Invoice Currency: How to Invoice in a Foreign Currency (Rules, Rates & Example)
You can usually invoice in whatever currency you agree with your customer. The rules that matter are about tax: which amounts must also appear in your national currency, which exchange rate you may use, and how you record it. This guide quotes those rules from the primary sources for the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, then works through one example.
How this page was checked. Every rule below is quoted from the official source and linked; all sources were read on (list at the end of the page). Figures in the examples are illustrative unless a source and date are printed next to them. This is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice.
Quick answer: can an invoice be in any currency?
Yes, in the three systems covered here, as long as the tax figures are also given where the law asks for them. What each source says:
United States
The IRS rule is about your tax return, not the invoice: You must express the amounts you report on
your U.S. tax return in U.S. dollars.
A US business can bill in euros, but it converts the income to
dollars for its books and return.
United Kingdom
Regulation 14(1) of the VAT Regulations 1995 lets the line amounts and the total excluding VAT be
expressed in any currency
, but requires the total amount of VAT chargeable, expressed in
sterling.
European Union
Article 230 of Directive 2006/112/EC: The amounts which appear on the invoice may be expressed in any
currency, provided that the amount of VAT payable or to be adjusted is expressed in the national currency
of the Member State, using the conversion rate mechanism provided for in Article 91.
How to show the currency: ISO 4217 code, symbol and decimal places
Put the three-letter ISO 4217 code next to the total, for example Total due (EUR). A symbol alone can be ambiguous between currencies that share it, such as dollars; the code names exactly one currency. The ISO list also gives each currency's minor unit, which is the number of decimal places to use. Most currencies have two, but not all:
| Code | Currency | Numeric code | Decimal places (minor unit) |
|---|---|---|---|
| USD | US dollar | 840 | 2 |
| EUR | Euro | 978 | 2 |
| GBP | Pound sterling | 826 | 2 |
| JPY | Yen | 392 | 0 |
| CAD | Canadian dollar | 124 | 2 |
| AUD | Australian dollar | 036 | 2 |
| CHF | Swiss franc | 756 | 2 |
| INR | Indian rupee | 356 | 2 |
| SGD | Singapore dollar | 702 | 2 |
| TRY | Turkish lira | 949 | 2 |
| KWD | Kuwaiti dinar | 414 | 3 |
| BHD | Bahraini dinar | 048 | 3 |
Source: SIX, ISO 4217 List One (XML), published 2026-09-17, read 2026-09-25. The same list shows the euro used by 37 entities, including Bulgaria and Croatia, and the pound sterling by Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey and the United Kingdom.
Number format depends on the language, not the currency
The same euro amount is written differently in different languages. These are the standard currency formats in the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR), release 48:
| Locale | Written as | Decimal / thousands separator |
|---|---|---|
| German (de) | 1.250,50 € | comma / full stop |
| French (fr) | 1 250,50 € | comma / narrow no-break space |
| Dutch (nl) | € 1.250,50 | comma / full stop |
| English, Ireland (en-IE) | €1,250.50 | full stop / comma |
| English, UK (en-GB) | £1,250.50 | full stop / comma |
Source: Unicode CLDR 48 (cldr-json 48.2.2) number and currency data; the yen's 0 decimal places are also in CLDR's currency data. Because 1.250 means one thousand two hundred and fifty in German but one and a quarter in English, the ISO code and a clear format prevent a costly misreading.
Invoicing in a foreign currency from the US
The IRS pages quoted here do not say which currency to invoice in; they are about how you convert what you earn:
You must express the amounts you report on your U.S. tax return in U.S. dollars.
Use the exchange rate prevailing when you receive, pay, or accrue the item.
The Internal Revenue Service has no official exchange rate. Generally, it accepts any posted exchange rate that is used consistently.
Sources: IRS, Foreign currency and currency exchange rates (page reviewed 22 May 2026) and IRS, Yearly average currency exchange rates (reviewed 17 September 2026); both read 2026-09-25.
