What the invoice must show
Compare your draft with this checklist. What applies depends on the parties, the transaction, your tax status and the document type.
- Serial number and issue date: each invoice needs a unique serial number and the date it was issued, which EMTA lists among the mandatory particulars.
- Parties: the names, addresses and, where relevant, registration numbers (VAT numbers) of both the seller and the buyer.
- Goods or services: a description of what was supplied, with quantities.
- Date of supply: where the supply date differs from the issue date, the supply date must be shown as well.
- Price and VAT: the price excluding VAT, the taxable amount and VAT rate, and the VAT payable in euros.
- Special wording: reverse-charge supplies must show the reference 'reverse charge'; businesses on the cash accounting scheme must show 'Cash accounting' on sales invoices (required from 1 July 2022).
Key numbers
- Registration threshold
- EUR 40,000 a yearSource ↗Counted from the beginning of the year; EUR 10,000 for intra-EU acquisitions.
- Invoice issue deadline
- 7 calendar daysSource ↗From dispatch, provision of services or the end of the taxable period.
- Accounting records
- 7 yearsSource ↗From the end of the financial year in which the transaction was booked.
Tax notes
An invoice must be issued within seven calendar days of dispatch, provision of services or the end of the taxable period; intra-Community supplies may be invoiced by the 15th of the following month.
Businesses whose taxable supplies in Estonia stay at or below EUR 40,000 from the beginning of the year need not register for VAT; above that level registration is required.
Electronic invoices require the buyer's acceptance and must be kept electronically and be accessible to the tax authority on request.
Electronic invoicing
There is no general B2B e-invoicing mandate in Estonia. Machine-readable e-invoices (EN 16931-1) are required when supplying state bodies, local governments and public procurement buyers. A business buyer that registers in the commercial register as an e-invoice recipient may require e-invoices from its suppliers. This was checked against the Accounting Act version in force from 19 July 2025; no B2B date was identified.
Late payment
Late-payment interest between businesses is the ECB main refinancing rate on 1 January or 1 July plus 8 points per year (Law of Obligations Act), unless the contract sets a higher rate, plus at least EUR 40 in recovery costs.
Record keeping
Accounting source documents, ledgers, journals, contracts and other business records must be kept for seven years from the end of the financial year in which the transaction was recorded (Accounting Act, section 12). Where practicable they must be kept in machine-processable form.
Watch out for
- The English texts on Riigi Teataja are unofficial translations; the Estonian text prevails.
- Confirm the full list of mandatory invoice particulars and simplified-invoice rules in the consolidated VAT Act before relying on this summary; the EMTA excerpts retrieved here did not include the complete list.
Official links & tools
Go straight to the source for the latest rules, rates and registers. Non-English pages are tagged with their language.
Invoice rules3
Explains when a VAT invoice must be issued, the seven-day rule and special invoicing cases.
VAT accounting and invoicesOverview of VAT accounting duties and invoice rules for registered businesses.
VAT accounting and invoices (handbook)PDF handbook on VAT invoice content, issuing and keeping invoices.
Registration1
Number & company lookup1
Self-employed1
Record keeping1
Sources for this guide
Reviewed against these references on . Rules change, so check the current text before relying on it.