What to put on an invoice in Australia (ABN, GST, the lot)

What to put on an invoice in Australia: your business name and ABN, the words "Tax invoice" if you are GST registered, the date, a description of the work, the price, and the GST shown separately. Sales of $1,000 or more also need the customer's name or ABN. Leave your ABN off and a business customer can hold back 47%.

We have all sent an invoice and then sat there wondering if we did it right. The good news is the ATO's list is short and none of it is hard. Here is the lot, sourced to the actual rules.

Invoice or tax invoice? They are not the same thing

Which document you send depends on one thing: whether you are registered for GST. If you are registered, you issue a tax invoice, and it has to carry the fields the ATO requires. If you are not registered, because you are under the $75,000 turnover threshold and have not opted in, you issue a plain invoice, and you must not label it a tax invoice, because you are not charging tax. business.gov.au is blunt on that point; the label is reserved.

So if you have not crossed seventy-five grand in turnover and have not registered, put "Invoice" at the top, skip the GST line, and you are done. The seven required fields below apply to tax invoices. If you are not sure which side of the line you are on, our GST registration guide settles it.

The 7 things a tax invoice must have (under $1,000)

For sales under $1,000, the ATO requires seven pieces of information, and they fit on anything you would already send:

1. The words "Tax invoice", so the document is clearly intended as one

2. Your business or trading name

3. Your ABN

4. The date you issued it

5. A description of what you sold, with quantities where they make sense

6. The GST amount shown separately, or the line "Total price includes GST" if GST is exactly one eleventh of the total

7. Which items GST applies to, if some lines are taxable and some are not

Two smaller rules sit alongside the seven. You do not have to issue a tax invoice for sales of $82.50 or less including GST. And if a customer asks for one, you have 28 days to provide it.

Over $1,000? Add one more thing

For sales of $1,000 or more, the ATO adds a single extra requirement: the buyer's identity or their ABN. A $480 gutter clean only needs your details on it. A $3,200 deck rebuild needs the customer's name or ABN as well.

The reason is their side of the ledger. On bigger purchases, a business customer needs a fully compliant tax invoice to claim their GST credit, and the ATO wants the buyer identifiable on the document.

The practical move is to ignore the threshold entirely. Put the customer's name on every invoice, big or small. It costs you nothing, it never leaves a $1,050 job accidentally non-compliant, and it makes your paperwork easier to search when you are trying to remember what you charged someone last spring.

The 47% trap: leave off your ABN and watch what happens

If you invoice another business for more than $75 excluding GST and your ABN is not on it, they are required to withhold 47% of the payment and send it to the ATO. That is not the builder being difficult. It is the law, and the payer faces a penalty if they skip it.

Played out in real life: you do the job, they pay you just over half, and you spend weeks getting the rest back through the tax system instead of your bank account.

The fix is the least dramatic advice in this article. Chuck your ABN on every invoice, every time, in your template so it can never fall off. There is a narrow exception, a Statement by a supplier form for genuinely private or hobby activity, but if you are invoicing trade work, that is not you.

A worked example you can copy

Here is a compliant tax invoice for a small carpentry job, field by field. The business is made up and the ABN is a placeholder; use your real one.

That covers everything the ATO asks for on a job under $1,000. If this job were $1,000 or more, you would add the customer's name under the heading. business.gov.au also recommends adding a due date and how you want to be paid, and they are right; neither is legally required, but both get you paid faster.

Getting the invoice right is half the battle

A correct invoice removes every excuse a slow payer has, but it does not make them fast. Around 44% of small-business invoices are paid late in Australia, and most of those are compliant invoices sitting in someone's inbox.

What moves the needle is the plumbing around the document: a clear due date, the payment options spelled out, and a follow-up when things go quiet. If you would rather not hand-check the required fields every time, Chippie pre-fills every ATO-required field by default, so an invoice cannot go out missing your ABN or the GST line.

FAQ

Do I have to put GST on my invoice if I am not registered?

No. If you are not registered for GST, you do not charge it, and you must not call your document a tax invoice. Send a plain invoice with no GST line. Adding GST without being registered is a problem, not a safety measure.

What happens if I forget my ABN on an invoice to another business?

For payments over $75 excluding GST, the paying business is required to withhold 47% and send it to the ATO. You get the rest back through the tax system, eventually. Put your ABN in your invoice template once and the problem never comes up.

Do I need to issue a tax invoice for a small job?

Not for sales of $82.50 or less including GST. Above that, a GST-registered business must provide a tax invoice if the customer asks, within 28 days. In practice, sending a proper one every time is easier than tracking the threshold.

Can I just write "invoice" instead of "tax invoice"?

Only if you are not GST registered. If you are registered, the words "Tax invoice" are one of the ATO's required elements, and your business customers need them on the document to claim their GST credits without chasing you for a corrected copy.

Does the customer's ABN have to be on every invoice?

No. The buyer's identity or ABN is only required for sales of $1,000 or more, and the name alone is enough. Many tradies add the customer's name on every invoice anyway so the threshold never catches them out.

This is general information, not tax advice. For your specific situation, check the ATO pages linked above or ask your BAS agent.