From 1 October 2016 non-resident businesses must charge and return GST where they meet the criteria to register for GST and they supply remote services (including online services) to New Zealand residents.

As a New Zealand resident business, you won’t be charged GST on these supplies, if:

you are GST-registered
the supplies are part of your taxable activity, and
you let the non-resident supplier know you’re GST registered and provide your New Zealand GST registration number or business number

Non-resident suppliers don’t have to give you a tax invoice and you can’t claim back any incorrectly charged GST in your GST return, except where the supplier treats your business as an individual customer and charges you GST by mistake.

If that happens, you contact the supplier who either refunds the amount to you or issues a tax invoice for you to claim the refund on your GST return.

You can only obtain a tax invoice when the supply is less than $1,000. So it’s just easier to let the supplier know upfront.

You might like to advise your regular suppliers ahead of time and word up your purchasing team to highlight it in their calendars to start reminding suppliers at time of purchase.

Contact us if you would like more information about this.