New Zealand invoice template, with or without GST

What taxable supply information must show

New Zealand used to require a GST-registered business to issue a "tax invoice", a document with a set list of details and the words "tax invoice" on it. That requirement has gone, so Inland Revenue's guidance now talks about "taxable supply information" instead. What matters now is the information the buyer receives, not the shape of the document it arrives in. The same details can reach your client as a PDF invoice, as a receipt or as data sent from your accounting software straight to theirs. The list below is what that information must include, and you can check your invoice against it.

• Since 1 April 2023 a GST-registered seller no longer has to issue a 'tax invoice': Inland Revenue requires 'taxable supply information', which can be an invoice or other records, and the words 'tax invoice' are no longer required (a document marked 'tax invoice' is still fine)
• Your name or trade name
• The date of the invoice (if no invoice is issued, the time of supply)
• A description of the goods or services
• Supplies of $200 or less (the value limits here all include GST): the consideration (the amount charged) is enough; your GST number and a separate GST amount are not required
• Supplies over $200: your GST number
• Supplies over $200: either the amount excluding GST, the GST amount and the amount including GST, or the amount including GST with a statement that GST is included (only when every item listed is charged GST at the standard rate)
• Supplies over $1,000: also the buyer's name and at least one of their address (physical or postal), phone number, email address, trading name (if different), NZBN or website address. Inland Revenue's guidance table asks for these when the buyer is GST-registered, but its July 2023 Tax Information Bulletin example also lists them for a sale to a buyer who is not registered, so the safe choice is to show them on every invoice over $1,000
• Amounts of money expressed in New Zealand currency
• For a supply over $200 to a GST-registered buyer, you must provide this information within 28 days of the buyer's request (or by another date you agree); for $200 or less you need not provide it, but you and a registered buyer must each keep your own records of the sale

The details build up with the value of the sale, and each band adds to the one before it. For the smallest sales, the amount you charged is enough, together with your name, the date and a description of what you sold. That means a plain receipt does the job for a market stall or a small cash job. Above the first limit, your GST number must appear and the GST must be visible, either as its own figure or through a statement that the price includes it. Say you're a sole trader who has finished a job for $800.00 plus GST. The invoice then shows $800.00 excluding GST, $120.00 GST at 15% and $920.00 including GST.

You could show only the $920.00 with the words "Price includes GST". That shortcut works only when every item on the invoice carries GST at the standard rate, so an invoice that mixes zero-rated and standard-rated items needs all three figures. Above the highest limit, you also identify the buyer. You give their name and at least one way to reach or find them, such as an address, an email address or their NZBN (New Zealand Business Number). As the list explains, Inland Revenue's own example shows these details for a buyer who isn't registered too. You'll have a client's email or address anyway, so it costs you nothing to put it on every larger invoice. If you also trade in Australia, your invoices there follow different rules, which are on the page about Australian tax invoices.

Registered for GST or not

Whether your invoices show GST comes down to one question: are you registered for it? The table at the top of this page gives the turnover at which you must register. The test looks back at what you have earned and also ahead at what you expect to earn. That means a sole trader whose work is picking up can cross the line partway through the year. People who are just starting out often wonder whether they need to register on day one. Starting a business does not by itself mean you must register for GST: you must register as soon as you expect your turnover to go over $60,000 in the next 12 months, and below that you can register voluntarily if you carry on a taxable activity.

Until you register, your invoices carry no GST and no GST number, because you don't have one. The invoice simply shows your name, the date, what you did and the amount. It helps to say plainly that no GST is charged, so that a client who is used to seeing GST doesn't think you've forgotten it. The maker prints the line "No GST is charged: not registered for GST." when you mark your lines as not registered. Where people slip up is quoting "$500 + GST" out of habit, or copying a registered business's invoice and leaving the GST line in. As the table at the top of this page says, either one counts as charging GST and means you have to register, so leave GST off completely until your registration is in place.

Inland Revenue's rule on GST shown wrongly repeats that point and then turns to registered businesses whose GST figure is wrong. Only GST-registered businesses can charge GST: showing GST on your invoices or receipts, or telling customers they are paying GST, counts as charging it, and a business with a taxable activity that adds GST to its prices must register (in exceptional circumstances Inland Revenue can backdate the registration). If taxable supply information shows the wrong GST amount or rate, the seller must provide supply correction information (such as a credit or debit note, or by cancelling the incorrect invoice and issuing a new one) showing the seller's name (or trade name) and GST number, the date of the correction, details identifying what is corrected (for example the invoice number) and the correction, and include it in the GST return for the period in which it is provided.

Once you are registered, don't quietly edit a wrong invoice. The maker won't let you anyway once an invoice is finalised, which happens when you send it from the maker or mark it as sent or paid. Instead you choose "Create credit note" on the invoice: the credit note names the invoice it corrects and copies its lines with negative amounts, which you can change to credit only part of it. If the client still owes something after that, send a new invoice with the right figures.

Zero-rated sales and overseas clients

The other rate in the table, 0%, is what New Zealand calls zero-rating: the sale is taxable, but GST is charged at a rate of nothing. Zero-rating only concerns registered businesses, because a seller who isn't registered charges no GST at any rate. On a registered seller's invoice, a zero-rated sale looks like any other, with your GST number at the top and the line showing GST at 0%. A short note such as "Zero-rated: services to a non-resident" tells the client why. For freelancers and consultants, the usual case is work for clients overseas, and the rule is more precise than "foreign client, no GST".

