Irish VAT Rates 2026: Complete Table After the July Changes

On 1 July 2026, Ireland’s VAT landscape changed again: restaurant and catering food, hot takeaway and hairdressing services dropped from 13.5% to 9%. If your business sells (or buys) anything in those categories, the rate you charged last month is no longer the rate you should charge today.

This guide gives you the complete, current picture: every Irish VAT rate in force in 2026, exactly what falls under each one, what changed in July, and a historic timeline of Irish rates (useful if you’re correcting old invoices or dealing with credit notes that span a rate change).

Irish VAT Rates in 2026: The Complete Table

The difference between zero-rated and exempt matters more than it looks: zero-rated businesses charge 0% but can reclaim input VAT on their costs; exempt businesses cannot. A bookshop recovers the VAT on its rent apportioned to zero-rated sales; an insurance broker doesn’t.

What Changed on 1 July 2026

Budget 2026 moved three categories from the 13.5% reduced rate to the 9% second reduced rate, effective 1 July 2026:

• Restaurant and catering services: the food and drink, excluding alcohol, soft drinks and bottled water, which stay at their existing rates
• Hot takeaway food and hot drinks
• Hairdressing services

Three fine-print points that catch businesses out:

1. Hotel accommodation did NOT move. The room stays at 13.5%. But the breakfast, the restaurant dinner and the room-service burger the same hotel serves? Those are 9% now. Hotels effectively split their billing across two rates.
2. The drinks exclusion is per-item, not per-bill. A €50 dinner with a €10 bottle of wine is €40 at 9% and €10 at 23%. Your till and your invoicing software need to handle mixed-rate receipts correctly.
3. The change applies from the date of supply, not the invoice date. Services supplied in June but invoiced in July follow June’s 13.5%.

If you run a food business, your margins just improved, provided your systems actually apply the new rate. Revenue has historically paid close attention to rate-change transitions in audits.

Rate by Rate: What Goes Where

23%: the default

If nothing says otherwise, it’s 23%. Professional and consultancy services, software, electronics, clothing (adult), furniture, alcohol, soft drinks, telecoms. When in doubt, check Revenue’s rate database rather than assuming a reduced rate applies.

13.5%: building, accommodation and energy for business

The workhorses of the reduced rate: construction and renovation services, hotel and B&B accommodation, non-domestic fuel, cleaning and maintenance, short-term vehicle hire, and concrete products. Since July 2026 this band no longer includes restaurant food or hairdressing.

9%: the moving target

The second reduced rate now covers the July 2026 arrivals (food service, hot takeaway, hairdressing) plus categories that were already there: gas and electricity (a temporary measure running to 31 December 2030), periodicals and certain e-publications, sporting facilities operated commercially, and, since 26 November 2025, qualifying new apartments, a Budget 2026 housing measure.

4.8%: livestock

A specialist agricultural rate: live cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, deer, non-thoroughbred horses and greyhounds. If you’re not trading animals, you’ll never touch it.

0%: zero-rated essentials

Basic foodstuffs (bread, milk, meat, vegetables, tea), oral medicines, children’s clothing and shoes, books and e-books, printed newspapers (zero-rated since January 2023, though many guides still wrongly list them at 9%), and exports outside the EU.

Exempt: outside the system

Financial and insurance services, medical care by registered practitioners, education by recognised bodies, and most lettings of property. Remember: exempt means no input VAT recovery on associated costs.

Historic Irish VAT Rates: A Timeline

Searching for what rate applied in a previous year? This is one of the most common VAT questions, usually triggered by credit notes, corrections or Revenue queries about old periods.

Standard rate:

Hospitality (restaurant/catering food):

If you’re issuing a credit note against an invoice from a different rate period, the credit note carries the original invoice’s rate, not today’s. Getting this wrong is one of the most frequent errors in rate transitions.

Applying the Right Rate: Practical Rules

• Mixed supplies: where a single price covers items at different rates, you generally apportion. The two-thirds rule can reclassify a service as a supply of goods when materials exceed two-thirds of the total price; see our full Irish VAT guide for how it works
• Check, don’t assume: Revenue maintains a searchable VAT rates database for specific products. Two similar-looking products (a biscuit vs. a chocolate-covered biscuit) can sit in different bands
• Rate changes follow the supply date: stock your systems with effective dates, not just percentages
• Registration comes first: none of this matters until you know whether you must register. Thresholds are €42,500 for services and €85,000 for goods in 2026 (full thresholds guide)

Common Mistakes We See

1. Charging 9% on the hotel room because “hospitality is 9% now”: accommodation stayed at 13.5%
2. Applying 9% to soft drinks or wine served with a meal, which are explicitly excluded
3. Newspapers at 9%: they’ve been zero-rated since January 2023
4. Using the invoice date instead of the supply date across the July 2026 transition
5. Copying last year’s rate table into the new accounting year without checking Budget changes; Irish rates have changed in some category almost every year since 2020

How Odiverse Handles Multi-Rate VAT

Odiverse’s tax engine is jurisdiction-aware: when you invoice from an Irish entity, the correct VAT rates for the supply date are applied automatically, mixed-rate invoices are split line by line, and every rate applied is traceable in the audit trail. When a rate changes, like this July, the engine applies the right rate based on the date of supply, not the date you happened to raise the invoice.

Ireland-specific returns and Peppol e-invoicing support are on our roadmap; invoicing, accounting (FRS 102 chart of accounts) and multi-rate handling work today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the VAT rate in Ireland in 2026? The standard rate is 23%. Reduced rates of 13.5% and 9% apply to specific categories, plus a 4.8% livestock rate and a 0% rate for essentials like basic food, books, newspapers and children’s clothing.

What changed with Irish VAT in July 2026? From 1 July 2026, restaurant and catering food, hot takeaway food and drinks, and hairdressing services moved from 13.5% to 9%. Hotel accommodation remains at 13.5%, and alcohol, soft drinks and bottled water are excluded from the reduction.

What is the VAT rate on restaurant food in Ireland? 9% since 1 July 2026, but only the food and non-alcoholic hot drinks. Alcohol stays at 23% and soft drinks at their existing rates, so a typical restaurant bill mixes rates.

Are newspapers still at 9% VAT in Ireland? No. Printed newspapers have been zero-rated (0%) since 1 January 2023. Periodicals and magazines remain at 9%.

What was the Irish VAT rate before 2026? The standard rate has been 23% since 2012 (except a temporary cut to 21% from September 2020 to February 2021). Hospitality food swung between 9% and 13.5% several times; see the historic timeline above.

Get the Rate Right, Every Time

One rate table, five active rates, and a change that’s three days old. If you’d rather your invoicing just knew this, try Odiverse free, or explore what the AI accounting agent does for Irish small businesses.