VAT for a hair salon in Ireland: the 9% rate, the threshold and your paperwork

VAT is the tax most Irish salon owners meet twice: once when the accountant asks whether the salon should be registered, and once more when the Government moves the rate, which it did again this year. Since 1 July 2026, hairdressing services are back at the 9% rate after three years at 13.5%, while the bottle of shampoo on your retail shelf never moved from 23%. Add a registration threshold that catches busy salons by surprise and a legal duty to display VAT-inclusive prices, and there is enough here to get wrong without a map.

This guide covers what a salon owner in the Republic of Ireland actually needs to know: the rate that applies to cuts and colours right now, the €42,500 registration threshold and how it is measured, why services and retail products carry different rates, what your price list and receipts must show, and how VAT works on the things your salon buys, software subscriptions included. Everything below rests on Revenue and CCPC sources, checked in October 2026, and applies to the Republic of Ireland only: Northern Ireland follows the UK VAT system, which is a different world. This blog is published by ViteUneCoupe, a free online booking system for hair salons with no commission: VAT is not our trade, running a salon is, so treat this as general information and let your accountant confirm what applies to your own numbers.

What VAT rate applies to hairdressing in Ireland right now?

As of October 2026, hairdressing services are taxed at the second reduced rate of 9%, with effect from 1 July 2026. That is the official entry for hairdressing services in Revenue's VAT rates database (checked in October 2026), and Revenue's second reduced rate page lists hairdressing among the services covered.

The recent history matters, because plenty of pages online still show the old figure. Hairdressing spent years at the reduced 13.5% rate, was cut to 9% during the pandemic in November 2020, went back up to 13.5% on 1 September 2023, and Budget 2026 brought it down to 9% again from 1 July 2026 (Revenue's Budget 2026 summary; the history is laid out in RTÉ's budget coverage). So:

A worked example, purely hypothetical: a registered salon charges €65 for a cut and colour, VAT included. At 9%, the VAT inside that price is 65 × 9 ÷ 109, about €5.37, so the salon keeps €59.63. Under the old 13.5% rate the same €65 contained about €7.73 of VAT. The July 2026 cut is worth roughly €2.36 to the salon on that one appointment, if the card price stays the same: whether you keep that margin or share it with clients through your price list is a business decision, not a tax one.

One scope note: the 9% entry covers hairdressing services. Beauty treatments are a separate question with their own Revenue entries, and this article does not deal with them.

The €42,500 threshold: when must your salon register?

A salon does not charge VAT at all until it is registered, and registration becomes obligatory when turnover crosses the threshold. For services, the principal threshold is €42,500, against €85,000 for businesses supplying goods (Revenue, VAT registration thresholds, checked in October 2026; these figures have applied since 1 January 2025). A hair salon is a service business, and selling some retail product alongside does not change that: the higher goods threshold is reserved for businesses whose turnover comes at least 90% from goods, which no salon resembles. Plan around €42,500.

Three practical points that matter at the backwash more than in a textbook:

• The test looks forward as well as back. The obligation arises when your turnover exceeds, or is likely to exceed, the threshold in any continuous 12-month period, not a calendar year. A salon averaging more than about €3,540 a month in takings is on course to cross.
• Everything taxable counts together. Cuts, colours and blow-dries, plus retail sales of shampoo and styling products, all feed the same turnover figure. €38,000 of services and €6,000 of product sales is over the line.
• Small daily payments hide the total. Salon revenue arrives €30 and €110 at a time, so nobody feels the threshold approaching unless someone adds it up monthly. Discovering in January that you crossed in September means VAT was due on sales where you never charged it, and it comes out of your margin.

Below the threshold, you simply do not register and must not charge or mention VAT. Voluntary registration is possible, and occasionally sensible in a year of heavy fit-out spending, because only a registered business reclaims the VAT on chairs, basins and works; it also commits you to charging VAT on every service afterwards, so run that trade-off with your accountant before electing.

Crossed the threshold without noticing?

Register without delay and tell your accountant the date the 12-month figure went over. The VAT is due whether or not you collected it, and the sooner the position is regularised, the smaller the damage. The real fix is upstream: know your monthly services turnover all year round, not once a year at accounts time.

Services at 9%, the retail shelf at 23%

The 9% rate covers the hairdressing service. The products you sell to clients, shampoo, conditioner, oils, styling products, are ordinary goods at the standard rate of 23% (Revenue, current VAT rates, checked in October 2026). A registered salon therefore runs two rates side by side: 9% on the appointment, 23% on the bottle the client takes home.

Two habits keep this painless. First, keep service revenue and retail revenue visibly separate in your till and your records, so the two rates land in the right boxes of the VAT return without archaeology. Second, price retail products knowing that 23 cents of every €1.23 on the shelf is not yours. The colour and backwash products you use on clients during a service are not retail sales at all: they are your supplies, part of the 9% service, and the VAT you paid on them is dealt with as a business purchase (more below).

Your displayed prices are VAT-inclusive, always

Irish consumer law requires prices shown to consumers to include all taxes, VAT included, and hairdressers have their own specific rule: the Charges (Hairdressing) Display Order 1976 obliges a salon to display a price list for its services, outside or in the window where the premises front the street, otherwise immediately inside the entrance (CCPC, price display obligations for hairdressers, checked in October 2026). Charging something different from the displayed price is a misleading price indication under the Consumer Protection Act 2007.

