How to Invoice as a Contractor in NZ: Fields, GST and Terms

Short answer: A New Zealand invoice must identify you, show the date, describe what you supplied and state the amount. Since 1 April 2023 the legal term is taxable supply information, not a tax invoice. At $200 or less, just keep the record; above $200, also show your GST number and the GST treatment; above $1,000, identify the buyer too if they are GST registered. You charge 15% GST only once registered, compulsory at $60,000 of turnover. Keep records at least 7 tax years.

Invoicing in New Zealand is simpler than most people expect: the rules scale with the size of the supply, and almost nothing about layout is prescribed. What matters is whether you are registered for GST, which changes both what the document must contain and what you are collecting on Inland Revenue’s behalf. Everything below follows Inland Revenue’s guidance, alongside our overviews of tax for the self-employed in New Zealand and the IR3 return.

What has to be on an invoice in New Zealand?

The requirements are tiered by the value of the supply. Inland Revenue calls the required set taxable supply information, and it is what you must be able to provide and keep. The tiers below are Inland Revenue’s own table on how taxable supply information works, checked July 2026.

Value of the supply	What the record must show
$200 or less	Your name or trade name, the date of the invoice (or, where no invoice is issued, the time of supply), a description of the goods or services, and the consideration for the supply. Buyer’s details are not required.
Over $200 up to $1,000	All of the above, plus your GST number, plus the GST treatment — either the GST-exclusive amount, the GST amount and the GST-inclusive amount, or the GST-inclusive amount with a statement that GST is included when it is charged at the standard rate. Buyer’s details are still not required.
Over $1,000	All of the above, plus the buyer’s details if the buyer is GST registered — their name and at least one of physical or postal address, phone number, email address, trading name, New Zealand Business Number or website URL.

Two practical notes. The GST number and GST breakdown only apply if you are registered; if you are not, those rows simply do not exist for you. And Inland Revenue’s rule on providing the information is that taxable supply information must be provided to GST-registered buyers within 28 days of a request, or by another date the parties agree, for supplies over $200. Below that value there is no equivalent obligation to hand it over — but you must still keep taxable supply information for anything you buy or sell.

Is a “tax invoice” still the correct term?

No, not as a legal term. Inland Revenue’s wording is that “new laws, which took effect on 1 April 2023, replaced the requirement to use tax invoices with a more general requirement to provide and keep certain records.”

Nothing breaks if your template still says “Tax Invoice”. Inland Revenue says explicitly that you do not need to change the wording of your GST documents, and that you may continue to provide taxable supply information in a single document marked as a tax invoice. What changed is that the obligation now attaches to holding the right information — which can sit across invoices, bank statements, supplier agreements and contracts — rather than to issuing one specific named document. For the difference between the document that asks for money and the one that proves payment, see invoice vs receipt.

When do I have to start charging GST?

Inland Revenue’s test, on its registering for GST page as at July 2026, is that you must register if you carry out a taxable activity and either your turnover was at least $60,000 in the last 12 months, or you expect it will be at least $60,000 in the next 12 months. The test is on gross turnover from the taxable activity, not on profit — a sole trader billing $70,000 and clearing $35,000 after costs is over the line.

Two things catch people out. The deadline is short: Inland Revenue’s guidance is to monitor your turnover and register as soon as you are aware it may go over $60,000, and the GST Act sets a short statutory window for applying once you become liable — check the current wording on Inland Revenue’s registration page before you rely on a specific number of days. And you must register regardless of turnover if you add GST to your prices: you cannot charge GST while unregistered and keep it.

Registration below $60,000 is voluntary and sometimes worth it, mainly if you buy a lot of GST-inclusive inputs or your clients are all GST registered. The trade-off is a return every one, two or six months for as long as you stay registered. Inland Revenue’s guide IR365, “GST — do you need to register?” walks through the decision.

What changes on my invoice once I am GST registered?

Three things, and only three.

Element	Not registered	GST registered
Your name or trade name	Required	Required
Date and description of the supply	Required	Required
Amount charged	Required	Required
Your GST number	Not applicable	Required above $200
GST shown at 15%	Must not be charged	Required above $200
Buyer identification	Good practice	Required above $1,000 where the buyer is GST registered

The GST rate is 15% — Inland Revenue’s GST page states that “GST is charged at a rate of 15%” (checked July 2026). You may present it either way Inland Revenue allows:

Line	Amount
Site work, 10 hours at $120	$1,200.00
Subtotal (GST exclusive)	$1,200.00
GST at 15%	$180.00
Total due (GST inclusive)	$1,380.00

Or a single line: “Total $1,380.00 (GST inclusive)”. The second form is legal above $200 provided you state that GST is included and it is charged at the standard rate. The three-line version is clearer for clients claiming the GST back, so most contractors use it.

How should I number my invoices?

The taxable supply information rules do not prescribe a numbering format. That does not make numbering optional in practice: Inland Revenue expects records complete enough to verify what you declared, and a client’s accounts payable system will usually reject a document without a reference. Pick one scheme and hold it for the life of the business:

• Plain sequence — 001, 002, 003
• Year prefix — 2026-001, 2026-002 (useful if you key the prefix to the tax year the income falls in; most sole traders use the standard 31 March balance date, so the 2026–27 tax year runs 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027)
• Client code — HRT-001, HRT-002

Never reuse or delete a number. If a job is cancelled or over-billed, issue a credit note against the original rather than removing it, so the sequence stays intact and every gap has an explanation attached. A worked layout is in our freelance invoice template and example.

What payment terms should I set in New Zealand?

