New Invoice Requirements Effective from 1 April 2023

Have you heard about the new invoice requirements that took effect on 1 April 2023? Don't worry if this is news to you– these changes are designed to apply to current times and if you have already complied with the old requirements, then you will comply with the new requirements.

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No more “Tax Invoice”

So, what has changed? We don’t have to have a “Tax invoice” as evidence of our taxable supply. But instead, we have what they now call “Taxable Supply Information” which doesn’t need to be one single document, and can take the form of till receipts, contracts, supplier agreements, bank statements and more.

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I can already hear the relieve from all the rental property administrators who no longer has the administrative labor of issuing those monthly “tax invoices” as the rental contract would be enough.

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And if you have received a bill from your supplier and it doesn’t say “tax invoice”, that’s okay, that’s our new normal. That document that used to be your tax invoice does not need to have a document name at all.

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So just like tax invoice has now been replaced with taxable supply information, we have 2 new terms as well. Debit note or credit note has now changed to supplier correction information and buyer-created tax invoice has now changed to buyer-created taxable supply information.

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Taxable Supply Information

What is taxable supply information? It is a minimum set of information that buyers and sellers need to keep as evidence of a transaction.

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This minimum information is based on the value and type of your supply as follows:

For taxable supplies up to $200 the information that is required is as follows:

• The name or trade name of the seller.
• The date on the invoice or when there is no invoice the time of the supply.
• The description of the goods or services provided; that does not need to include the quantity and volume.
• The payment information is the consideration for the supply.

For taxable supplies more than $200 up to $1,000 the information that is required is the same as the information that needs to be supplied for taxable supplies up to $200, with the following additional information:

• GST Number of the Seller
• The payment information should either be the GST exclusive amount, GST amount and GST inclusive amount OR a statement that GST is included is included in the amount.

For taxable supplies more that $1,000 the information that is required is the same as for the information that needs to be supplied for taxable supplies up to $1,000, with the following additional information:

• The buyers detail. The name of the buyer and identification details. Identification details is the address, phone number, email address, trading name, New Zealand Business Number or URL address for their website.

For taxable supply for members of a GST group or supplier group in addition to the standard taxable supply information:

• For GST groups: the name and GST number of the representative member or the supplying member
• For supplier groups: the name and GST number of the issuing member.

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Imported goods and services

For taxable supplies of imported goods and services the information that is required is as follows:

• The name or trade name and address of the seller.
• The date on the invoice or when there is no invoice the time of the supply.
• The description of the goods or services provided; that does not need to include the quantity and volume.
• The payment information is the consideration for the supply, any amount that represents salary or wages paid to an employee of the seller and any amount that represents interest incurred by the seller.

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Secondhand goods and services

For taxable supplies of secondhand goods, the information that is required is as follows:

• The name or trade name and address of the seller.
• The date on which the goods were supplied.
• The description of the goods or services provided and the quantity and volume of the goods.
• The payment information is the consideration for the supply.

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Supply Correction Information

The minimum information required for supply correction information (which replace the debit and credit notes) include the following which both buyer and seller should retain:

• The sellers name or trade name and GST number.
• The date the correction was provided.
•  Information identifying the taxation supply information, for example an invoice number.
• The correction to the taxable supply information as well as the resulting correction to the amount of tax charged for the supply.

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New Rules

Then this amendment also comes with new rules. One of them is a time limit of 28 days from date of request that the supplier must provide the GST registered buyer with the taxable supply information for all transaction exceeding $200. So, what about transactions below $200? The seller needs to keep a record of the supply but does not have to provide the taxable supply information. The buyer is responsible for keeping their own records. Should you not be able to obtain all the required information you can go to myIR and send them a message to apply for approval to provide other information instead.

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Make sure you don't claim GST more than once as this has no become a strict offence.

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Not so bad? The information obtained for this article has been received from the IRD website.

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I hope this has answered some of your questions, feel free to contact me for more information.

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