Singapore Tax Invoice Template (Free Excel): IRAS Requirements and What Changes Under GST InvoiceNow

Download a free tax invoice template for Excel, check it against the 11 details IRAS requires, and find out when GST InvoiceNow means a spreadsheet is no longer enough.

Accurate as of 6 October 2026. Rules, rates and dates come from IRAS and IMDA. They do change, so check the linked sources before you act.

TL;DR

• A Singapore tax invoice must show 11 details, including the words “Tax Invoice”, your GST registration number, the GST rate and the GST amount. Our free Excel template has all 11 built in.

• For sales of S$1,000 or less (including GST) you can issue a simplified tax invoice with fewer details.

• The GST rate is 9% for standard-rated supplies made on or after 1 January 2024. Old templates still showing 7% or 8% are one of the most common mistakes we see.

• You can still email PDF invoices to customers. Under GST InvoiceNow, though, the invoice data also has to reach IRAS through an InvoiceNow-Ready Solution. A spreadsheet can’t do that on its own.

• Your template has an expiry date. GST-registered businesses are being phased in from 1 November 2025, ending with existing businesses with total annual supplies above S$4 million on 1 April 2031. Free InvoiceNow-Ready software is available until March 2031, so moving off the template doesn’t have to cost anything.

The file called Invoice_FINAL_v3.xlsx

Every small business has one.

It started life as a Word document someone found online. Then it became an Excel file because the totals kept going wrong. Then somebody added a logo, changed the font, saved a copy for each customer, and now there are forty versions in a shared folder. The one everyone actually uses is called Invoice_FINAL_v3.xlsx, and nobody is quite sure who changed the GST rate in cell F32.

There’s nothing wrong with starting this way. A good template is how thousands of Singapore SMEs bill their first customers. The trouble is that templates drift. A field gets deleted. The invoice number gets copied instead of incremented. A foreign-currency job goes out without SGD totals. None of it looks like a problem until IRAS asks to see your records, or your biggest customer’s finance team sends the invoice back.

This guide gives you a clean template that follows the IRAS rules, the checklist to keep it that way, and an honest answer to the question every template user is now asking: will this still work once GST InvoiceNow applies to me?

Do you need a tax invoice, a simplified tax invoice or a receipt?

It depends on who you’re selling to and how much the sale is worth. IRAS sets out three documents for GST-registered businesses:

IRAS also says no tax invoice is needed for zero-rated supplies, exempt supplies, deemed supplies, or sales to customers who aren’t GST-registered.

If you aren’t GST-registered, you must not charge GST. It’s an offence. IRAS says businesses that collect GST without being registered can face a penalty of three times the tax unlawfully collected, plus a fine of up to S$10,000 and/or up to three years’ imprisonment. If you’re below the registration threshold, issue a normal invoice with no GST line, and don’t title it “Tax Invoice”. A tax invoice is a GST document that only GST-registered businesses issue, so the word “tax” shouldn’t appear in your invoice title. (Set “GST-registered?” to No in our template and it switches to a plain “Invoice” with no GST.)

What must a tax invoice include in Singapore?

A Singapore tax invoice must show 11 details: the words “Tax Invoice”, your name and address, your GST registration number, the invoice date, an invoice number, the customer’s name and address, a description of the goods or services, the GST rate, the total excluding GST, the total GST, and the total including GST.

Here’s how those map onto the free template:

Invoicing in a foreign currency? IRAS requires three figures to be converted into Singapore dollars on the tax invoice: the total excluding GST, the total GST, and the total including GST. You must use an exchange rate that’s acceptable to IRAS for GST purposes. The template has an optional SGD conversion block for this. Enter the rate and it fills in the three SGD figures.

Simplified tax invoice: the six details

For a sale of S$1,000 or less (including GST), a simplified tax invoice needs only:

1. Your name, address and GST registration number

2. The date of issue

3. An identifying number

4. A description of the goods or services

5. The total amount payable, including GST

6. A statement such as “Price payable includes GST”

Simplified tax invoices are handy for counter sales and small jobs. Remember that GST-registered customers may prefer a full tax invoice for their own records.

Download the free Singapore tax invoice template (Excel)

[Download: Singapore Tax Invoice Template (Excel, free)]

What’s inside:

• A tax invoice sheet with all 11 IRAS details laid out, a ten-line item table, and totals that calculate themselves

• A single GST rate cell set to 9%. Change it once and every figure updates

• A “GST-registered?” switch. Set it to No and the template retitles itself “Invoice”, hides the GST registration line and removes GST from the totals

• An optional SGD conversion block for foreign-currency invoices

• A “How to use” sheet with the IRAS checklist below, so whoever does your billing next year has the rules in front of them

Yellow cells are the ones you fill in. Everything else is a formula, so please leave those alone.

