Understand GST on my bill

Note that the total for ‘Monthly Charges excl. GST’ is really high. This is because of the initial purchase of the device. We then give you a credit which shows up in the ‘Monthly Charges nil GST’ total.

The full GST for your device purchased on interest free repayments will show up here. This is because the GST rules require us to charge the full GST amount on the device at the time of purchase.

The credit for your interest free device will show up here, balanced with any other nil GST items. 

Your total will reflect the first instalment of your interest free device, along with any other plans, usage or services that you may have with Spark.

This is the purchase of your interest free device excluding GST. 

We give you a credit for the full value of the device including GST.  You then pay us back over your interest free payment terms.

This is the monthly instalment, which does not attract GST (nil GST), as GST is charged upfront.

Any items that have nil GST will have an asterisk next to it. Look out for these items when reconciling your bill.

If you have a GST exclusive bill (GST is displayed on a separate line), your GST amount is 15% of the GST exclusive charges. There is no GST on items marked with an asterisk (*)

When the GST subtotal is an amount other than 15% of the total there are likely three explanations:

1. This is your first bill with interest free payments
   GST on devices purchased on interest free terms is always charged up front. The credit will be shown in the ‘Monthly charges’ section of your bill rather than the GST subtotal section. As the credit is nil GST, the GST charged on the device upfront will not be offset. This means the GST will be higher than expected, but the ‘Monthly charges’ will be lower than expected.
2. This is a subsequent bill with interest free payments.
   Because GST is charged upfront, all subsequent repayments are nil GST, indicated by an asterisk (*) next to the amount. That means the amount you pay will not include GST. This can be confusing because even though your bill has an excluding GST column it will still show an amount that looks like it includes GST. In reality though there is no GST charge.
3. There are other items on the bill which have nil GST
   Early termination fees, plan transfer fees and text to park are common items which have nil GST. All charges will be marked with an asterisk (*) and are part of the separate nil GST total on the bill.

Nil GST, GST exempt or GST zero rated charges are charges that do not attract GST. They are part of the bill total but does not contribute to the GST amount on the bill.

Early termination fees, plan transfer fees and text to park are common items which have nil GST. These charges will be marked with an asterisk (*) and are part of the separate nil GST total on the bill.

We must show the full GST amount at the time of purchase so the GST section on the bill will appear high. We do however credit you back the full amount for the device including the GST amount. All subsequent monthly instalment charges appearing on the bill will not include GST

The credit that has been applied on the first bill covers the total cost of the phone including the GST. The repayments are 1/12th or 1/24th of the original credit amount.

No goods or services have been transacted and are treated as payments like a loan or hire purchase.

Your invoice will show the GST exclusive total, GST amounts and nil GST total. You can calculate the 15% GST from the GST exclusive total.

You will need to ensure the tax rate of the nil GST items or totals are set as no GST or at the rate of 0%. The GST exclusive items or totals will be 15% GST.