What must a Singapore tax invoice show?

Your name, address and GST registration number, an invoice number and date, the customer's name and address, a description, the GST rate, and the totals before GST, the GST and with GST. It must also carry the words "Tax Invoice".

When must I issue a tax invoice in Singapore?

Within 30 days from the time of supply, which is the earlier of the invoice or the payment.

Can I issue a simplified tax invoice?

Yes, when the total including GST is S$1,000 or less. It needs fewer details and a statement such as "Price payable includes GST".

Do I give a tax invoice to a customer who is not GST-registered?

You may give a receipt instead. IRAS asks for a serially numbered receipt with the date, your name and GST registration number, the total including GST and the words "Price payable includes GST".

Do I have to write off a debt before claiming GST bad debt relief?

Yes. The write-off in your accounts is one of the conditions, with the 12 months or insolvency and your recovery steps. See Write off a bad debt.

How long must I keep GST records in Singapore?

At least 5 years from the end of the accounting period. In easySales an issued invoice cannot be deleted, only cancelled, so it stays on record.

Can I charge GST before my registration starts?

No. A document dated before your registration period offers no GST, and its heading cannot say "Tax Invoice".

Singapore GST invoices

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A business registered for Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Singapore charges GST at 9% and issues a tax invoice to GST-registered customers. This page sums up the rules that shape your invoices and shows how easySales applies them. It is a general guide, not tax advice; check with your accountant or IRAS before you rely on it.

The rules

Topic	Rule
Rate	GST 9% (8% in 2023).
Heading	The document must say “Tax Invoice”.
Contents	Your name, address and GST registration number; an identifying number and the date; the customer’s name and address; a description of what you supplied; the GST rate; the total before GST, the GST and the total with GST. Zero-rated, exempt and other supplies are shown separately.
Simplified tax invoice	Allowed when the total including GST is S$1,000 or less. It shows your name, address and GST registration number, the date, an identifying number, a description, the total including GST and a statement such as “Price payable includes GST”.
Customers not registered	You may give a receipt instead of a tax invoice.
Time of supply	The earlier of the invoice or the payment. Issue the tax invoice within 30 days of the time of supply.
Foreign currency	The total before GST, the GST and the total with GST must also be shown in SGD.
Credit notes	A credit note shows its own number and date, the reason, what is credited, the GST credited, and the number and date of the original tax invoice.
Deposits	A security deposit is not taxed. A deposit forfeited as compensation, such as on early termination, is outside GST; one that pays for something you supplied is taxable.
Bad debts	Relief needs every condition: you accounted for and paid the GST, wrote the debt off in your accounts, took reasonable steps to recover it, and 12 months have passed from the date of supply, or the customer became insolvent before then. Claim within 5 years from the date of supply, in Box 7 of the GST return.
Records	Keep all records for at least 5 years from the end of the accounting period.
E-invoicing	InvoiceNow (Peppol PINT SG), phased in. See InvoiceNow.

How easySales applies them

Record your GST registration under System settings → Tax. Documents dated inside a registration period may charge GST and print your GST registration number; documents dated outside one leave the tax field out. See Company and tax.
With the invoice design’s title on Automatic (by tax registration), an issued invoice prints TAX INVOICE when your company is registered on the invoice date and the invoice has a standard- or zero-rated line, and INVOICE otherwise. See Letterhead and designs.
At issue, a heading that says “Tax Invoice” is refused when you are not registered on the invoice date. Registered, you are warned when an invoice charges GST and its heading does not say it. An invoice whose every line is exempt or out of scope is not a tax invoice, so it prints INVOICE in place of a “Tax Invoice” heading.
The tax choices on a document dated today are None, GST 0% and GST 9%. A back-dated document offers the rates in force on its own date, such as GST 8% in 2023. See GST and tax invoices.
Advanced tax codes adds Exempt (Reg 33), Exempt (non-Reg 33), Out of scope, Customer accounting (GST 9%, customer to account) and Deemed supply GST 9%. A customer-accounting invoice prints “Sale made under customer accounting. Customer to account for GST of” the amount, and cannot be issued without the customer’s Tax Registration No.
Registered, you cannot issue a line taxed None: choose zero-rated, exempt or out of scope in the issue dialog. See Issue an invoice.
A foreign-currency invoice that charges GST prints a For Singapore GST Purpose Only block: the exchange rate to SGD, and the total before GST, the GST and the total including GST in SGD, at the invoice’s rate. A credit note converts at the rate of the invoice it credits. See Invoice PDF.
An issued invoice is corrected with a credit note, not changed in place, and cannot be deleted. See Credit notes.
Money received in advance as a Prepayment gets a deposit tax invoice dated the day it arrived. A Security deposit is held with no tax; one kept as compensation is recorded with Forfeit security deposit, with no GST. See Deposits and prepayments.
Write off as bad debt… judges relief for the write-off date: Eligible from the day after the invoice date’s first anniversary, or at once when you tick that the debtor is insolvent, with Claim by the day before the fifth anniversary. easySales counts from the invoice date. See Write off a bad debt.
With the IRAS cash accounting scheme recorded under Approvals held, that relief judgement is marked Advisory, because GST on the unpaid part may never have been accounted.

