How to invoice a brand deal: what the invoice must show in the EU, UK and US

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change and depend on your country and situation; check the linked official sources or ask a qualified professional.

This page is for the creator's side: you made or posted content and the brand now owes you. It covers what the invoice has to show under EU, UK and US rules, how VAT works when you and the brand are in different countries, and the exact words to put on the invoice in each case. Every source linked here was opened on 29 September 2026. It is general information, not tax advice. Your own country's tax office or an adviser can confirm how it applies to your registration.

What the contract should say about payment dates, and what the law lets you charge when a brand pays late, is in the brand deal contract checklist. This page starts where the contract ends: the document you send.

Which VAT rule applies to your brand deal?

Find your row: where you are established, where the brand is, and whether you are registered for VAT. Every row assumes the brand is a business buying for its business, which is the normal case for a sponsorship or UGC fee.

Checked 2026-09-29

The two rows that trip creators up are the cross-border ones. Being registered for VAT does not mean charging VAT to every client, and being exempt at home does not make a foreign client's invoice exempt. The sections below show why.

What must an EU invoice show?

Article 226 of the VAT Directive says that "only the following details are required for VAT purposes" on an invoice (Directive 2006/112/EC, consolidated 1 January 2025). Member states write the list into national law, so your own country's version is the one your tax office applies. The fields that apply to a brand deal:

• The date of issue (1) and a sequential number that uniquely identifies the invoice (2).
• Your VAT identification number (3).
• The customer's VAT number, when the customer is the one liable for the VAT (4).
• Full name and address of you and of the brand (5).
• "The extent and nature of the services rendered" (6): what you posted or delivered, on which platform, and how many.
• The date the service was completed, if it differs from the invoice date (7).
• The taxable amount, the unit price without VAT and any discount (8).
• The VAT rate (9) and the VAT amount (10).
• For an exempt supply, a reference to the exemption (11).
• Where the customer pays the VAT, "the mention 'Reverse charge'" (11a).

Amounts may be in any currency, as long as any VAT payable is also shown in the national currency of the member state (Art. 230). A brand in Paris can be billed in US dollars; if the invoice carries VAT, the VAT also appears in euros.

How does the reverse charge work between EU countries?

Two articles do the work. Article 44 places a service to a business "where that person has established his business". Article 196 makes the VAT payable by the business customer when "the services are supplied by a taxable person not established" in its country (EUR-Lex). So a creator in Germany billing a brand in France is supplying a service in France, and the French brand pays the French VAT on its own return.

What that means for your invoice:

1. No VAT line. You bill the net fee.
2. The brand's VAT number on the invoice (Art. 226(4)).
3. The words "Reverse charge" (Art. 226(11a)). German law words the same note as "Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers" and also requires both VAT numbers (§ 14a(1) UStG), except for a business using the small-business exemption (§ 19(1) UStG). Writing both phrases on a German creator's invoice covers both.
4. The deadline. For services reverse-charged under Article 196, the invoice is due "no later than on the fifteenth day of the month following" the month of the supply (Art. 222). A post that went live in October is invoiced by 15 November.
5. The report. A VAT-registered creator lists these customers in a recapitulative statement (Art. 262(1)(c)). In Germany that is the Zusammenfassende Meldung, due by the 25th day after each calendar quarter (§ 18a UStG).

Check the brand's VAT number before you rely on it. The European Commission's VIES tool validates numbers "issued by any Member State / Northern Ireland" (VIES). It stopped validating UK (GB) numbers on 1 January 2021; for those, VIES points traders to the UK tax administration. A saved VIES result, dated, is the record that you checked.

What does a small-enterprise creator write on the invoice?

Every EU country may exempt small businesses from charging VAT on supplies made in their own territory, with a national turnover cap no higher than €85,000 (Art. 284(1)). Since 2025 a small business can also use the exemption in other member states it sells into, if its EU-wide turnover stays within €100,000 and its sales in that country stay within that country's own threshold, after notifying its home country; it then gets a number with the suffix "EX" (Art. 284(2)-(3)). A small enterprise using the exemption may issue a simplified invoice (Art. 220a(1)(c)), which needs at least the date, your identification, the type of service and the VAT amount or the information needed to calculate it (Art. 226b).

Germany is the example here. Under § 19 UStG a German business's supplies are exempt if its total turnover was no more than €25,000 last year and does not exceed €100,000 this year. The invoice, per § 34a UStDV, shows both full names and addresses, your tax number, VAT number or small-business ID number, the invoice date, the service, and the fee as one sum with a note that the small-business exemption applies. Opting out of the exemption binds you for at least five calendar years (§ 19(3) UStG).

The exemption covers supplies inside your own country. A German small business billing a French brand is supplying a service in France under Article 44, so the German exemption is not what keeps VAT off that invoice; the reverse charge is. German law still requires the note "Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers" on that invoice (§ 14a(1) UStG), and writing "Reverse charge" beside it matches the EU wording. Two things change. § 19(1) switches off the German rule that the invoice shows both VAT numbers, and the recapitulative statement does not apply to businesses using § 19 (§ 18a(4) UStG).

What must a UK invoice show?

It depends on whether you are registered for VAT. You must register once taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, and you may register voluntarily below it (GOV.UK).

Not registered. GOV.UK lists what an invoice must include: a unique identification number; your company name, address and contact information; the customer's company name and address; a clear description of what you are charging for; the supply date; the invoice date; the amounts; VAT if applicable; and the total owed. A sole trader adds their own name and any business name, plus an address for legal documents if a business name is used (GOV.UK).