The practical consequence: registering for VAT does not add 9% on top of your card prices by magic. Your €55 cut stays €55 to the client; registration decides how much of it you pass on to Revenue. When you cross the threshold, or when a rate changes as it did in July 2026, the price list is the thing to review deliberately. For the market context around that decision, our guide to hair salon prices in Ireland looks at what salons actually charge. And since your booking page is a price display too, keep it matching the card in the window: the list a client sees online must be as VAT-inclusive and current as the one at the door.

Receipts, invoices and the records behind them

For walk-in consumers, Irish VAT law does not force you to issue a full VAT invoice: the formal VAT invoice obligation applies when an accountable person supplies another accountable person, a public body or certain other categories (Revenue, who must issue a VAT invoice). Your everyday till receipt for a €55 cut does not need the client's name on it.

Where the full invoice matters is the occasional business client: a photographer's studio booking hair for a shoot, a theatre, a company event. A registered business client will ask for a proper VAT invoice (your salon's name, address and VAT number, date, sequential number, description, rate and amount), and only with it can they deduct the VAT. Keep your side simple: a registered salon must keep records that support every figure on the VAT return, which in practice means daily takings split between the 9% and 23% rates, plus purchase invoices. One warning that applies before registration: an unregistered salon must never show VAT on any receipt or invoice; invoices issued by unregistered persons carry their own penalties.

VAT on what your salon buys, software included

Almost everything a salon buys carries VAT at 23%: colour stock from the wholesaler, equipment, accountancy fees, and software subscriptions. If your salon is VAT-registered, that VAT is generally deductible against the VAT you collect, so the real cost of a €100 + VAT purchase is €100. If you are not registered, the VAT is simply part of the price you pay, which is worth remembering when comparing suppliers' "ex-VAT" quotes.

Software is the modern wrinkle, because much of it is billed from abroad. ViteUneCoupe is a concrete example and we may as well use ourselves: the paid Standard plan costs 29 € per month excluding VAT, with no commitment, billed in euros from France. For a VAT-registered Irish salon, an EU supplier like us does not charge you French VAT: you give the supplier your Irish VAT number and self-account for Irish VAT on the purchase through the reverse charge on your own return, deducting it in the same return in the normal case (Revenue, self-accounting for VAT on received services). One genuine trap to flag to your accountant: a business that is not registered can be obliged to register solely because it receives taxable services from abroad, with no threshold at all (Revenue, persons required to register because of goods or services acquired from abroad). The mechanics are routine once set up, but they are exactly the kind of thing to hand to a professional rather than improvise. We walk through the full cost picture, VAT treatment included, in our honest look at what salon software really costs in Ireland.

Let us be equally clear about what ViteUneCoupe is not: it is a booking system, not a till or an accounting package. It does not calculate, add or file VAT, and it does not issue your receipts. What it does do is solve the problem running through this whole article: knowing your numbers before Revenue does. Every appointment booked through it is recorded with its service and price, so your monthly services turnover is visible at a glance instead of reconstructed at accounts time, which is precisely what you need to see the €42,500 line coming. The free plan includes unlimited online bookings with 0% commission, always, plus your calendar, services catalogue with prices, client database and staff schedules. To see how it compares with the rest of the market here, our comparison of hair salon booking software in Ireland goes through the options one by one.

Frequently asked questions

What is the VAT rate for hairdressers in Ireland in 2026?

9% since 1 July 2026, when Budget 2026 moved hairdressing services from the 13.5% reduced rate to the 9% second reduced rate (Revenue VAT rates database, checked in October 2026). From 1 September 2023 to 30 June 2026 the rate was 13.5%, so anything published before mid-2026 is likely quoting the old figure.

Do all hairdressers charge VAT in Ireland?

No. A salon only charges VAT once it is registered, and registration is only obligatory when turnover exceeds, or is likely to exceed, €42,500 in any continuous 12-month period for a service business. Below that, the salon neither charges nor mentions VAT, and its prices carry no VAT at all.

What VAT rate applies to shampoo and products sold in a salon?

The standard rate of 23%. The 9% rate covers the hairdressing service itself; retail products sold to clients are ordinary goods. A registered salon therefore accounts for 9% on services and 23% on retail sales, and should keep the two revenue streams separate in its records.

Should my salon's displayed prices include VAT?

Yes, always. Prices shown to consumers in Ireland must include all taxes, and the Charges (Hairdressing) Display Order 1976 specifically requires salons to display a service price list, visible from the street where the premises allow it. A client pays the price on the list; whether VAT lives inside it is your problem, not theirs.

Can my salon claim back the VAT on its purchases?

Only if it is VAT-registered: a registered salon generally deducts the VAT paid on colour stock, equipment, fees and software subscriptions against the VAT it collects. An unregistered salon cannot reclaim anything, so the 23% on purchases is simply a cost. For subscriptions billed from another EU country, a registered salon self-accounts under the reverse charge using its VAT number; ask your accountant to set that up the first time.