Plumber invoice template

When plumbing work is 5% VAT, not 20%

The reduced 5% rate applies to some residential work — installing certain energy-saving materials, and qualifying conversions and renovations of dwellings that have been empty for the required period. It is not a general rate for domestic plumbing, and getting it wrong in your favour is an assessment waiting to happen. Check the specific supply against HMRC guidance before applying it, and show the rate per line so a mixed invoice is unambiguous.

Subcontracting to a builder or main contractor

If you invoice another VAT-registered, CIS-registered construction business and they are not an end user, the domestic reverse charge applies: you charge no VAT and state that the customer accounts for it. CIS still comes off your labour at 20% or 30%. Both things happen on the same invoice, and they are independent of each other.

If you are not VAT registered

Do not show a VAT number, do not show a VAT line, and do not use the word VAT anywhere on the document. Charging or implying VAT while unregistered is an offence, not a formatting slip. Show a single total and the payment terms. You must register once your taxable turnover crosses the registration threshold in any rolling 12-month period, so watch the running figure rather than the tax year.

Set the due date as a date

“Payment within 30 days” starts an argument about when the clock began. A specific date does not. It also matters legally: statutory interest on a commercial debt runs from the day after payment fell due, at the Bank of England base rate plus 8%, along with fixed compensation of £40, £70 or £100 by debt size. You cannot claim from a date you never set.

What should a plumber's invoice include?

All the standard UK invoice fields, plus the lines that describe a plumbing job: call-out charge, labour with hours and rate or an agreed fixed price, parts itemised separately, any out-of-hours uplift, and recharged expenses such as parking. If you are VAT registered, show the rate per line, because a single invoice can legitimately mix 20% and 5% work.

Should the call-out charge be a separate line?

Yes, for two reasons. Customers query a total far more often than they query an itemised list, and the call-out is labour for CIS purposes — so on a subcontracted job it has to sit on the labour side of the split, not be folded into a materials figure.

Is plumbing work 5% or 20% VAT?

Most domestic plumbing is 20%. The reduced 5% rate covers specific cases such as certain energy-saving materials and qualifying conversions or renovations of long-empty dwellings. It is a narrow relief, not a general domestic rate — check the supply against HMRC guidance and show the rate per line.

Do I charge VAT when subcontracting to a builder?

Usually not. Where you supply construction services to a VAT-registered, CIS-registered customer who is not an end user, the domestic reverse charge applies: you charge no VAT and state on the invoice that the customer must account for it. Ask for their end user statement in writing if they claim the reverse charge does not apply.

How do I show CIS on a plumbing invoice?

Show the labour and the materials as separate totals, state the deduction rate applied to the labour, show the deduction as a figure, and show the net payable. The contractor's deduction statement must reconcile to that figure, so making it explicit saves an argument at month end.