What a compliant Cyprus invoice must contain — and when to issue it

Invoices feel like the one part of running a company that’s obviously simple — until a VAT inspection disallows input VAT because a supplier’s invoice was missing a field, or your own customer’s accountant bounces your invoice back for a third time. Cyprus invoice rules are genuinely short; they’re just never collected in one founder-readable place.

This is that place: the mandatory fields, the timing rules, credit notes, foreign currencies, the reverse-charge wording for EU work, and how long everything must be kept.

The mandatory fields

A full Cyprus VAT invoice needs:

• A unique sequential number — no gaps, no restarts per client;
• The issue date, and the supply date if it differs;
• Your company’s name, address and VAT number, and the customer’s name and address;
• The customer’s VAT number too, whenever the reverse charge applies or you’re supplying B2B intra-EU;
• A description of the goods/services with quantities, unit prices, and any discounts;
• The net amount per VAT rate, the rate(s) applied, and the VAT amount — plus the total;
• Where no Cyprus VAT is charged, the reason on the face of the invoice — “Reverse charge — VAT to be accounted for by the recipient” for EU B2B services, exemption or zero-rating references where those apply.

That last bullet is the one that matters most for the typical remote-founder company invoicing EU clients: the missing reverse-charge annotation (or missing client VAT number) is the most common reason a compliant-in-substance invoice fails in form. The VAT guide covers when the reverse charge applies; this is the wording side of the same rule.

Timing: the 30-day rule

Invoices must be issued within 30 days of the tax point — broadly, when the service was completed or goods delivered, or payment received if earlier. For intra-EU B2B supplies the deadline is the 15th of the month following the supply, which is also what keeps your VIES statements aligned with your invoices. Habitually invoicing “whenever the month closes” is how a December service ends up invoiced in February — wrong VAT quarter, wrong VIES month, and an annoyed auditor.

Credit notes, done properly

A credit note isn’t a negative invoice you improvise — it must carry a clear reference to the original invoice (number and details being corrected), the reason for the adjustment, and the VAT being credited. The discipline matters because credit notes flow into box adjustments on the VAT return, and untraceable ones are a classic inspection finding. Same numbering discipline applies: sequential, its own series if you like, never reused.

Currencies, language, and format

• Foreign-currency invoicing is fine — most cross-border companies bill in EUR anyway, but USD/GBP invoices are valid provided the VAT amount is expressed in euros, converted at the exchange rate for the tax point (the ECB rate is the standard reference).
• Language: Greek and English invoices are both routinely accepted in practice — translating English invoices for the Tax Department is not something small companies encounter.
• Electronic invoices are fully valid with the customer’s agreement — a PDF by email is an e-invoice for these purposes. There’s no Cyprus B2B e-invoicing mandate yet; the EU’s ViDA reforms make structured e-invoicing mandatory for intra-EU B2B from 2030, so the direction is set but nothing changes tomorrow. (Public-sector customers must be able to receive structured e-invoices already.)
• Simplified invoices — fewer fields — are permitted for small supplies up to €85, mostly relevant to retail rather than B2B services.
• Self-billing (customer issues the invoice) is allowed with a prior written agreement between the parties — and the Tax Department should be informed in advance. If a platform you sell through self-bills, keep that agreement on file.

Record keeping: six years, retrievably

Invoices issued and received, credit notes, and the books they feed must be kept for six years — and “kept” means retrievable, not theoretically-existing in a defunct email account. Failing the record-keeping duty carries its own penalty (€341), but the real cost is losing input-VAT claims you can no longer evidence. Digital copies are fine; a folder structure your auditor can navigate without you on a call is the actual standard worth hitting.