Claude subscription invoices and VAT

The short version

A Claude subscription bought on the web produces a real invoice from Anthropic, and you can download the PDF yourself from Settings then Billing. If you entered a business VAT number (value added tax) at checkout, the invoice reflects that, and in the usual cross-border case the tax stops being something you pay at checkout and becomes something you declare yourself. If you subscribed by tapping a button inside the iPhone or Android app, Anthropic issues you no invoice at all, because the app store took the money and the app store is the seller.

This page explains how the billing behaves. It is orientation, not tax advice. Rates and reporting rules are national and they change, so an accountant decides how any of this is booked in your country.

Where does the invoice for a Claude subscription come from?

Anthropic bills web subscriptions directly and issues an invoice for every payment. Each one is also emailed to your billing email address. The subject line is stable, so searching your mail for Your receipt from Anthropic finds the whole history.

To pull them from the account instead:

1. Open Claude in a browser and click your initials or your name in the lower left corner.
2. Choose Settings, then Billing.
3. Find the Invoices section.
4. Click View next to an invoice and save the PDF.

Two fields on that PDF decide whether your bookkeeper can use it. The name and address come from the payment method as it stood when the invoice was issued. The tax line is calculated from that same billing address. Both are frozen at the moment of issue, and the help centre says so directly:

Updates to your billing details will only apply to future billing cycles. Previously completed invoices cannot be updated retroactively.

So the deadline for fixing your billing details is the next billing date. After the charge runs, the document you have is the document you keep, because an issued invoice cannot be reopened and corrected. Updated details appear on the next invoice only.

Why is there no Anthropic invoice for an App Store subscription?

Because the app stores sell the subscription in their own name. Anthropic's help centre puts it plainly for anyone who subscribed inside the mobile app:

your payment is handled by the Apple App Store or Google Play, and you'll manage your payment method and receipts through your app store account

Four things follow, and all four hurt at bookkeeping time. The receipt lives in a personal Apple ID or Google account and names the store as the seller. That purchase flow has no field for a company VAT number, so the charge is treated as a consumer purchase. Refunds are the store's decision, and Anthropic support cannot issue them. Cancelling must also happen in the store, because cancelling inside Claude does not stop a subscription the store is billing.

If you bought on a phone and you need company invoices, cancel in the store, then subscribe again on the web with the company payment details once the paid period ends. Subscribing on the web while the store subscription is still running pays for the same thing twice.

What does a business VAT number change?

VAT on a digital service sold across a border is due where the customer is, not where the seller is. That is the general place of supply rule for services sold between businesses in the European Union (article 44 of the VAT Directive). Two different paths run from it.

As a private person you pay the tax at checkout. Prices are quoted before tax, and the pricing page states it:

Prices shown don't include applicable tax.

Claude Pro was $20 per month billed monthly as of August 2026, so a Dutch consumer pays that plus the Dutch standard rate, 21% as of August 2026.

As a business with a valid VAT number you normally pay no tax at checkout. The supply is reverse charged: the seller invoices without VAT, and you account for that VAT yourself in your own return. Article 196 of the VAT Directive covers a supplier not established in your country. Where the subscription serves activity on which you charge VAT, you deduct the same amount as input tax in the same return. People call the reverse charge free because those two entries cancel. It is only free when you are entitled to the deduction.

The field is in the payment form, not on a separate tax screen:

1. Open Settings, then Billing.
2. Click Update next to your payment method.
3. Enter your Tax or VAT ID in the field shown in that form. It appears only for locations where it applies.
4. Save, then check the next invoice rather than the last one.

On a Team plan the same field sits in the organisation's billing settings and belongs to the billing owner, not to an individual member.

Which line of your return it lands on depends on the seller, so read the seller name and address printed on the PDF. In the Dutch VAT return (btw-aangifte), a service from a supplier established outside the European Union is reported in box 4a, a service from a supplier inside the European Union in box 4b, and the deductible input tax in box 5b. The billing entity behind a software subscription can change between years, which is why the answer is on your invoice and not in an article.

One warning before you type the number in. A small business scheme changes the arithmetic. Under the Dutch kleineondernemersregeling (KOR) you charge no VAT and you deduct none, so a reverse charged service bought from abroad can leave you owing VAT that you cannot reclaim. Ask first, because entering the number is the moment the treatment changes.

Why does the amount on my card differ from the price on the page?

Four mechanisms, and often several at once.

Tax on top. The quoted price excludes tax, so a consumer charge is the price plus a national rate.

Currency. Subscriptions are priced and charged in US dollars. Your bank converts at its own rate on its own date, so the euro amount on the statement will not equal any fixed conversion of the dollar figure. Anthropic also notes that some existing subscribers pay in a currency that new subscribers are not offered, and that changing the currency of a subscription means cancelling at the end of the term and starting again.

A foreign transaction fee. Many cards add a percentage on a charge in a currency the card was not issued in. That percentage is in your card agreement. It never appears on the Anthropic invoice, because the seller is not the party charging it, and in your books it is a bank cost rather than a software cost.

Proration and credits. A plan change in the middle of a cycle is billed as one full cycle of the new plan, less a prorated amount for the unused part of the old one. A line reading Applied balance means a credit already sitting on the account paid part of the bill. Those two are exactly the reasons Anthropic gives when an invoice does not match the plan price.

The practical result is that the invoice total and the bank line will not agree, and that is normal. Book the invoice and match the payment. The difference belongs on an exchange rate difference account. Your accounting software has a rule for which rate to apply to a purchase invoice in a foreign currency, so apply its rule every month instead of a rate you looked up once.

