‘Tax invoices’ were replaced in 2023

What replaced the tax invoice?

Since 1 April 2023, New Zealand GST law no longer requires a document called a 'tax invoice' — it requires 'taxable supply information': a set of details that scales with the sale. Under NZ$200 the requirements are minimal, from NZ$200 to NZ$1,000 you need the seller's details, GST number, date, and the amount with the GST shown, and over NZ$1,000 you also need the buyer's name plus one identifier such as their address or email.

The practical shift is from a named document to a set of details. The old law cared what the piece of paper was called and prescribed one list of contents for every sale. The new law cares whether the right information exists for the size of the sale. Anything beyond that summary — special cases, arrangements agreed between businesses, anything unusual — is a question for IRD’s guidance or your accountant, and we would rather point you at them than paraphrase them badly.

The three tiers, in plain terms

Read the thresholds as steps, not cliffs. Each tier includes what the one below it needs and adds a little more. Nothing stops you providing the full set of details on every sale — most software should, because always including everything is easier than deciding per sale. The tiers only set the floor.

What does a NZ$1,800 sale need?

Take a single sale of NZ$1,800 — a website build, a workshop for a company, a batch of stock. It clears the NZ$1,000 line, so the top tier applies: everything the middle tier requires, plus the buyer’s name and one identifier such as their address or email. Leave the buyer’s details off and a GST-registered customer holds a record that does not support the claim they want to make, which means an email to you, which means re-issuing paperwork weeks after the sale.

This is where checkout software tends to fall down in practice. Plenty of tools collect an email address to deliver the product and then leave it off the document. GoCushy records the buyer’s name and email on every order — which is exactly the identifier the over-NZ$1,000 tier asks for — and when you are GST-registered, its invoices label the tax line GST and carry your GST number. What appears on each document is listed in the tax invoices doc.

Why does your checkout still say ‘Tax Invoice’ — or ‘VAT’?

Most checkout tools were built for the world before April 2023, or for a different country altogether. Some still emit a document formatted around the old tax-invoice rules; others were designed for US sales tax or European VAT and label the tax line accordingly. A New Zealand buyer holding a receipt that says VAT is holding a document describing a tax that does not exist here.

None of this usually causes a crisis. It causes small, recurring corrections — an accountant relabelling a line, a customer asking for a proper document — and the corrections repeat every month for as long as the software stays pointed at the wrong country.

Do invoice numbers still matter?

Sequential numbering is not a legal requirement of taxable supply information. It survives for a duller reason: an unbroken run of numbers makes reconciliation boring, and boring is exactly what you want reconciliation to be. When invoice 208 follows 207, whoever does your books never has to wonder what happened in the gap. It is also not something you can retrofit — sequence is a property a system has from its first sale or not at all, so it is worth checking on whatever tool you use before the history gets long.

Check your own receipts

Pull up the last document your checkout sent a buyer and read it against the three tiers above. If a NZ$1,800 sale would leave you without the buyer’s name on anything, you now know before it matters.

The quickest way to see how GoCushy handles the same list is to run a test sale in the trial and read the invoice it generates — buyer name and email on the order, the tax line labelled GST, your GST number on the document.

General information about how GoCushy behaves, not tax advice — your accountant knows your circumstances and we do not.