One published source of US-dollar rates is the Federal Reserve's H.10 release. In the Fed's words:
The H.10 weekly release contains daily rates of exchange of major currencies against the U.S. dollar.
The data are noon buying rates in New York for cable transfers payable in the listed currencies.
(About the H.10 release, read 2026-09-25). Most rates in the
release are in currency units per US dollar; those marked with an asterisk, including the euro, are in US
dollars per currency unit.
US example (rate is real and dated; the invoice is illustrative)
A US consultant invoices a client in Germany EUR 5,000.00 for work whose income accrues on 18 September 2026. In the H.10 release dated 21 September 2026, the euro on 18 September 2026 is 1.1464 US dollars per euro. The consultant records the income as 5,000.00 × 1.1464 = USD 5,732.00 and keeps a note of the rate:
1 EUR = 1.1464 USD — Federal Reserve H.10, 18 September 2026
If the client later pays and the money arrives as a different dollar amount, that is a separate event (receipt of payment) with its own rate. Whichever posted rate source you choose, use it consistently. This example does not cover VAT or any other tax the sale may involve in the customer's country.
Rate source: Federal Reserve H.10, release date 21 September 2026, read 2026-09-25.
UK: when sterling must appear on the invoice
What the law says
Regulation 14(1) of the VAT Regulations 1995 lists what a VAT invoice must show, including:
- (h)
for each description, the quantity of the goods or the extent of the services, and the rate of VAT and the amount payable, excluding VAT, expressed in any currency
- (i)
the gross total amount payable, excluding VAT, expressed in any currency
- (l)
the total amount of VAT chargeable, expressed in sterling.
Regulation 14(2), which relaxes this for invoices to a person in an EU member State, now applies to a
registered person identified for the purposes of VAT in Northern Ireland
, so it is not a general
UK exception.
(legislation.gov.uk, reg. 14, read 2026-09-25; the page showed no outstanding effects.)
What HMRC's guidance adds
GOV.UK's Transactions in foreign currencies and VAT says:
You can invoice in any currency for the goods and services that you supply.
If UK VAT is due on the transaction your invoices must also show the following in sterling: the total net value of goods and services at each VAT rate
andthe amount of VAT, if any, at each rate
.You do not need to show sterling figures for each line on the invoice.
- Invoices issued before the goods or services are supplied are
‘advance invoices’ and must be in sterling for VAT purposes.
Source: GOV.UK, Transactions in foreign currencies and VAT (last updated 18 June 2018), read 2026-09-25.
HMRC's internal manual puts it more narrowly: VAT Regulations 1995, regulation 14(1) details all the
amounts payable on a VAT invoice for a supply in the UK can be expressed in any currency. Only the total amount
of VAT payable has to be expressed in sterling.
(HMRC manual VATREC5060, read 2026-09-25.)
Where the sources differ. The regulation and VATREC5060 name only the VAT total in sterling; the GOV.UK guidance also asks for the net value at each VAT rate in sterling when UK VAT is due. Showing both the net value and the VAT in sterling for each rate meets both texts, and the sterling lines only need to appear for the rates used, not for every line.
EU: VAT payable in the national currency
Article 230 of the VAT Directive (quoted in the quick answer) lets the invoice be in any currency but requires the VAT in the Member State's national currency, converted under Article 91. For transactions other than imports, Article 91(2) says:
“…the exchange rate applicable shall be the latest selling rate recorded, at the time VAT becomes chargeable, on the most representative exchange market or markets of the Member State concerned, or a rate determined by reference to that or those markets, in accordance with the rules laid down by that Member State.”
“Member States shall accept instead the use of the latest exchange rate published by the European Central Bank at the time the tax becomes chargeable. Conversion between currencies other than the euro shall be made by using the euro exchange rate of each currency. Member States may require that they be notified of the exercise of this option by the taxable person.”
