Cyprus invoice requirements: what a VAT invoice must include

A full Cyprus VAT invoice carries a sequential number, the issue date and the time of supply, your company's name, address and VAT number, the customer's name and address, a description of what you supplied with the quantity, the amount excluding VAT and the rate on each line, the VAT amount in euro, and the total. You must issue it within 30 days of the supply. The rules are in the VAT (General) Regulations of 2001, and they matter twice over. The invoice is your customer's only valid proof for reclaiming input VAT, the VAT they paid on their purchases. It's also the document the Tax Department checks your VAT return against.

What must a Cyprus VAT invoice include?

Every item on a fixed list in regulation 12(1). An invoice missing any item is defective. That hurts your customer most. Their input VAT reclaim depends on holding a valid invoice, and a defective one is the kind of thing that turns up in their VAT audit two years later. The list:

• A sequential identifying number, from one or more series. Gaps and duplicates are the first thing an inspector checks, because they suggest unrecorded sales.
• The issue date, plus the time of supply where it differs, for example an invoice issued the month after the work finished. The time of supply is the tax point, which decides the return period the VAT belongs in.
• Your full legal name, address and Cyprus VAT registration number. A trading name may appear too, but the registered name has to be there.
• The customer's name and address. Their VAT number becomes mandatory when they account for the VAT, which covers the reverse-charge and intra-EU sales below.
• The type of transaction and a description of the goods or services, with the quantity or extent. "Consulting services, March 2026, 40 hours" works. "Services" does not.
• On each line, the amount excluding VAT and the VAT rate, plus any cash discount offered. An invoice that mixes rates shows a subtotal for each rate.
• The total excluding VAT, the VAT amount per rate, and the total VAT, all in euro.

The rate on each line comes from the rate schedule in the VAT Law. Our guide to Cyprus VAT rates explains what falls where. The short version:

One invoice can carry standard-rated, zero-rated and out-of-scope lines at once. Your VAT return needs that split line by line, so decide the treatment when you raise the invoice. Don't try to rebuild it at quarter end.

Who has to issue a VAT invoice, and by when?

Any VAT-registered business, within 30 days of the supply. You must issue a VAT invoice for every taxable supply to another business, which the law calls a taxable person, and to non-taxable legal persons such as public bodies. For sales to private consumers, you only need a full VAT invoice if the customer asks for one. Many businesses issue one anyway, because it costs nothing.

The deadline is fixed. You must issue the invoice within 30 days of the time of supply, unless the Commissioner of Taxation allows a longer period in writing.

If you aren't registered yet, you issue ordinary invoices with no VAT number and no VAT line. Registration becomes mandatory once your taxable turnover over the previous 12 months passes €15,600. Our guide to VAT registration in Cyprus covers how and when to register.

How do reverse-charge and intra-EU invoices differ?

They need extra content, because the customer accounts for the VAT instead of you. Two kinds of cross-border sale work this way.

Services to a business customer abroad follow the general place-of-supply rule, which taxes the supply where the customer belongs. Your invoice shows no Cyprus VAT, gives the customer's VAT number, which is their EU VAT number if they're in the EU, and carries the words "Reverse charge". The EU Directive sets that exact phrase, so use it as written. Our guide to the reverse charge in Cyprus explains how it works on both sales and purchases.

Goods sent to a VAT-registered customer in another member state are an intra-Community supply, the EU term for a sale of goods between businesses in two member states. The invoice shows the zero rate, the customer's EU VAT number and a reference to the exemption, usually "Intra-Community supply, exempt". Keep proof that the goods left Cyprus. The zero rate stands or falls on that evidence.

Both kinds of sale go on your monthly VIES statement, the EU report of your sales to businesses in other member states, and it reports the VAT number on the invoice. Check that number in the European Commission's VIES database before you issue. A sale to an invalid number can fall back to Cyprus VAT at 19%. Our guide to VIES submissions covers the monthly routine and what to do when a number fails the check.

When is a simplified invoice allowed?

When you sell retail for up to €85 including VAT. A retailer only has to issue a VAT invoice when a business customer asks for one, and up to that limit the invoice may be simplified. A simplified invoice needs the retailer's name, address and VAT number, the time of supply, a description that identifies the goods or services, the total payable including VAT, and the gross amount and rate for each rate charged. Till receipts are the everyday example.

For a limited company the practical rule is simpler. If your customer is a business that will reclaim the VAT, issue a full invoice whatever the amount. On the purchase side, an €85 till receipt supports your own input VAT claim, but anything larger needs a full invoice made out to the company.

What about credit notes and proforma invoices?

A credit note reduces or cancels a VAT invoice you've issued. A proforma isn't a VAT invoice at all.

A compliant credit note gives the number and date of the original invoice, the reason for the change, the net reduction, the VAT being reversed and the rate. It carries its own sequential number. The VAT effect lands in the period you issue the credit note. The original stays untouched in the sequence, and if a corrected supply still stands, a fresh invoice follows.

A proforma is a priced offer, outside VAT entirely. It creates no tax point and no supply, and the recipient can't reclaim VAT on it. Label it "proforma" where nobody can miss it. If the customer pays against it, the payment creates a tax point, and a real VAT invoice is then due within the same 30-day window.

Can you invoice in a foreign currency, or in English?

Yes to both, and most of our customers do. You can price the invoice in dollars, pounds or any currency the customer agrees to, as long as the amounts the law requires also appear in euro. The net amount on each line, the totals and above all the VAT must be shown in euro, converted at the rate for the day of the transaction. Put the euro figures and the exchange rate on the face of the invoice, and book the euro value on the invoice date. Any difference when the customer pays is an exchange gain or loss, not a VAT problem.

Language is even easier. No Cyprus law requires invoices in Greek, and invoicing in English is standard practice. The only rule is that the Commissioner may require a translation of an invoice received in Cyprus that isn't in an official language, so be ready to provide one.

How long must invoices and records be kept?

At least six years. You must produce issued and received invoices, credit notes and the records behind each VAT return to the Tax Department on request. From 1 January 2026, the six years run from the later of the return's filing deadline and the date you actually filed it, under the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law, and they extend while a tax audit is running. Counted from the transaction, that means keeping documents for about seven and a half years or more. Electronic copies are fine if they're complete, legible and retrievable, so scan everything and keep it with the entry it supports.

Retention ties into the filing calendar too. Each invoice supports the return due on the 10th day of the second month after the quarter ends. When documents go into the accounting system as they arrive, the document, the ledger entry and the return it fed stay linked. The quarterly VAT return then becomes a review of numbers that already exist.

How Sumly handles your invoices

Sumly's sales module creates and emails your invoices and credit notes, with your company details and logo. It applies VAT line by line using Cyprus VAT codes, and every code maps to its box on the official VAT return. The treatment you pick on the invoice is the treatment that lands in the filing. Invoice a business customer in another member state and the same books feed the VIES statement Sumly prepares, with a reminder before the monthly deadline. Each contact can have a default currency. Raise a dollar invoice and Sumly books the euro value automatically, then matches the invoice to the bank payment when it arrives. A credit note posts its reversal to the books when you issue it, so the original invoice is never touched.

Who submits the returns depends on your plan. On Base, Sumly prepares your VAT and VIES returns and you review and submit them. On Plus, Sumly files them for you. On Premium, your Sumly certified bookkeeper reviews and submits them for you. On every plan, each figure in the return traces back to an invoice you can open. The software starts with a 30-day free trial, so you can try the whole flow first.

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