Ireland extends the 9% VAT rate on electricity and gas to 31 October 2024
This page records one dated change. For the rules in Ireland as they stand today, see the Ireland guide →
- Jurisdiction
- Ireland
- Tax
- VAT
- Change type
- Rate change
- Status
- In force
- Impact
- FYI
- Announced
- 18 December 2023
- Effective
- 11 October 2023
- Instrument
- IE-ACT-39-2023
- Authority
- Irish Statute Book (electronic Irish Statute Book, Office of the Attorney General)
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
Suppliers of electricity and natural gas in Ireland, and the households and businesses billed for them.
No action required — this energy VAT extension (to 31 October 2024) has been superseded by later extensions.
Section 59 of Ireland's Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 (Act No. 39/2023), signed 18 December 2023, extended the second reduced VAT rate of 9% on the supply of natural gas and electricity from 31 October 2023 to 31 October 2024. The extension applied with effect from 11 October 2023 (the day after Budget Day).
What changed in detail
Section 59 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 (No. 39 of 2023), signed on 18 December 2023, amends paragraph (caa) of section 46(1) of the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010. It replaces the end date “31 October 2023” with “31 October 2024”.
Paragraph (caa) is the temporary provision that applies the 9% second reduced rate to electricity and gas (Schedule 3, paragraph 17(2) and (3)). Without it, those supplies are charged at the 13.5% reduced rate. The rate first applied from 1 May 2022, and each Finance Act since has pushed the end date back.
The amendment has effect as on and from 11 October 2023, the day after Budget Day (10 October). The 9% rate therefore ran without a break past its old end date of 31 October 2023, even though the Act was not signed until December.
What it means
This record is spent and has been superseded. Finance Act 2024, section 79(b), moved the end date again, to 30 April 2025: see Ireland extends the 9% energy VAT rate to 30 April 2025. Two more extensions followed, and the rate now runs to 31 December 2030 under Finance Act 2025, section 69 (the current position).
The record is still useful for one thing: it shows that 9%, not 13.5%, applied to Irish electricity and gas bills from November 2023 to October 2024. An invoice from that period charged at 13.5% was wrong.
Proof
59. Section 46 of the Principal Act is amended with effect as on and from 11 October 2023, in subsection (1)(caa), by the substitution of “31 October 2024” for “31 October 2023”.
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