Source: Council Directive 2006/112/EC, consolidated text of 14.04.2025, Articles 91 and 230, read 2026-09-25. Each Member State's own rules apply on top of the Directive, so check the tax authority of the country whose VAT you charge.
The ECB publishes euro reference rates daily, but adds a caveat of its own: the rates are
usually updated at around 16:00 CET every working day, except on TARGET closing days
, and
The reference rates are published for information purposes only. Using the rates for transaction purposes
is strongly discouraged.
(ECB euro reference exchange rates, read 2026-09-25.)
Both statements stand side by side: the Directive requires Member States to accept the latest ECB rate for
converting the VAT, and the ECB describes its own rates as published for information.
Which exchange rate to use, and how to record it
| Where | What the source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| UK (VAT) | There are 2 standard ways to convert your foreign currency transactions into sterling for VAT purposes.The first is the UK market selling rate at the time of the supply. The rates published in national newspapers are acceptable.The second is the rates published by HMRC, known as the ‘period rate of exchange’, which lets you use one rate for a whole period, usually a calendar month. For any other method you must get approval from HMRC if you want to use it for VAT accounting, and You can’t use forward rates, or methods deriving from forward rates. | GOV.UK guidance |
| UK (HMRC monthly rates) | Exchange rates are published by HMRC on the penultimate Thursday of every month (as per section 18 of Notices made under the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018). These exchange rates apply to the following calendar month, and represent rates as of midday the day before publication.The page is written for customs value; VAT Notice 700 (paragraph 7.6) refers VAT users to the same rates: as an alternative, you may use the period rate of exchange published by HMRC for customs purposes. | HMRC exchange rates · VAT Notice 700 |
| EU (VAT) | The Member State's market-based selling rate under its own rules, or instead the latest ECB rate at the time the tax becomes chargeable (Article 91(2), quoted above). The same paragraph also lets Member States use the customs exchange rate for some transactions or for certain categories of taxable persons. | EUR-Lex |
| US (income tax) | No official rate; Generally, it accepts any posted exchange rate that is used consistently.Use the rate prevailing when you receive, pay or accrue the item. | IRS |
How to record it. Write the rate once, in a form anyone can check later: the rate, the source and the date or period it applies to. For example:
£1 = €1.1681 — HMRC monthly exchange rate, 1–30 September 2026
Never use "today's rate" without a date: the rate changes, and the date is what lets you or an auditor find the same figure again.
Invoice currency example: a UK seller invoicing in euros
The scenario. A UK VAT-registered business supplies services on 15 September 2026, agrees to invoice its customer in euros, and UK VAT is due on the supply at the standard rate of 20%. That condition is what brings in the sterling lines; if no UK VAT were due, they would not be needed. The invoice amounts are illustrative. The rate is HMRC's published monthly rate for September 2026, which is one of the two standard methods on GOV.UK.
| Consulting services, September 2026 | EUR 10,000.00 |
| Net total (VAT 20%) | EUR 10,000.00 |
| VAT at 20% | EUR 2,000.00 |
| Total due (EUR) | EUR 12,000.00 |
UK VAT is due on this supply, so the following are shown in sterling:
| Net value at 20%, in sterling | GBP 8,560.91 |
| VAT at 20%, in sterling | GBP 1,712.18 |
Exchange rate: £1 = €1.1681 — HMRC monthly exchange rate, 1–30 September 2026
The arithmetic. HMRC publishes euros per pound, so divide: 10,000.00 ÷ 1.1681 = 8,560.91 and
2,000.00 ÷ 1.1681 = 1,712.18 (rounded to two decimal places in this example). The line items stay in euros,
because GOV.UK says You do not need to show sterling figures for each line on the invoice.
The UK
standard rate is 20% according to GOV.UK VAT rates (read 2026-09-25).