What does a personal card on a business subscription cost you?

It costs you the deduction, or the hours spent rescuing it. The invoice carries the name and address attached to the payment method. Pay with a personal card registered at your home address and the invoice is made out to a private person, which is the kind of document a bookkeeper hands back when you claim the VAT on it. A company VAT number sitting above a private name and a home address makes it worse, because now the document contradicts itself.

The money also moves on the wrong account. The subscription becomes an expense claim: you paid it, the company owes you, and two people touch a small recurring amount every month for no benefit.

The repair takes a minute and only works forwards. Add the company card and the company billing address before the next billing date. If the card carries a person's name, tick the option to use a different name on invoices so the company name prints on the document. Enter the VAT number in the same form. Every invoice from the next cycle onward is correct, and every invoice before it stays exactly as it was.

How do seats work when a second person needs access?

One login is one person. Usage limits are counted per account, so a shared password gives two people a smaller share of one allowance and breaks the terms of the account. The supported answer is the Team plan, sized from 2 to 150 seats and billed per seat. As of August 2026 a standard seat is $20 per seat per month billed annually, or $25 billed monthly.

The seat mechanics decide what your invoices look like. Adding a member or upgrading a seat is prorated and charged immediately, so an extra invoice arrives off cycle for a part period. Removing a member produces no credit and no refund: the seat stays paid until the term ends and can be reassigned to someone else. The projected total shown on the billing page excludes tax, so the invoice is higher than that figure wherever tax applies. The billing address and the invoices belong to the organisation, not to an individual member.

Whether two seats beat one shared login in money terms is a separate question, and Team plans for a small business works through it. If the second consumer of Claude is a script rather than a person, paying per token through the API instead of a subscription is billed through the Console as a separate account, with its own invoices and its own tax ID field, which means two invoice streams to reconcile.

Switching to annual mid cycle, and what cancelling does

Switching Pro from monthly to annual takes effect immediately. The unused part of the current month is credited to the first annual invoice as its own line, and the next billing date moves to one year from the day you switched. For your accounts that is a single invoice covering twelve months. On an accrual basis it is a prepayment spread over the period it covers rather than a cost in the month it was paid, which is a decision worth making before you switch. The money side of the choice is in annual against monthly billing, and what Pro costs and where its limits sit carries the current figures.

Cancelling is the mirror image. It takes effect at the end of the current billing period and access continues until then, so a cancellation neither refunds you nor shortens what you already bought. Cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing date, because cancelling after a charge has run does not reverse it. Payments are otherwise non refundable except where the law requires: in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom you can request a refund within 14 days of purchase, prorated according to use. A refund arrives as a credit note, so tell whoever keeps your books, since money returning to the account with no document becomes a reconciliation problem months later. The plan side of that decision is covered in cancelling or downgrading a Claude plan.

Is a Claude subscription a deductible business expense?

In most systems a tool bought for the work is an ordinary business cost, and two questions decide it: whether the spend is genuinely for the business, and whether you hold an invoice that proves it. Everything on this page serves the second question. That means a document with your company name, your company address, your VAT number where it applies, and a matching payment from the company account. Get those right at the start and the year end costs you nothing.

Private use is the part people skip. One subscription that serves both paid work and a hobby is a split, and the split is a judgment rather than a setting inside Claude. Rates and rules differ by country and change by year, so treat every figure above as dated and check it against your own invoice. What the billing system does is described here. What you may deduct is decided by your national rules and by the person who signs your return. If you are still choosing a tier before any of this matters, start with which Claude plan you actually need.

FAQ

Where do I download an invoice for my Claude subscription?

Open Claude in a browser, click your initials or name in the lower left corner, choose Settings, then Billing, then find the Invoices section and click View next to the invoice you want. Every invoice is also emailed to your billing email address with the subject line Your receipt from Anthropic, so searching your mail for that phrase finds the older ones. This applies to subscriptions bought on the web. A subscription bought inside the mobile app has no Anthropic invoice at all.

Do I still pay VAT if I give my company VAT number?

At checkout, usually not. A cross-border digital service sold to a business is normally reverse charged, which means the seller invoices without VAT and you declare that VAT in your own return. You then deduct the same amount as input tax where the subscription serves activity on which you charge VAT, so the two entries cancel. You still owe the VAT if you cannot deduct it, which is why a small business exemption scheme changes the answer. Enter the number before the next billing date, because an invoice already issued cannot be corrected.

Why is the charge on my card higher than the price on the pricing page?

Prices are quoted before tax, so a consumer charge adds your national rate. Prices are also in US dollars, so your bank converts at its own rate, and many cards add a foreign transaction fee for a charge in another currency. A plan change in the middle of a cycle adds a fourth cause: it is billed as a full cycle of the new plan minus a prorated credit for the unused part of the old one.

I subscribed in the iPhone app. Can Anthropic send me an invoice?

No. An in-app purchase is sold by the Apple App Store or Google Play, so your receipt lives in your app store account and names the store as the seller. Anthropic cannot issue an invoice or a refund for it. To get company invoices, cancel in the store and subscribe again on the web with your company billing details and VAT number once the paid period ends.

What happens to my paid period if I cancel?

Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep access until that date. There is no refund for the unused part, and no new invoice after the final one. Cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing date to avoid the next charge. In the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, a refund can be requested within 14 days of purchase and is prorated according to use.