Tax invoices – what constitutes a valid name?
16 June 2005
A common experience of many entities is that they receive supplier documents from that purport to be ‘tax invoices’, but where the name of Council on the document is not Council’s full name or legal name. The question therefore frequently arises as to what is an acceptable name so that the document is a valid tax invoice.
The general principle when you make an input tax credit claim is that the expense must be incurred by you and the documentation supporting the claim evidences this fact. As such, it is necessary that the supporting documentation identifies you as the recipient of the transaction.
Section 11-20 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (GST Act) states that you are entitled to the input tax credit for any creditable acquisition you make. Further, subsection 29-10(3) of the GST Act requires you to hold a tax invoice for a creditable acquisition when you give the Commissioner a GST return.
Section 29-70 of the GST Act and regulation 29-70.01 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Regulations 1999 (GST Regulations) set out the tax invoice requirements. In particular, sub regulation 29-70.01(2) of the GST Regulations state that a tax invoice for an amount over $1,000 must include, amongst other things, the name, and address or ABN of the recipient.
Section 195-1 of the GST Act defines ‘recipient’ to mean the entity to which the supply was made. The term ‘name’ is not defined in neither the GST Act nor GST Regulations and so takes its ordinary meaning.
Goods and Services Tax Ruling GSTR 2000/17 sets out the minimum information requirements for a tax invoice. Paragraph 57 of GSTR 2000/17 explains the meaning of the term ‘name’ to include ‘a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought, is designated or known’. Furthermore, paragraph 58 of GSTR 2000/17 states that the name of the recipient shown on the tax invoice may be its legal name, or the business or trading name.
As stated above, you are only entitled to input tax credits for your creditable acquisitions. Although you may hold a tax invoice addressed to your business name, your accounting system and internal controls must ensure that you correctly identify those creditable acquisitions and input tax credits relevant to you only.
Subsection 29-70(1) of the GST Act allows the Commissioner of Taxation to treat a particular document as a tax invoice even though it does not meet all of the tax invoice requirements. In your case, provided the tax invoice requirements are met, there is no requirement for the Commissioner to exercise his discretion.