Rate source: HMRC monthly exchange rates, September 2026 (Eurozone, Euro, EUR 1.1681 currency units per £1, valid 1 to 30 September 2026), read 2026-09-25. Whether UK VAT is due on a given supply, and at which rate, depends on the supply; this example assumes it.
Invoice currency vs payment currency vs accounting currency
- Invoice currency
- The currency the amounts on the invoice are stated in, and normally the currency the debt is owed in.
- Payment currency
- The currency the money actually moves in. If your customer pays from an account in another currency, a bank or payment provider converts it at its own rate and charges; see the bank-charges clause for how to agree who bears that.
- Accounting (functional) currency
-
The currency your books and tax return are kept in. For US tax, the IRS says
Your functional currency generally is the U.S. dollar unless you are required to use the currency of a foreign country.
andYou must make all federal income tax determinations in your functional currency.
(IRS, read 2026-09-25.)
The three can all differ: a UK company can keep its books in pounds, invoice a customer in euros and be paid from a customer's dollar account. The invoice currency is the one you control, which is why it should be stated with its ISO code.
Currency and bank-charges clause
International payments can arrive short because banks or payment providers deduct charges or convert at their own rate. Say in your terms which currency settles the invoice and who bears those costs. The wording below is illustrative only; this page states no legal rule on who must bear bank charges, so adapt it to your contract and, if in doubt, take advice.
Illustrative wording
“This invoice is payable in euros (EUR). It is settled when EUR 12,000.00 is received in full in the account shown. Each party pays the charges of its own bank; any conversion charges on the payer's side are borne by the payer.”
Next to the clause, print the payment details the customer needs for an international transfer, such as your IBAN and BIC/SWIFT code, and the account's currency.
Checklist before you send a foreign-currency invoice
- The currency is agreed with the customer and stated with its ISO 4217 code next to the total.
- Amounts use the currency's decimal places (0 for JPY, 3 for KWD and BHD, 2 for most others).
- The number format cannot be misread (say which convention you use, or use the ISO code with plain digits).
- UK VAT due: the VAT total in sterling, and the net value and VAT at each rate in sterling.
- Advance invoice with UK VAT: in sterling for VAT purposes.
- EU VAT charged: the VAT amount in the Member State's national currency.
- The exchange rate is written with its source and its date or period, and the method is one the tax system accepts.
- Payment terms say which currency settles the invoice and who bears bank and conversion charges.
- Payment details for an international transfer (IBAN, BIC/SWIFT, account currency) are on the invoice.
Make one
Our multi-currency invoice generator does this in the browser. What it does today, stated plainly:
- The Monetary Unit menu has 8 presets (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, AUD, CHF, TRY) plus Custom Currency... for any other symbol. One currency per invoice.
- The optional Currency Code & Exchange Rate section prints the ISO code next to the total. If you add a second currency and type a rate, its date and its source, the PDF prints the rate line and the net amount, the tax and the total in that second currency. Nothing is looked up or filled in for you, so you choose the rate method. The rate field asks how much of the second currency one unit of the invoice currency buys, so HMRC's "£1 = €1.1681" from the example is typed as 1 ÷ 1.1681 ≈ 0.8561; a rounded rate can move the converted figures by a few pence.
- The editor has one tax rate per invoice, so the second-currency block shows one net value and one tax figure.
- Amounts always print with two decimal places, the symbol in front: euros as €1.250,50 and pounds as £1,250.50. For yen, whose ISO minor unit is 0, enter whole amounts; the PDF will still show ".00".
- Invoice labels are in English. Payment instructions are free text; lines with IBAN, SWIFT or BIC are highlighted on the PDF.
- It is free and unmetered for normal use; an anti-abuse cap of 20 PDFs per device per day (200 per IP) applies, and blank template file downloads are not metered. A one-line "Created free with myinvoicetemplate.com" credit is switched on by default and one free checkbox in the settings turns it off. Your draft is stored in your own browser on this device, so download and keep the PDF you need.
