Australian Goods and Services Tax and Invoice Setup

DISCLAIMER: Below is an overview of the Australian goods and services tax (GST) and the procedures for enabling GST features on your website. This information is provided as a courtesy to you as our client, but is not intended as legal or tax advice. For official information and interpretations of the GST rules and requirements, please contact an attorney or tax professional with expertise in this area, or contact the Australian Tax Office.

If you do not see the simplified AUS State Profile outlined here, the please contact support@winedirect.com to be migrated.

You can ensure you're compliant with Australia's goods and services (GST) tax laws using our GST settings for Australian wineries. This page will outline the GST features and steps required to get your winery set up correctly.

Wineries registered for GST should generally include 10% GST in the price charged for goods and services (1)(4). Most goods and services are taxable, except for a few exceptions (2). This is especially notable for wineries that also serve and sell food, as food items not consumed on the premises are non-taxable (3). We have designed this feature with these conventions in mind, and when correctly set up, the platform will automatically calculate 10% GST of the display price, with a line item stating "GST Included" displayed on receipts.

Pricing: Learn how to set up pricing for your products to meet legal requirements. Learn More >

State Profile: Learn about tax rates and tax settings. Learn More >

Receipts: Learn about configuring your receipts to meet legal requirements. Learn More >

Tax Free Items: Learn how to create tax free items. Learn More >

Shipping: Learn about taxation on shipping fees. Learn More >

Reporting: Learn about how GST information is displayed in reports Learn More

Resources: Learn about the resources we used for this information Learn More

Pricing

Please ensure the prices you enter for your products already include GST, unless the item is tax-free (more below on this).

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State Profile

In order to activate Australian GST for a winery, you will need to configure each state profile for Australia. You can do this easily, by navigating to each state profile and entering the tax rate - typically 10%. For instructions on how to configure State Profiles, click here.

Once the tax rate has been entered, the "GST Included" line item will automatically appear on all receipts. The GST included line item will backward calculate the GST from the prices of all your products, as well as shipping and handling.

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Receipts

Requirements for Australia Tax Invoices and Receipts

Entering the tax rate into the State Profile will complete the majority of the setup for this feature, but you must still ensure that your receipts meet the criteria outlined by the government. WineDirect has met these requirements and a full receipt setup checklist can be found following this section.

Basic requirements for issuing tax invoices are as follows (taken from Government of Australia Website):

Tax invoices for taxable sales of less than $1,000 must include enough information to clearly determine the following seven details:

that the document is intended to be a tax invoice - Tax Invoice has been indicated directly on the receipt
a. This information is included by default on all WineDirect receipts
the seller's identity
a. For PDF-style receipts for Admin Panel and POS (letter print), ensure to upload a PDF watermark including this information
b. For thermal POS receipts, the address/contact info and logo should be included in the header/footer image uploaded in the POS profile (alternatively, by not including a logo, the address for the POS location will be added in place of a logo)
c. For order confirmation email, ensure that your address and logo have been uploaded to the email template
the seller's Australian business number (ABN)
a. For PDF-style receipts for Admin Panel and POS (letter print), ensure to upload PDF watermark including this information
b. For thermal POS receipts, ensure to fill out the ABN field found in website settings
c. For order confirmation information, ensure that your ABN has been included on the email template
the date the invoice was issued
a. This information is included by default on all WineDirect receipts
a brief description of the items sold, including the quantity (if applicable) and the price
a. This information is included by default on all WineDirect receipts
the GST amount (if any) payable – this can be shown separately or, if the GST amount is exactly one-eleventh of the total price, as a statement such as "Total price includes GST"
a. "Total Invoice GST" has been indicated on all WineDirect receipts
the extent to which each sale on the invoice is a taxable sale (that is, the extent to which each sale includes GST)
a. On all WineDirect receipts "*Prices include GST" has been indicated
b. Any item (including shipping and handling) that includes GST has been marked with an asterisk (*).

In addition, tax invoices for sales of $1,000 or more need to show:

the buyer's identity or ABN
a. If this is required, this can be achieved by adding the ABN to the contact information

Receipt Setup Checklist

Upload a PDF watermark that includes a logo, address/contact information and an ABN. For more info, click here.
Fill out the ABN field under website settings > Store > Orders
Set up the POS profile and ensure to upload a receipt header/footer image that includes logo and address/contact info. For more info, click here.
Customize your email templates to include address/contact info, logo and ABN. For more info, click here.

Tax-Free Items

If you would like to create a tax-free item, you can do this at the SKU level, (here is how - see "Is Non-Taxable"). Items on a receipt that are non-taxable ARE NOT marked with an asterisk.

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Shipping

Domestic shipping is taxable(6) and by default will be lumped into the GST-included calculations, as well as marked by an asterisk. International shipping however, is not taxable(6). If your winery plans to ship international, we recommend creating a tax-free international shipping SKU, as outlined in the tax-free item section above.

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