How long do I need to keep invoices in Australia?

At least five years. For most business records the ATO starts the five years from when you made or obtained the record or completed the transaction, whichever is later. Companies also have a separate seven year requirement from ASIC, so a Pty Ltd should keep seven.

Do I need a tax invoice to claim GST?

Yes, for any purchase over $82.50 including GST. Wait until you hold it before claiming the credit. For $82.50 or less, a receipt or docket is enough, and if you have nothing, a written note of the supplier, ABN, date, item and amount is accepted.

Can I keep receipts as photos and throw away the paper?

Yes, if the photo or scan is a true and clear reproduction of the original. The ATO says you then do not need to keep the paper unless another law requires it. Photograph thermal receipts early, because they fade.

Is entering invoices into Xero enough of a record?

No. The ATO says that if you enter the details into software, you still need to keep a copy of the actual invoice. Attach the document to the transaction in Xero, or keep it in a folder, but keep it.

What if a supplier's invoice has no ABN or GST on it?

It is not a valid tax invoice. Ask the supplier to reissue it, which they must do within 28 days of your request, and check their GST registration on ABN Lookup. Do not claim the GST until you hold a valid one.

Guide

How to keep invoice records the ATO will accept at BAS time

Most pages on this topic repeat keep everything for five years and stop there. The rules that actually catch small businesses are narrower: which invoices you need before you can claim the GST, when the five years starts, and what happens to your records when you change software. All of it is below, with the free setup first.

Short answer

Keep a legible copy of every invoice and receipt for at least five years, in English, stored so it cannot be quietly changed, and hold a valid tax invoice before you claim GST on anything over $82.50. A clear scan or photo counts, so once you have one you can throw the paper away.

What the ATO actually asks for

Everything on this page comes from the ATO's own record keeping and GST pages as they read in September 2026. Where another article says something different, trust the ATO page, and check it again yourself if you are reading this much later.

The ATO describes the minimum a record has to show as the date, the amount, a description of what it was, and the GST information, plus the purpose of the transaction and who it was with where that matters. For purchases, the supplier's invoice or receipt is that record.

Keep it for five years: For most business records the five years starts from when you prepared or obtained the record, or completed the transaction it relates to, whichever is later. A few records run on a different clock, such as FBT records, and some need keeping longer, such as anything behind an asset you still own.
In English, or easily converted: An overseas software invoice in another currency is fine as a record. It still has to be readable in English, and for a GST claim it still has to meet the tax invoice rules below.
Protected from being changed: The ATO's wording is that records must be stored in a way that protects them from being changed or damaged. A PDF in a backed up folder meets that. A spreadsheet you retype every quarter is a summary, not the record.
Findable when asked: The ATO says digital records should be identifiable, labelled or indexed, and that it may need to search them. A folder of files called scan0043.pdf is technically kept and practically lost.

The five years, and where other pages get it wrong

Several of the pages ranking for this phrase say the five years starts from the date you lodge your tax return. That is the rule the ATO gives individuals for their personal returns. Its business page says something different: generally from when the record was made or the transaction was completed, whichever is later.

In practice the gap is a few months, and the safe habit covers both. Keep each financial year's folder until five years after you lodged that year's return, and never delete anything that relates to an asset you still own or a year the ATO is reviewing.

If you run a company, ASIC separately requires financial records to be kept for seven years, and the ATO's own page points this out. Seven years is the simpler rule for a Pty Ltd, because it covers both.

The GST rule that actually costs people money

To claim the GST back on a purchase that cost more than $82.50 including GST, you must hold a valid tax invoice from the supplier. Not a bank statement line, not an order confirmation, not a quote.

If you do not have one, ask for it. The supplier has 28 days to provide it. The ATO's instruction is to wait until you have it before claiming the credit, even if that pushes the claim into a later BAS. You have four years to claim a GST credit, so waiting a quarter costs you nothing but the wait.

For purchases of $82.50 or less, a receipt, till docket or ordinary invoice is enough. If you have nothing at all, the ATO accepts a written note of the supplier's name and ABN, the date, what you bought and what you paid, made at the time.

What makes a tax invoice valid: It must show that it is intended to be a tax invoice, the seller's identity and ABN, the date, what was sold with quantity and price, the GST amount or a statement that the total includes GST, and which items are taxable. For sales of $1,000 or more it must also show your name or ABN.
An incomplete invoice is not a tax invoice: If the ABN or GST is missing, the ATO treats it as invalid, though you may rely on other documents from the same supplier that fill the gap. Otherwise ask the supplier to reissue it.
Check the supplier is registered for GST: Search their ABN on ABN Lookup at abr.business.gov.au, which is free, and look for the GST line. If they are not registered, there is no GST to claim, whatever the invoice says.

