Best practices for setting up invoices in Europe

Learn the best practices for setting up invoices in Europe.

Last updated January 12, 2023

Legal Disclaimer

The information on this page is for your general guidance and isn’t legal advice.

The invoice compliance process can vary across European countries. Stripe recommends the following as best practices when you make sales to business customers as Business-to-Business (B2B) sales require compliant invoices. There’s no general obligation to issue invoices for Business-to-Consumer (B2C) sales.

Note

Our recommendations are for standard (full) invoices. In most countries, you can also issue simplified invoices for lower amounts, which are subject to less strict legal requirements.

Key invoice fields

Stripe doesn’t automatically populate all of the fields on an invoice. In certain European countries, a missed or improperly added field can render an invoice noncompliant. We recommend that you include the noted fields when you prepare your invoices as they’re required throughout most of Europe.

Key invoice details

How to add an invoice field

The following table explains the ways that you can populate different invoice fields. To ensure that your invoices are compliant and adhere to geographic and business regulations, Stripe recommends that you consult with your tax and legal advisors.

Key	Field	Required?	How to populate
1	Invoice number	This is always required.	Stripe populates this by default. You can change how invoices are numbered (customer or account level) in the Invoice template.
2	Date of issue	This is always required.	Stripe populates this by default.
3	Date due	There’s no requirement to display the date by which a customer must pay an invoice. However, it’s a best practice.	Stripe populates this by default.
4a	Merchant company name	This is always required.	Stripe populates this by default.
4b	Merchant company address	Sending an invoice to another business always requires this field.	Enter your Support address under Public business information. You can also default to your business address as listed in your account settings.
5	Merchant VAT ID	Invoices generally require a merchant VAT ID (or tax ID). If you sell goods or services to a business customer in another EU country, you must mention your VAT ID, which is a number that contains a country prefix.	Add your relevant tax or VAT ID by navigating to Manage tax information in the Invoice template.
6a	Recipient name	This is always required.	Stripe populates this by default.
6b	Recipient address	This is always required.	You can add this field by clicking the Additional details button when you first create a customer.
7	Recipient VAT ID	Sending an invoice to another business typically requires this field. If you sell goods or services to a business customer in another EU country, you must mention the customer’s VAT ID, which is a number that contains a country prefix.	You can add this field by: Clicking Add additional details (just like with the recipient address) when you create a new customer, and scrolling down to Tax ID at the bottom of the dialog. Adding it as a custom field under Advanced options when you create an invoice.
8	Name of the good or service	This is always required.	Stripe populates this by default.
9	Invoice line item supply date	This is always required when the supply date of individual line items is different from the invoice send date.	You can display line item supply dates by clicking the toggle under Item options.
10	Price of the good or service	For an invoice to be compliant, it must display tax-exclusive prices. For each invoice line item, you must show the following: Unit price (excluding VAT). Quantity. Any applicable discounts. Total amount payable (excluding VAT), which is the unit price times the quantity, minus discounts.	You must display tax-exclusive prices to comply with EU invoicing rules.¹
11	Invoice line item tax rate percentage²	This is always required. It’s sufficient to display the tax percentage amount for an invoice line item. You’re not required to display the cash amount per invoice line item.	You can determine the tax to display on an invoice by: Using Stripe Tax to automatically calculate the tax. Manually adding the tax rate when you are create an item. Select Item taxes and coupons, enter your desired tax rate, then Create a new tax rate.
12	Invoice subtotal (excludes VAT)	This is always required.	Stripe populates this by default.
13	VAT amount	This is always required.	Stripe populates this by default.
14	Invoice total (includes VAT)	This is always required.	Stripe populates this by default.
N/A	Custom fields	In some European countries, you must also display additional information including the business registration number, purchase order (PO), or payment due date.	Under Advanced options in the Invoice Editor, click Add custom field.

¹To display tax-exclusive prices with Stripe Tax, select No under Include tax in price to exclude tax. This excludes tax in prices in the invoice PDF, the Invoice Details page, and in the invoice email. You can also select Yes under Include tax in price, then check the Display tax-exclusive prices option in the Items Options dialogue of the Items section. This excludes tax in prices in the invoice PDF, but includes tax on the Invoice Details page and in the email. If you’re adding tax rates manually for a business, you can either set Include tax in price to No, or set Include tax in price to Yes and check Display tax-exclusive prices in the Items Options dialogue. The second approach includes tax on the Invoice Details page and in the email, but not in the invoice PDF.

²If a transaction isn’t subject to tax, you must state the reason for not applying it. For example, if the tax liability shifts to your customer (that is, your customer now has to account for tax), you must mention it as a “reverse charge” on the invoice. In the case of an EU business selling to another EU business, you must mention “zero-rated intra-Community supply." To include these references in your invoice, add a custom field under Advanced options in the Invoice Editor.

Facilitate customer payment

After you set up your invoices to meet European regulations and requirements, facilitate customer payment by:

Adding the most popular European payment methods. By accepting a wider range of payment methods, such as SEPA Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Debit, you can lower your costs and ensure that invoices are paid.
Using the Hosted Invoice Page.
Picking the right net terms.
Localising your Invoice to the language of your customer.

Caution

Stripe Invoicing doesn’t integrate with the Italian government’s e-invoicing platform.