Question 1

What should a legal invoice / attorney invoice include?

Accepted Answer

A matter or case number, the matter name (with any court/docket number folded in), the responsible attorney's name and bar/registration number, the billing period, the fee arrangement (hourly, fixed fee, retainer or contingency), and a clear split between professional fees and disbursements, alongside the usual invoice basics.

Question 2

Are court fees and filing fees subject to VAT or GST?

Accepted Answer

Usually not, if you pay them strictly as the client's agent — court filing fees, land-registry fees and process-server costs are treated as disbursements outside the scope of VAT/GST in the UK, EU, Netherlands, France and Australia. Expenses you consume yourself while working the matter (travel, searches used to advise, photocopying) are normally taxable at your standard rate because you're acting as principal, not agent. One notable exception: British Columbia's 7% PST on legal services applies to disbursements and legal research charged to the client too, so don't assume the disbursement carve-out is universal — check your local rule.

Question 3

How do I show a retainer or trust payment on an invoice?

Accepted Answer

Bill the full fees and disbursements as normal, then record any amount already held in trust or paid as a retainer using the Amount Paid field, and add a note such as "Applied from trust: $X — remaining trust balance $Y" in the matter summary. This keeps the tax calculation correct on the full fee while accurately showing the reduced amount due. US firms should keep this consistent with their IOLTA trust-ledger records.

Question 4

How do lawyers bill: hourly vs. fixed fee vs. contingency — and how does each look on the invoice?

Accepted Answer

Hourly billing lists dated time entries (e.g. "03/06 — drafted defence, 2.5h") with quantity as hours and rate as your hourly rate. Fixed-fee matters list the deliverable as a single line with quantity 1. Contingency fee arrangements are typically invoiced once as a percentage of the recovery at case resolution, with disbursements often itemized separately and reimbursed regardless of outcome depending on your jurisdiction and engagement letter.

Question 5

What is a matter number and why does every legal bill need one?

Accepted Answer

A matter or case number is the internal file reference a firm uses to track time, disbursements and conflicts for a specific client engagement. It is the single most consistent field across every legal billing template and practice-management system studied, and clients rely on it to reconcile invoices against their own file records — always include it.

Question 6

What is LEDES / UTBMS billing and when do corporate clients demand it?

Accepted Answer

LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard, e.g. LEDES 1998B) is a pipe-delimited e-billing file format that corporate and insurance-defense clients often require, tagging each line with a UTBMS task/activity/expense code. This tool generates a PDF invoice, not a LEDES file — if your client's billing guidelines mandate LEDES e-billing, check with them before relying on this PDF as your sole invoice format.

Question 7

Do lawyers charge VAT or sales tax on their fees?

Accepted Answer

In nearly every VAT/GST market studied, legal services are standard-rated with no reduced rate or blanket exemption — Poland, for instance, explicitly excludes legal/advisory services from its small-business VAT exemption regardless of turnover. Belgium taxes ordinary lawyer fees at 21% (since 2014), though the 0% rate for pro-deo/legal-aid work has, as far as we can verify, never actually been abolished despite years of reported reforms. In the US, only Hawaii, New Mexico and South Dakota tax legal services; everywhere else the default rate is 0%.

Question 8

How is withholding tax shown on a lawyer's invoice?

Accepted Answer

Several markets require the client to withhold part of the fee and remit it to the tax authority directly: Spain (IRPF retention, 15% or 7% for newly-registered professionals), Italy (ritenuta d'acconto 20% on ordinary-regime lawyers, on top of a 15% spese-generali reimbursement and 4% Cassa Forense contribution, all before 22% IVA), Portugal (IRS withholding 23% since the 2025 rate change), Mexico (ISR 10% plus two-thirds of IVA), Brazil (ISS plus possible IRRF/PIS/COFINS/CSLL for firm-to-firm billing), Japan (10.21%/20.42% two-tier withholding) and, in a less clearly reconciled way, Greece (bar-association advance-slip levies of roughly 10–15%, plus a separate 20% withholding on fees to individual lawyers above €300 — sources do not fully explain how the two interact). This tool models withholding as a negative, non-taxable line item showing the deduction, never as a negative tax rate — confirm the exact figures for your situation with a local accountant.

Question 9

What is the difference between fees and disbursements, and why do clients get confused?

Accepted Answer

Fees are what you charge for your own professional time and expertise — always taxable at your standard VAT/GST rate. Disbursements are costs you pay on the client's behalf as their agent, like court filing fees or process-server charges — typically outside the scope of VAT/GST because you're passing the cost through, not supplying a service. The confusion (especially acute in Spain, where "suplidos" are tax-free pass-through costs but a "provisión de fondos" fee advance is not) comes from clients assuming any reimbursed cost is tax-free; mark each line item's taxable flag correctly to keep the distinction clear on the invoice itself.

Question 10

What must a solicitor's bill contain to be enforceable in the UK?

Accepted Answer

Under s.69 of the Solicitors Act 1974, a "statute bill" must be signed and delivered to the client, and VAT-liable disbursements must be itemized correctly to qualify for the outside-the-scope treatment. This tool's signature feature (typed or drawn) lets you meet the signed-and-delivered requirement directly on the generated PDF.

Question 11

Can paralegals, mediators, notaries or legal consultants use this generator?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the matter number, attorney/practitioner name, registration number and fees-vs-disbursements structure work equally well for paralegals, mediators, notaries and legal consultants billing on a matter basis, even where "attorney" or "bar number" isn't the exact local title.

Descripción	Cantidad	Precio unitario	Importe
Initial consultation & case assessment	1.5	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Legal research & memorandum of advice	3	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Drafting and reviewing documents / pleadings	4	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Correspondence & telephone attendances	1	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Court / hearing attendance (incl. preparation)	3.5	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Court filing fee (disbursement — paid as client's agent, outside scope of VAT)	1	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Process server / courier fee (disbursement — outside scope of VAT)	1	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Photocopying, printing & document handling	1	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Applied from retainer/trust balance (previously received, drawn down this period)	1	MX$0.00	MX$0.00
Less: income-tax withholding (client remits to tax office)	1	MX$0.00	MX$0.00

Subtotal	MX$0.00
IVA (client may withhold ISR 10% + 2/3 IVA — see FAQ) (16%)	MX$0.00

Total	MX$0.00

Legal Invoice Generator

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Free legal invoice generator & template

What should a legal invoice include?

Fees vs. disbursements: why the split matters for tax

How do I show a retainer or trust payment on an invoice?

FAQs about legal invoices