Services supplied to a non-resident who is outside New Zealand when the services are performed are zero-rated (GST at 0%), as are services performed outside New Zealand and services directly connected with land or goods outside New Zealand. They are not zero-rated, and carry GST at 15%, when they are performed under a contract with a non-resident but delivered to another person in New Zealand who, it was reasonably foreseeable when the contract was made, would not receive them in the course of making taxable or exempt supplies. For remote services you need to be able to show the customer is not a New Zealand resident, through your own systems or any 2 pieces of evidence such as their billing address, IP address or bank details.

Take a web developer in Christchurch who builds a booking system for a hotel company in Fiji. That is the straightforward case: the client is a non-resident and is outside New Zealand while the work is done, so the invoice shows GST at 0%. The trap is in the second sentence of the rule. Say a parent living in Singapore pays you for driving lessons for their teenager in Auckland. Your contract is with a non-resident, but the lessons go to someone in New Zealand who clearly won't use them in a business, so you charge GST at the standard rate. For remote work, collect the evidence as you go. Putting the client's overseas address on the invoice gives you one piece of it straight away.

Overseas clients usually want an invoice in their own currency, and that raises the question of New Zealand dollars. Inland Revenue's GST guide says amounts of money in taxable supply information must be expressed in New Zealand currency. To work out GST you convert overseas currency to New Zealand dollars at a rate you can generally choose (rates Inland Revenue has published, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's, another country's central bank's, or another rate appropriate to the transaction, but not cash or foreign cheque rates); use the same sources and methods consistently over time, and if you use your own rates keep a record of their source, type and date. So when you invoice a client for US$2,000.00, your records of that sale need the amounts in New Zealand dollars as well, converted the same way each time, with a note of the rate you used and where it came from. The maker works in 20 currencies, so you can invoice in your client's currency if it's one of them, but the totals it calculates are then in that currency. Add the New Zealand dollar total, the GST in New Zealand dollars on a standard-rated sale, and the exchange rate and its source in the notes, so that the New Zealand dollar figures are kept on the same document as the sale.

Record keeping and e-invoicing

Every invoice you send is part of your business records, and so are the invoices and receipts for what you buy. The table at the top of this page shows how long to keep them. The list above also contains a duty that's easy to miss. When a registered buyer asks for taxable supply information on a larger sale, you have a deadline for providing it. On small sales, you and the buyer each keep your own record instead. Both are easier if you file every invoice where you can find it again by number and date.

Keep each PDF exactly as the client received it. A finalised invoice in the maker can't be changed, but one you download and send yourself stays an editable draft until you mark it as sent, and the maker keeps no history of changes. Without an account, this browser also keeps only three documents. Your downloaded PDFs are therefore your real archive, while the overview and its CSV export give your accountant the figures behind your GST returns.

E-invoicing comes up because government agencies are moving to it. An e-invoice isn't a PDF sent by email. It's the invoice as structured data, sent through Peppol, an international network that passes invoices directly between accounting systems. The buyer's software reads the amounts and the GST without anyone typing them in. The current position is in the table above, and the network rules come down to this: none required for businesses in general; Peppol for e-invoices (government agencies must require large suppliers to use it from 1 January 2027).

For most sole traders and small businesses, this changes nothing, because an ordinary invoice is still valid taxable supply information. It matters if you sell to government agencies. The larger agencies must already be able to receive e-invoices, and they will require them from their large suppliers. The PDF from this maker is not an e-invoice and can't be sent over Peppol. If an agency or a big customer asks you to e-invoice, you'll need accounting software that connects to the network.

Making a New Zealand invoice in the maker

The button on this page opens the maker already set up for New Zealand. Invoices are in NZD on A4 paper, with GST at 15% on each line and fields for your GST number and your New Zealand bank account number. You don't need an account to make an invoice and download it. These steps take you from an empty invoice to a PDF.

1. Enter your business details once: your name or trade name, your address, your GST number in the form 123-456-789, and the bank account number the client should pay into. If you aren't registered, leave the GST number out, and add a logo if you have one.
2. Add the client's name and an address or email address. For sales above the highest limit in the list, this is the buyer information Inland Revenue asks for. The maker saves the client for next time.
3. Add a line for each item or piece of work, with a description that says clearly what you supplied, the quantity, a unit such as hours or days, and the price. Each line has its own GST rate. You can set a zero-rated line to 0%, or mark the lines as not registered if you don't charge GST.
4. Check the invoice date and the due date. Use the notes for your payment terms and for anything else the client needs, such as a zero-rating note or the New Zealand dollar equivalent.
5. Download the PDF or print it. With a free account, you can also send it by email, or send a link where the client can view and download it.

Before you send the invoice, check it once against the list of taxable supply information above. Look above all at your GST number and the GST figures on anything over the first limit, because those are the details a registered client will check. Then file your copy of the PDF with your records, as described above. If this is your first invoice, the guide on how to make an invoice walks through making and sending one step by step.