What is a Tax Invoice? Invoicing and managing payment from your clients is an essential part of running any successful business. While it might not be the most glamorous part of running a business, you need to ensure that you have an efficient invoicing process in place to ensure your business has adequate cash flow at all times. To ensure that your payments are processed as quickly as possible, you need to ensure that you create your invoices correctly.
If your business is registered for Goods and Services Tax (GST), you are obliged to provide tax invoices. On a tax invoice, there are some details you must include that are different from those on a regular invoice. You will need to include the GST for each item as well as the typical invoice details. A tax invoice must be issued if the purchase is taxable, the sale price is $82.50, including GST, or more, or the customer asks for a tax invoice. To ensure your invoices have the correct information, try using a tax invoice template to which you can simply add the relevant details.
Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about tax invoices as an Australian business owner.
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What Is A Tax Invoice?
When you make a sale of $82.50 or more, including GST, any customers who are registered for GST will require a tax invoice so they can claim any benefits they are entitled to for the GST included in the price. If you are requested to provide a tax invoice, you must do so within twenty-eight days of the request. If you are not registered for GST and a customer requests a tax invoice you must show on the invoice that there is no GST included. You can simply state ‘Price Does Not Include GST’ or list the amount of GST as zero.
Invoice Requirements
Every tax invoice must include seven essential pieces of information if the sale is less than $1,000. The document should highlight that it is intended to be used as a tax invoice and should feature the name of the seller, along with their ABN. It should also include the invoice issue date and clearly outline the goods or services being charged for showing both the quantity and the price being charged. If GST is to be charged, it should be listed, and also the extent to which each sale includes GST should be outlined.
For invoices of $1,000 or more, the tax invoice must also include the buyer’s ABN or identity. This information can be included in all of your invoices but it is only legally required for tax invoices for sales of more than $1,000.
Issuing Tax Invoices
Tax invoices can be issued as a hard copy or in an electronic format. It is your choice how you issue your tax invoices, however, whether you choose paper or electronic, you need to ensure that your tax invoices include all of the required information discussed above. Nowadays, many business owners are utilising accounting software packages to automate many of these tasks making the entire process more streamlined and efficient.
Create Your Tax Invoices With Confidence
Tax invoices might seem a little complicated at first. However, once you have issued your first handful of tax invoices, you will soon be comfortable with the process. The key with tax invoices s to ensure that they contain the correct information Creating a template that you can simply follow each time you’re issuing a tax invoice can make the process much easier and ensure that your tax invoices are always accurate and you get paid what you are owed and that you receive the payment without any unnecessary delays.