New Zealand has no equivalent of the UK’s or the EU’s automatic late-payment interest regime, so do not assume you can add interest to an overdue invoice unless your contract or accepted terms already say you can. Put the right in writing before the work starts, and state the terms plainly:

• Due on receipt for one-off or small jobs
• 7th or 20th of the month following — still the most common convention in New Zealand trade accounts
• Net 14 or Net 30 for ongoing clients
• A named late-payment consequence, such as a stated interest rate per month or suspension of further work

If an invoice goes unpaid, the Disputes Tribunal is the low-cost route for small business debts. Its financial jurisdiction doubled from $30,000 to $60,000 on 24 January 2026, which brings most contractor and trade disputes inside it — no lawyer, a filing fee, and a binding decision. Before it gets that far, ordinary chasing works more often than people expect — see how to get clients to pay.

Do builders and trades have extra invoicing rules?

Yes, and they are easy to miss. If you do construction work, the Construction Contracts Act 2002 governs how you claim payment. Under section 20 of the Act, a payment claim must be in writing, contain sufficient details to identify the construction contract, identify the construction work and the relevant period, state the claimed amount and the due date for payment, indicate the manner in which you calculated the claimed amount, and state that it is made under the Act.

It must also carry an outline of how the other party responds and what happens if they do not — the standard Form 1 notice, required with payment claims on contracts entered into on or after 1 December 2015. Get the current wording from Building Performance. The payoff is real: a valid payment claim that is not answered with a payment schedule in time creates a debt the payer generally has to pay first and argue about afterwards.

What if my client deducts tax from my invoice?

Some contract work is a schedular payment, meaning the payer withholds tax at source before paying you. You still invoice the full amount; the deduction happens on their side and shows up on the remittance.

Your rate is set on form IR330C, “Tax rate notification for contractors.” Inland Revenue’s rule is that if you choose your own rate it must be at least 10% for resident contractors. If you do not give the payer a completed IR330C, the 45% non-notified rate applies — an expensive piece of paperwork to forget.

Withholding is not a final tax; it is a credit against your end-of-year income tax. Most self-employed contractors square up by filing an IR3, especially if they claim expenses against schedular payments, so keep your invoices and remittance advices together. If schedular payments are genuinely your only income, Inland Revenue may calculate your tax for you rather than require a return — check with them or your accountant which applies to you.

How long do I have to keep invoices, and where?

Inland Revenue’s record keeping guidance is to keep all your records, including those in electronic form, for at least 7 tax years. Records must be in English or Māori unless Inland Revenue approves another language, and if you store them offshore — cloud storage counts — either you or your cloud service provider needs Inland Revenue’s approval. Winding the business up does not automatically end the obligation, so confirm with Inland Revenue before you dispose of anything when you close down. Invoices are the income side of that file; the expense side is covered in self-employed expenses and receipts.

Keel: Invoice Maker & Receipts, by Ilura Technology OU, is built for exactly this: a private record of what you sent and what you spent, kept on your iPhone. It creates numbered PDF invoices with your logo, brand colour and a payment link as a QR code; it reads receipts you photograph on device using Apple Intelligence, pulling merchant, total, tax and date; it logs trips; and it exports the whole year as one file, or as an Accountant Pack of CSV plus a one-page summary PDF.

The honest tradeoff: nothing imports itself. There is no bank feed and no account, because there is no server — everything runs on the device, and the App Store privacy label reads “Data Not Collected”. Entry is manual or by photograph. In exchange your client list and your income never leave your phone, and the on-device ledger is append-only and hash-chained, so the record you hand your accountant is provably the one you made at the time. Keel is on the App Store. The free tier includes unlimited invoices, receipts and mileage, with a “Made with Keel” footer on invoices; Keel Pro is a one-time $249.99 Lifetime purchase, not a subscription.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a GST number on my invoice in New Zealand? Only if you are GST registered, and only for supplies over $200. Below that value the record needs your name or trade name, the date of the invoice or time of supply, a description and the consideration for the supply. If you are not registered you have no GST number to show, and your invoice is complete without one.

Can I invoice a client without being registered for GST? Yes. Registration is compulsory once turnover reaches $60,000 in the last 12 months or is expected to reach it in the next 12. Below that you invoice without GST and without a GST number. You must not add GST to your prices while unregistered — doing so triggers a registration obligation regardless of turnover.

How much GST do I add to an invoice in NZ? GST is charged at 15% (Inland Revenue, checked July 2026). On a $1,200 GST-exclusive job that is $180 of GST and $1,380 payable. Above $200 you must either show the GST-exclusive amount, the GST amount and the GST-inclusive amount, or show the GST-inclusive amount with a statement that GST is included when it is charged at the standard rate.

What is taxable supply information? It is the set of records that replaced tax invoices on 1 April 2023. Rather than issuing a document headed “tax invoice”, you must hold and, on request, provide prescribed information about the supply. The requirements step up at $200 and again at $1,000, and for supplies over $200 they must be provided to a GST-registered buyer within 28 days of a request.

How long do I have to keep copies of my invoices in New Zealand? Inland Revenue says to keep all your records, including electronic ones, for at least 7 tax years. Records must be in English or Māori unless Inland Revenue approves otherwise. If you keep them offshore or in the cloud, either you or your cloud service provider needs Inland Revenue’s approval.

What payment terms are normal for contractors in New Zealand? The 20th of the month following is the long-standing convention in trade accounts, with due on receipt, Net 14 and Net 30 all common for smaller jobs. New Zealand has no automatic late-payment interest regime like the UK’s or the EU’s, so agree any interest or late fee in writing before the work begins.

---

This article is general information, not tax advice. Consult a qualified New Zealand tax professional.