A request for payment in the form of an invoice is commonplace, and is required if you want to get paid for providing goods and/or services.
Maintaining a record of invoices is essential for your tax purposes, and also helps in the management of your business’s cash flow.
What are some considerations when creating a Tax Invoice?
The ATO has provided a guide for information to be included in your Tax Invoice
1. Document is intended to be a tax invoice
A Tax Invoice usually has the word/s “tax” and “invoice” placed on the top of the document to signal this intention.
2. Seller’s identity
3. Seller’s Australian business number (ABN)
It is preferable that you have an ABN if you are issuing an invoice to a business. If you do not include your ABN on the invoice, the business is required to withhold 49% of the payment and send it to the Australian Taxation Office, unless an exception applies. For more information, see our legal article “Do You Need an ABN to Invoice?”. To apply for an ABN, see LawPath’s ABN Registration.
4. Dates
This includes the date that the invoice was issued and date that the invoice is due.
5. Brief description of the items sold
Your descriptions should include the quantity of the goods/service and the relevant price. Where possible, you should try to include any unique identification numbers to enhance the record-keeping details.
6. GST amount (if any) payable
You can choose to display the price inclusive of GST, or separate the price into the GST exclusive amount and GST. Regardless of which method you choose, it must be clearly noted on the invoice.
You can easily create a Tax Invoice with LawPath in under 10 minutes.
Unsure where to start? Contact a LawPath consultant on 1800LAWPATH to learn more about customising legal documents, obtaining a fixed-fee quote from our network of 600+ expert lawyers or to get answers to your legal questions.