7 template mistakes that cause GST trouble

These come up again and again when we help small businesses clean up their invoicing.

1. The heading says “Invoice”, not “Tax Invoice”. IRAS lists the words “Tax Invoice” as a required detail. It’s the easiest one to lose when someone “tidies up” the design.

2. The GST rate is out of date. The rate has been 9% since 1 January 2024. Templates first made in 2022 or 2023 often still have 7% or 8% typed into a formula somewhere.

3. Invoice numbers repeat. Copy last month’s file, forget to change the number, and you now have two invoices with the same identifying number. Use a running sequence and never reuse one.

4. Foreign-currency invoices go out without SGD totals. The three SGD figures are required on the tax invoice itself, not only in your books.

5. The invoice goes out late. A tax invoice has to be issued within 30 days from the time of supply. Month-end batching can quietly push some invoices past that.

6. A non-registered business charges GST or calls its invoice a “Tax Invoice”. It usually happens when a business copies a template from a GST-registered company. See the penalty above. This one is serious.

7. Old files go missing. GST-registered businesses must keep business and accounting records for at least five years. “It’s on Ah Huat’s old laptop” doesn’t count.

Can I still use an Excel invoice template under GST InvoiceNow?

Partly. Under the GST InvoiceNow Requirement you can keep sending PDF or paper invoices to your customers. What changes is that the invoice data must also be transmitted to IRAS through an InvoiceNow-Ready Solution. An Excel or Word template can’t do that on its own.

According to IRAS’s e-Tax Guide on the GST InvoiceNow Requirement (second edition, 9 March 2026):

• Your sales and purchases are both in scope. That covers standard-rated, zero-rated and exempt supplies, standard-rated and zero-rated purchases, and credit notes. (We explain the purchase side in Does GST InvoiceNow Cover Purchases?.)

• The data is due by the earlier of the date you file the relevant GST return or its filing due date.

• Simplified tax invoices and receipts count too. They can be sent to IRAS in aggregated form, for example as daily totals.

• Invoices you send outside the InvoiceNow network still need their data submitted. Your InvoiceNow-Ready Solution extracts and sends it.

• There’s a consequence for voluntary registrants. IRAS says voluntary GST registrants that don’t comply may have their GST registration revoked.

In other words, the template can still produce the PDF your customer sees. It can’t be the system that reports to IRAS. Once your date arrives, your invoices need to live in software that can.

When does GST InvoiceNow apply to you?

Wording as stated in the IRAS e-Tax Guide, GST InvoiceNow Requirement (2nd edition, 9 March 2026), section 5.5. IRAS notifies businesses of their own implementation date.

If you’re new to the network itself, start with our guide to what InvoiceNow is and how it works. Your customers will also start asking for your Peppol ID. More than 63,000 businesses were already on the InvoiceNow network by March 2026, according to OpenPeppol.

When should you retire your invoice template?

Find your situation below.

What does it cost to move off the template?

It can cost nothing.

Free InvoiceNow-Ready software. IMDA publishes a list of free-of-charge InvoiceNow packages for GST-registered businesses that are on GST InvoiceNow. The version updated on 17 September 2026 lists 13 providers. Most offer their package free until 31 March 2031. Three of them only run until 31 March 2027, so check the end date before you sign up. Switching systems twice in two years is the cost nobody budgets for.

The S$1,000 GST InvoiceNow Transition Grant. If you’d rather pay for an accredited solution, IMDA’s transition grant offers a fixed S$1,000 payout. According to IMDA’s grant FAQ:

• your total annual supplies must be S$4 million or less

• you must subscribe to an IMDA-accredited InvoiceNow-Ready Solution with at least 12 months of payment

• you must not have used any InvoiceNow-Ready solution, paid or free, in the three months before onboarding

• free-of-charge solutions don’t qualify

• claims are open from 1 July 2026 to 31 March 2030, or until the grant is fully claimed

The third point catches people out. If you start on a free package and later decide you want the grant for a paid one, you may not qualify. Decide which route you want before you onboard.

(If you were planning to use the Productivity Solutions Grant, note that it was folded into the new EDGE Grant from 30 September 2026. We explain what replaced it in PSG Has Ended: What the New EDGE Grant Means.)

The 10-point template-to-InvoiceNow checklist

Run through this with whoever does your billing. It takes about 20 minutes.

