Docs · New Zealand

Tax invoices and taxable supply information

What has to appear on the document, which thresholds change the answer, why the law stopped calling it a tax invoice in 2023, and how long you have to produce one.

Two names for one thing

Since 1 April 2023 the legal term is taxable supply information. Almost nobody says that. Your buyer will ask for a tax invoice, your accountant will say tax invoice, and the software says tax invoice.

Two useful consequences of the change are worth knowing:

Three thresholds, three answers

What you must supply depends on the value of the supply, and the steps are in New Zealand dollars.

Three value bands determine what a New Zealand tax invoice must contain Three stacked boxes for supplies under two hundred dollars, between two hundred and one thousand dollars, and over one thousand dollars, each adding more required information than the one before. Under NZ$200 NAME · DATE · WHAT · TOTAL NZ$200 to NZ$1,000 ADDS YOUR GST NUMBER Over NZ$1,000 ADDS BUYER DETAILS 28 DAYS TO SUPPLY
Each band adds to the one below it rather than replacing it. Above NZ$200 you have 28 days to provide the information once a GST-registered buyer asks for it — which is a deadline most sellers only discover when someone is already waiting.
Value of supplyWhat it must contain
Up to NZ$200Your name, the date, a description of what was supplied, and the amount
NZ$200 – NZ$1,000The above, plus your GST number and either the GST amount or a statement that the price includes GST
Over NZ$1,000The above, plus the buyer’s name and one identifier — address, phone, email, trading name, NZBN or website — where the buyer is GST registered

What GoCushy puts on it

Every order produces a document carrying your trading name, your GST number, the date, what was bought, the amount, and the GST component shown as GST.

That last word matters more than it looks. A checkout built for elsewhere prints VAT, which is not a tax that exists in New Zealand law, on a document your accountant then corrects by hand. GoCushy labels the line from the seller’s registered country, so a New Zealand seller gets GST.

Above NZ$1,000 the buyer’s details are on the order, so the document carries them without you assembling anything.

Receipts and invoices are different documents

A receipt says money changed hands. Taxable supply information says what the supply was, who made it, and how much of it was GST. A GST-registered buyer needs the second to claim anything back.

Plenty of carts send only the first, which is why a buyer who is a business will email you a week later asking for “a proper invoice”. That is the gap they have run into.

If you are not registered

Do not issue a document showing a GST line or a GST number. An invoice from an unregistered seller is a perfectly ordinary invoice — your name, the date, what you supplied, the amount — and it must not imply GST was charged.

GoCushy will not print a GST line for an account with tax collection switched off, so this is not something you can do by accident.

General information about how GoCushy behaves, correct as at 19 August 2026. It is not tax advice about your circumstances — your accountant knows those and we do not.