I have some clients who I did work for yesterday, but I don't normally invoice until the next month. As that work was done while the old GST rate was in affect, can I invoice them at the 12.5% GST rate, or do I need to invoice at the 15% rate? I assume it is the 15% rate, but is seems unfair for the customer. As a business it probably doesn't matter to them, as they can claim back at the 15% rate anyway,
It's all about "time of supply". There's an extra wrinkle "The Government addressed this issue and made a legislative change that enables people to prepare the invoices for September supplies in the first 11 days of October, provided the invoice is dated on or before 30 September and is issued consistently with the registered person?s practice of issuing invoices for such supplies, and payment for the supply is due no later than 60 days from the invoice date."
the key thing for you is the date of your invoice to your customer. If that date is 1 Oct on, you have to use the 15% GST rate. If the date is 30 Sep or earlier, you have to use the 12.5% rate. It doesn't really matter what date the work was done.
Probably a more important consideration for you in choosing what date to set your invoice is the payment due date. If your customer pays you on the 20th of the month following the invoice, then you are better off using the 30 Sep date on your invoice. If they pay in 7 or 14 days from invoice date, then it doesn't really matter.
If you are invoicing a business, then really they are not going to care which rate the GST invoice comes in at, as they "net it out" in their GST return.
It's all about "time of supply". There's an extra wrinkle "The Government addressed this issue and made a legislative change that enables people to prepare the invoices for September supplies in the first 11 days of October, provided the invoice is dated on or before 30 September and is issued consistently with the registered person?s practice of issuing invoices for such supplies, and payment for the supply is due no later than 60 days from the invoice date."
Thanks for that link. I recall reading something about that 11 day thing, but couldn't find anythingon the IRD website. So as long as the invoice is dated 30th september it should be sweet.
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