What every invoice must show
- Since 2023 taxable supply information replaces the formal tax invoice. Up to $200: the seller's name or trade name, the date, a description and the price; nothing has to be given to the buyer.
- Over $200: also the seller's GST number and the GST amount, or a statement that the price includes GST.
- Over $1,000: also a GST-registered buyer's name and one contact detail.
Numbering, keeping and correcting invoices
Business records, including taxable supply information and supply correction information, must be kept for 7 years, in English or Māori unless Inland Revenue has approved another language. A correction has to identify the original document, for example by its invoice number.
To fix a mistake, issue supply correction information. It must show the seller's name (or trade name) and GST number, the date the correction was provided, details identifying the original document such as its invoice number, and the correction itself including any change to the GST charged. It is needed for cancelled supplies, returns, undelivered goods, wrong descriptions, wrong buyer or seller details, wrong dates and wrong GST amounts. A correction can share a document with a new invoice.
The seller reports the correction in the GST return for the period in which it was provided. Both buyer and seller keep it. A mistake in a filed return generally can no longer be fixed this way after 4 years.
Electronic invoicing in New Zealand
There is no business-to-business mandate. The obligations sit on government agencies: those handling more than 2,000 domestic trade invoices a year had to be able to send and receive Peppol e-invoices by 1 January 2026, and must pay 95% of e-invoices within five working days against ten for other invoices. From 1 January 2027 agencies must require suppliers with revenue above $33 million to send e-invoices, applied through new and renewed contracts rather than as a hard cutover.