the amount shown until the invoice is corrected, and a business customer can't deduct the excess (§ 14c Abs. 1 UStG; the tax office doesn't apply this to real supplies invoiced to private consumers). Anyone who shows VAT without being in business or without supplying anything owes it too, and can only correct it with the tax office's consent (§ 14c Abs. 2 UStG). In practice, these invoices should show no VAT amount at all, only the note that explains why.

What every example has in common

Take away the tax, and all five invoices are built the same way. These are the parts they share, and you can check your own invoice against them:

• A unique invoice number
• The invoice date, and the date the work was done or the goods delivered
• Your name and address, and your client's
• Lines that say what was supplied, how much of it and at what price
• The totals, with any tax shown separately, or a note saying why there is none
• The payment details: when payment is due and how to pay

The number and the dates prove their worth later, when something needs sorting out. A unique number lets you and your client talk about one invoice without confusion. The invoice date starts the clock for payment, and the date of the work ties the invoice to what was delivered. Full names and addresses for both parties make it clear who owes whom, which a first name from an email thread doesn't.

The lines are where invoices most often fall short. A single line like "Design work, £2,700.00" invites a phone call. Two lines with quantities and prices let the client check the charges against what was agreed and pay without asking. The totals follow from the lines, and the payment details turn the invoice into something the client can act on straight away. If you're new to all this, what an invoice is explains why each part is there.

Making an invoice like these

All five examples can be made in the free maker. The settings that differ between them are country, language, and VAT exemption or reverse charge, and you set these on each invoice. So a German developer could send a reverse-charge invoice in English to a client in Amsterdam and a German invoice to a private customer at home, using the same business details. You don't need an account to make an invoice and download the PDF.

1. Enter your business details once: name, address, company number, VAT number, bank details and a logo if you have one. For bank details, use IBAN and BIC, or routing and account number for a US business. A German Steuernummer can go in a custom field. Setting your business country fills in the standard VAT rate for the UK or Germany, and you choose the currency and paper size (A4 or US Letter).
2. Add your client, who is then saved for the next invoice. For an EU client billed under reverse charge, include their VAT number.
3. Add each line with a description, quantity, unit (hours, days, pieces), price and tax rate. For a US invoice like Dana's, give the sales tax rate only to the lines that are taxed.
4. If the invoice carries no VAT, say why. For a Kleinunternehmer, choose VAT exemption: this removes the VAT and prints the small-business sentence. For an EU business client, choose reverse charge: this sets the VAT to zero and prints the note and the client's VAT number. A UK business that isn't registered chooses VAT exemption too, so no VAT appears anywhere on the invoice, and can add Sam's not-registered note in the notes field.
5. Pick the invoice language, check the number and dates, and download the PDF or print it. With a free account you can also send it by email, or as a link the client opens in the browser.

The maker counts invoice numbers up automatically, keeps an overview you can filter, and exports a CSV file for your accountant. It also adds up VAT per quarter, including reverse-charge sales per customer for the EU sales list (the report of your sales to business customers in other EU countries). For a field-by-field walk-through, see how to make an invoice.

One limit matters for German businesses: the PDF isn't an e-invoice, and the maker can't make one. Every business has had to be able to receive e-invoices (EN 16931 formats such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD from version 2.0.1) since 1 Jan 2025, while issuing them for domestic B2B sales becomes mandatory on 1 Jan 2027 (previous-year turnover above €800,000) or 1 Jan 2028 (everyone else), with small businesses under § 19 UStG and invoices up to €250 exempt from issuing. Weber doesn't have to issue e-invoices, because Kleinunternehmer are exempt, and Hoffmann's invoice to Amsterdam isn't affected either, because the rule covers domestic sales. An ordinary invoice to a business in Germany, though, will have to be an e-invoice from the date that applies to you, and the Germany guide linked above explains the details.