Prefer a file? The blank multi-currency invoice template comes as PDF, Word and Excel; the Excel version has an optional second-currency block that converts the net, tax and total at the rate you type into it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I issue an invoice in a foreign currency?
Generally yes. HMRC's guidance says “You can invoice in any currency for the goods and services that you supply”, and Article 230 of the EU VAT Directive says the amounts on an invoice “may be expressed in any currency”. The conditions are about tax: in the UK the VAT total (and, where UK VAT is due, the net value at each rate) must also appear in sterling; in the EU the VAT must be in the Member State's national currency; and a US business reports the income in US dollars on its tax return.
Do I have to show VAT in pounds on a euro or dollar invoice?
Yes, if UK VAT is charged. Regulation 14(1)(l) of the VAT Regulations 1995 requires “the total amount of VAT chargeable, expressed in sterling.” GOV.UK's guidance goes further: if UK VAT is due on the transaction, the invoice must also show in sterling the total net value at each VAT rate and the amount of VAT at each rate. You do not need sterling figures for each line.
Which exchange rate should I use on a foreign-currency invoice?
It depends on the tax system. In the UK, GOV.UK names two standard methods: the UK market selling rate at the time of supply, or HMRC's monthly ‘period rate of exchange’; any other method needs HMRC approval, and forward rates are not allowed. In the EU, Article 91(2) of the VAT Directive points to the Member State's own rules and requires Member States to accept the latest ECB rate at the time the tax becomes chargeable. For US tax, the IRS says it has no official rate and generally accepts any posted rate used consistently. Whatever you use, write the rate, its source and its date.
Does the IRS have an official exchange rate?
No. The IRS says: “The Internal Revenue Service has no official exchange rate. Generally, it accepts any posted exchange rate that is used consistently.” It also says to use the rate prevailing when you receive, pay or accrue the item.
Should I write EUR or € on an invoice?
Write the three-letter ISO 4217 code (EUR, USD, GBP) at least once, next to the total. A symbol alone can be ambiguous between currencies that share it, such as dollars, while the ISO code identifies one currency. Using both, for example “Total (EUR) €1,250.50”, is common and clear.
How many decimal places should an invoice amount have?
Use the currency's minor unit from the ISO 4217 list. Most currencies have 2 decimal places, but the Japanese yen (JPY) has 0, and the Kuwaiti dinar (KWD) and Bahraini dinar (BHD) have 3, according to the ISO 4217 list published by SIX on 17 September 2026.
Who pays the bank charges on an international payment?
This page states no legal rule on it. It is something to agree with your customer and write in the payment terms, for example that the payer bears its own bank's charges and that the invoice is settled only when the full invoiced amount arrives in the invoice currency. The wording in the bank-charges section of this guide is illustrative only.
Sources
All read on .
- The Value Added Tax Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/2518), regulation 14 — legislation.gov.uk
- Transactions in foreign currencies and VAT — GOV.UK (updated 18 June 2018)
- VATREC5060: VAT invoice: Invoicing in a foreign currency — HMRC internal manual
- VAT guide (VAT Notice 700), paragraph 7.6 — GOV.UK
- HMRC currency exchange monthly rates — UK Trade Tariff service (written for customs value)
- VAT rates — GOV.UK
- Council Directive 2006/112/EC (consolidated 14.04.2025), Articles 91 and 230 — EUR-Lex
- Euro foreign exchange reference rates — European Central Bank
- Foreign currency and currency exchange rates and Yearly average currency exchange rates — IRS
- Foreign Exchange Rates, H.10 weekly (release of 21 September 2026) — Federal Reserve Board
- ISO 4217 List One (published 2026-09-17) — SIX, ISO 4217 maintenance agency
- Unicode CLDR 48 (cldr-json 48.2.2) — Unicode Consortium
General information only, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rules and rates change; check the source for the date that applies to your invoice. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will re-check the source.