Why it works this way

“None” is not a GST treatment. Zero-rated, exempt and out-of-scope sales go in different boxes of your GST return. A line left at None would leave you guessing at filing time, so easySales asks you to decide when you issue, while the sale is fresh in your mind.

Registration is judged on each document’s own date. You may charge GST only while you are registered, and only a registered business may call its invoice a tax invoice. Because easySales reads the registration that applied on the document date, back-dated documents and old reprints always say what was true on that day.

The SGD block keeps your invoice and your return in step. You report GST in SGD. Printing the three SGD totals on the invoice gives you and your customer the same figures to file, and a credit note converts at its invoice’s rate so the two cancel exactly.

Issued documents are kept, not changed. IRAS can ask to see your records for five years, and a bad debt claim needs the original invoice and your recovery steps. An issued invoice is never edited or deleted; corrections and write-offs sit beside it with their own dates.

Work faster

Turn on advanced tax codes once. If you sell anything exempt or out of scope, switch on Advanced tax codes so those choices are on every form. See Company and tax.
Let the heading follow your registration. Set the invoice design’s title to Automatic (by tax registration) and the TAX INVOICE heading takes care of itself. See Letterhead and designs.
Add the customer’s GST number before a customer-accounting sale. Enter the account’s Tax Registration No. first, so the issue is not refused. See Account details.
Record advances as a prepayment. Choosing Prepayment on the receipt issues the deposit tax invoice the same day. See Deposits and prepayments.
Download the bad-debt register each GST period. Bad-debt register on the Invoices list gives your accountant every write-off and recovery with its relief status. See Write off a bad debt.
Send invoices to your accounting software. Accounting export carries each tax code to Xero or QuickBooks Online. See Accounting export.

Examples

A standard tax invoice. Lim & Co is registered for GST. Mei Tan issues INV-10000352 to Harbour Café: a design fee of SGD 3,200.00 and furniture sourcing of SGD 1,800.00, both at GST 9%. The total before GST is SGD 5,000.00, the GST SGD 450.00 (5,000.00 × 9%) and the total SGD 5,450.00. With the title on automatic, it prints TAX INVOICE with Lim & Co’s GST registration number.

An invoice in US dollars. Harbour Café’s parent company asks to be billed in USD for a job in Singapore. Mei invoices USD 2,000.00 at GST 9%: GST USD 180.00, total USD 2,180.00. The invoice’s rate is 1.35, so the For Singapore GST Purpose Only block shows SGD 2,700.00 before GST, GST SGD 243.00 and SGD 2,943.00 in all (2,180.00 × 1.35).

A debt not yet old enough. INV-10000301, dated 15 March 2026, is still unpaid in December. Daniel Lim writes it off on 1 December 2026. The relief panel reads Not yet, claimable from 16 March 2027, with Claim by 14 March 2031. The write-off stands; only the GST claim waits.

Common questions

What must a Singapore tax invoice show? Your name, address and GST registration number, an invoice number and date, the customer’s name and address, a description, the GST rate, and the totals before GST, the GST and with GST. It must also carry the words “Tax Invoice”.
When must I issue a tax invoice in Singapore? Within 30 days from the time of supply, which is the earlier of the invoice or the payment.
Can I issue a simplified tax invoice? Yes, when the total including GST is S$1,000 or less. It needs fewer details and a statement such as “Price payable includes GST”.
Do I give a tax invoice to a customer who is not GST-registered? You may give a receipt instead. IRAS asks for a serially numbered receipt with the date, your name and GST registration number, the total including GST and the words “Price payable includes GST”.
Do I have to write off a debt before claiming GST bad debt relief? Yes. The write-off in your accounts is one of the conditions, with the 12 months or insolvency and your recovery steps. See Write off a bad debt.
How long must I keep GST records in Singapore? At least 5 years from the end of the accounting period. In easySales an issued invoice cannot be deleted, only cancelled, so it stays on record.
Can I charge GST before my registration starts? No. A document dated before your registration period offers no GST, and its heading cannot say “Tax Invoice”.

Sources

IRAS — Invoicing customers · IRAS — Keeping records · IRAS — Deposits and downpayment · IRAS — Bad debt relief: checklist for self-review (PDF) · IRAS — e-Tax guide: GST InvoiceNow requirement · Singapore Statutes Online — GST (General) Regulations, regulation 11

Last checked: 2026-10-21