Invoicing guide
Invoicing in United Kingdom
VAT — how it works, what an invoice needs, and where the numbers come from.
Data as of 2026-07-19. Sources: www.gov.uk (opens in new tab), www.gov.uk (opens in new tab), www.gov.uk (opens in new tab), www.gov.uk (opens in new tab).
This is general guidance, not tax advice — verify with your tax authority.
The tax regime
United Kingdom taxes most sales under a VAT system (regime type: vat). The document title Ochre prints is “Invoice.”
Tax registration number
The tax registration number for United Kingdom is labelled VAT registration number on an Ochre invoice.
Format: "GB", then one of 9 digits; 12 digits; or one of "GD" or "HA", then 3 digits.
Registration & thresholds
90,000 GBP — Mandatory if taxable turnover exceeds £90,000 on a ROLLING 12-month basis (not tax-year), effective 1 Apr 2024. Deregistration below £88,000. Voluntary registration allowed below.
Rates
| Standard rate (20%) | 20% |
|---|---|
| Reduced rate (5%) | 5% |
| Zero-rated (0%) | 0% |
| Exempt | 0% |
| Outside the scope | 0% |
Rates shown above are for Domestic supply; this pack also defines Export for cross-border or special-case supplies.
Price display
Ochre's default for United Kingdom is tax-exclusive pricing on a line item.
For consumer-facing (B2C) prices, the displayed price must include tax.
Rounding
Tax is rounded half up, applied once for the invoice total, to a precision of 0.01.
Mandatory invoice fields
- Seller's tax registration number
- Sequential invoice number
- Issue date
- Date of supply
- Tax broken down by rate
Fiscal year & dates
The fiscal year starts January 1. Dates print in DD/MM/YYYY order.
Currency
GBP (£), shown to 2 decimal places.
E-invoicing
MTD is a digital record-keeping and VAT-return filing mandate (mandatory for all VAT-registered businesses), NOT an e-invoicing system — Ochre does not file VAT returns. Keep digital records and file through MTD-compatible software.