1. Does every tax invoice say “Tax Invoice” at the top?

2. Is your GST registration number on every invoice?

3. Is the GST rate 9%, and is it in one cell, not typed into several formulas?

4. Are invoice numbers unique and in sequence, with no gaps you can’t explain?

5. Are all invoices issued within 30 days of the supply?

6. Do foreign-currency invoices show the three SGD totals?

7. Are five years of invoices stored somewhere you can retrieve them, not on one person’s laptop?

8. Have you checked your GST InvoiceNow implementation date from IRAS?

9. Have you decided between a free package and the S$1,000 grant route, before signing up for anything?

10. Do you know your Peppol ID for when a customer asks?

If you answered “no” or “not sure” to three or more, the template is costing you more time than it’s saving.

Frequently asked questions

• Is there an official IRAS tax invoice template?
  IRAS sets out the details a tax invoice must contain, but you’re free to design the document yourself. Any layout works as long as all the required details appear.

• What is the GST rate on a Singapore tax invoice in 2026?
  9%, for standard-rated supplies made on or after 1 January 2024.

• Can a non-GST-registered business issue a tax invoice?
  No. A business that isn’t GST-registered must not charge or collect GST, and its invoice shouldn’t be titled “Tax Invoice”. Use a normal invoice with no GST.

• What is the limit for a simplified tax invoice in Singapore?
  S$1,000, including GST. Above that, issue a full tax invoice.

• How long do I have to issue a tax invoice?
  Within 30 days from the time of supply, when your customer is GST-registered.

• Can I issue an invoice in US dollars?
  Yes, but the tax invoice must also show the total excluding GST, the total GST and the total including GST in Singapore dollars.

• Do I still need an Excel template once I’m on InvoiceNow?
  Usually not. InvoiceNow-Ready software issues the invoice, sends it over the Peppol network where your customer is connected, and passes the data to IRAS. Keeping the template alongside it risks double billing and duplicate numbers.

• Is free InvoiceNow software really free?
  IMDA’s free-of-charge list describes the full package as free with no conditions attached, but the free period differs by provider: most run to 31 March 2031, and some end 31 March 2027. Check the provider’s end date on IMDA’s list.

Ready when your template isn’t

AveriWorks is a cloud ERP built for Singapore SMEs. Its free Starter plan includes unlimited InvoiceNow e-invoicing and GST InvoiceNow, so your invoices are numbered, calculated and reported to IRAS without a spreadsheet in between. AveriWorks’ provider, Zetta Solution, is on IMDA’s free-of-charge list with the package free until 31 March 2031.

Create your free AveriWorks account and keep the template for the history books.

Sources

1. IRAS, Invoicing customers (tax invoice, simplified tax invoice, receipts, foreign currency): https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/goods-services-tax-(gst)/charging-gst-(output-tax)/invoicing-customers

2. IRAS, Overview of GST rate change (9% from 1 Jan 2024): https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/goods-services-tax-(gst)/gst-rate-change/gst-rate-change-for-business/overview-of-gst-rate-change

3. IRAS, Keeping records (at least 5 years): https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/goods-services-tax-(gst)/basics-of-gst/invoicing-price-display-and-record-keeping/keeping-records

4. IRAS, What is unauthorised GST collection (penalties): https://iras.gov.sg/who-we-are/what-we-do/annual-reports-and-publications/taxbytes-iras/gst/what-is-unauthorised-gst-collection-and-what-to-do-if-you-encounter-it

5. IRAS, e-Tax Guide: GST InvoiceNow Requirement (2nd edition, 9 Mar 2026): https://www.iras.gov.sg/media/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/gst/etaxguide_gst_invoicenow_requirement.pdf

6. IRAS, FAQs for Businesses: GST InvoiceNow Requirement (published 23 Sep 2026): https://www.iras.gov.sg/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/frequently-asked-questions-for-businesses—gst-invoicenow-requirement-(published-23-sep-2026).pdf

7. IMDA, Free-of-charge InvoiceNow packages for GST-registered businesses (updated 17 Sep 2026): https://file.go.gov.sg/invoicenow-focpackage-gstbiz.pdf

8. IMDA, FAQs: GST InvoiceNow Transition Grant: https://file.go.gov.sg/invoicenowgrant2026-faqs.pdf

9. IRAS, Running a business? Are you liable to register for GST (S$1 million threshold): https://www.iras.gov.sg/who-we-are/what-we-do/annual-reports-and-publications/taxbytes-iras/gst/running-a-business-are-you-liable-to-register-for-gst-and-what-happens-if-you-register-late

10. OpenPeppol, Singapore extends GST InvoiceNow Requirement (5 Mar 2026): https://peppol.org/singapore-extends-gst-invoicenow-requirement/

This article is general information, not tax advice. It is accurate as of 6 October 2026. For your specific situation, check with IRAS or a qualified tax adviser.