Registered. GOV.UK says you must use VAT invoices if you and your customer are both VAT registered. A full VAT invoice adds your VAT registration number, the time of supply, the VAT rate, the amount excluding VAT and the total VAT in sterling (Notice 700/21 s.4.1). For supplies of £250 or less including VAT, a simplified invoice is allowed (s.4.5). The standard rate is 20% (GOV.UK).

Brand outside the UK. For business customers, "the supply is made where the customer belongs" (Notice 741A s.6.3). If that is an EU country or anywhere else, the supply is "outside the scope" of UK VAT (s.2.1), so no UK VAT goes on the invoice. HMRC names an EU customer's VAT number as the best evidence that it is in business, and accepts other commercial evidence where there is none (s.6.3). Notice 741A asks that invoices "make clear the nature of the services involved" (s.2.3).

The reverse, a UK brand paying a foreign creator. The UK reverse charge applies where the place of supply is the UK, the supplier belongs outside the UK and the customer belongs in the UK (s.5.1). The brand accounts for the VAT on its own return (s.5.2). The foreign creator bills the net fee.

What does a US brand need besides the invoice?

The IRS pages cited here deal with tax forms, not invoice layouts, and a US brand will usually ask for one of these forms alongside the invoice. A US creator gives Form W-9, used "to provide your correct Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)" to the person required to file an information return with the IRS (IRS). A creator outside the US gives Form W-8BEN "to the withholding agent or payer", and submits it when asked "whether or not you are claiming a reduced rate of, or exemption from, withholding" (IRS).

Send the form with the first invoice, with the same legal name and address on both. Which information returns the brand then files, and at what thresholds, is in what platforms and brands report about creators.

Worked example: one fee, five invoices

All inputs are hypothetical. The fee is 2,000 for one sponsored reel plus 30 days of organic usage, posted on 14 October 2026.

The German creator earns the same €2,000 in each of the first three cases. The VAT-registered one sends the German brand €380 more, which goes to the tax office. For the French brand, status makes no difference to the invoice total; it changes only whether a quarterly report follows. To recompute with your own fee: VAT = net fee × your country's rate, and a reverse-charge invoice total = net fee. What the fee itself should be is a separate question, covered in how to price a sponsored post.

Invoice checklist to copy

Each line comes from a rule above. Skip the lines marked for a case that is not yours.

• A unique invoice number in a continuous series
• Invoice date, and the date the post went live or the files were delivered
• Your full legal name and address, plus any business name you trade under
• The brand's legal entity name and address, as in the contract, not the agency's
• Your VAT number, if you have one; in Germany, your tax number if you do not
• Brand's VAT number, checked on VIES (EU brand, reverse charge)
• Description: platform, format, count, posting date, usage period
• Net fee per item and in total, and currency
• VAT rate and amount (domestic, VAT-registered only)
• "Reverse charge" (EU cross-border) or the exemption note (small business, domestic)
• Purchase-order number and payment terms from the contract
• Bank details
• W-9 or W-8BEN attached (US brand)
• Sent by the 15th of the following month (EU reverse charge)

Frequently asked questions

Do I charge VAT to a brand in another EU country?

No, if the brand is a business and you are not established in its country. Article 44 puts the supply in the brand's country and Article 196 makes the brand pay the VAT there. Your invoice shows the net fee, the brand's VAT number and "Reverse charge".

I am VAT-exempt as a small business. What do I write on the invoice?

For a client in your own country, the fee as one sum and a note that the small-business exemption applies; in Germany that note is required by § 34a UStDV. For a business client in another EU country, the reverse charge applies instead, so write "Reverse charge"; in Germany the note "Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers" is required, while the VAT-number requirement does not apply to § 19 businesses.

Does a UK creator charge VAT to a US or EU brand?

No. For business customers, services are supplied where the customer belongs, and a supply outside the UK is outside the scope of UK VAT. An EU brand pays its own VAT under the reverse charge.

Can I invoice a brand in dollars from the EU?

Yes. Article 230 of the VAT Directive allows any currency, as long as any VAT payable is also stated in the national currency. On a reverse-charge invoice there is no VAT line to convert.

Is a W-8BEN a substitute for an invoice?

No. The W-8BEN certifies to the payer that you are a foreign person; the invoice is the bill. Send both with the first invoice.

Sources

Opened and checked on 2026-09-29.

• EUR-Lex, Council Directive 2006/112/EC, consolidated text 1 January 2025: Art. 44, 196, 220, 220a, 222, 226, 226b, 230, 262, 284.
• European Commission, VIES VAT number validation: EU and XI numbers, GB numbers not validated since 1 January 2021.
• § 12 UStG, § 14a UStG, § 18a UStG, § 19 UStG, § 34a UStDV.
• GOV.UK, Invoicing and taking payment from customers: what invoices must include.
• GOV.UK, VAT registration: the £90,000 threshold and voluntary registration.
• GOV.UK, VAT rates: the 20% standard rate.
• HMRC, Record keeping for VAT (Notice 700/21): s.4.1 full VAT invoices, s.4.5 simplified invoices.
• HMRC, VAT place of supply of services (Notice 741A): s.2.1, 2.3, 5.1, 5.2, 6.3.
• IRS, About Form W-9 and About Form W-8BEN.