You can throw the paper away, with one condition

The ATO accepts a scan or photo of a paper record, provided the digital copy is a true and clear reproduction of the original. Once you have that, you do not need to keep the paper unless another law requires it.

The condition people miss: typing the details into Xero, MYOB or a spreadsheet does not replace the record. The ATO says that if you enter supplier, date, amount and GST into software, you still need to keep a copy of the actual invoice, on paper or digitally. The numbers in your ledger are your working. The invoice is the evidence.

So a record that will stand up is two things together: the entry in your books, and the image of the document behind it.

The free setup, in full

For a small business with tens of bills a month rather than hundreds, this meets every rule above and costs nothing.

1Make one folder per financial year, named 2026-27 and so on, with Q1 to Q4 inside. Q1 is July to September. Put it in a place that is backed up automatically, such as OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox.
2When a paper invoice or receipt arrives, photograph it that day with your phone's scanning mode, Notes on iPhone or Scan in Google Drive on Android, rather than the plain camera. Thermal receipts fade, and a faded receipt is not a clear reproduction.
3Name each file with the date first, then the supplier, then the invoice number, for example 2026-09-14 Thompson Steel INV-52445.pdf. Date first sorts the quarter in order, which is how BAS is prepared.
4Keep one spreadsheet per year with a row per purchase: date, supplier, ABN, invoice number, total, GST, and a column for whether you hold a valid tax invoice. That last column is the one that saves you at BAS time.
5Before each BAS, filter for purchases over $82.50 with no valid tax invoice. Email those suppliers now, and leave those credits out of this BAS until the invoice arrives.
6Once a year, check you can still open the oldest year's files, and delete nothing younger than the retention period.

This takes a few minutes a week and meets the rules. If you are a sole trader with simple affairs, the ATO's own app is also free and has a myDeductions tool for recording expenses and photographing receipts as you go.

If you use accounting software, use its attachments

Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks all let you attach the original invoice to the bill or transaction it belongs to. If you already pay for one of these, that is a better record than a separate folder, because the evidence sits against the entry it supports and your BAS agent can see both in one place. Xero's built in capture, which replaced Hubdoc, will also read the details for you.

The one risk the ATO specifically warns about: if your records live inside cloud software, download a complete copy before you change provider and lose access. A business that cancels a subscription and then gets a review letter can find its five years of invoices sitting behind a login it no longer has.

Once a year, export your attachments to your own backed up folder, whatever software you use. It is the cheapest insurance on this page.

When a paid tool is worth it, and when it is not

Under a few dozen bills a month, the free setup above is enough, and anyone telling you software is required for compliance is selling something. The ATO accepts manual and paper systems, and says so.

Tools earn their price when volume grows, when records come from many sources, or when the filing job passes to someone who will not keep your habits. Dext is what many Australian bookkeepers already run, so ask yours before buying anything. If your problem is a backlog of badly named scans rather than new bills, a tool that reads each document and renames and files it by date and supplier is the job Once, our free tool, was built for.

Common questions

How long do I need to keep invoices in Australia?: At least five years. For most business records the ATO starts the five years from when you made or obtained the record or completed the transaction, whichever is later. Companies also have a separate seven year requirement from ASIC, so a Pty Ltd should keep seven.
Do I need a tax invoice to claim GST?: Yes, for any purchase over $82.50 including GST. Wait until you hold it before claiming the credit. For $82.50 or less, a receipt or docket is enough, and if you have nothing, a written note of the supplier, ABN, date, item and amount is accepted.
Can I keep receipts as photos and throw away the paper?: Yes, if the photo or scan is a true and clear reproduction of the original. The ATO says you then do not need to keep the paper unless another law requires it. Photograph thermal receipts early, because they fade.
Is entering invoices into Xero enough of a record?: No. The ATO says that if you enter the details into software, you still need to keep a copy of the actual invoice. Attach the document to the transaction in Xero, or keep it in a folder, but keep it.
What if a supplier's invoice has no ABN or GST on it?: It is not a valid tax invoice. Ask the supplier to reissue it, which they must do within 28 days of your request, and check their GST registration on ABN Lookup. Do not claim the GST until you hold a valid one.

Solven builds custom software and automation for Australian businesses. If you have a job like this that no tool quite fits, that is the work we do.

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