What a VAT bill in Nepal actually has to show
The fields the IRD expects on a tax invoice, why the numbering matters more than the layout, and what usually goes wrong at audit.
Most shops in Nepal that register for VAT find out what a tax invoice needs the hard way — at audit, from an accountant, about a year of bills too late. The rules are not complicated. They are just never written down anywhere a shopkeeper looks.
This is what a tax invoice has to carry, and which parts auditors actually check.
The fields
A tax invoice must show, at minimum:
- The words tax invoice, not "bill" or "receipt"
- Your business name, address and PAN/VAT number
- The customer's name, and their PAN if they are registered
- A serial invoice number and the date
- What was sold, in enough detail to identify it
- The taxable amount, the VAT at 13% shown separately, and the total
The one people leave off is the VAT shown separately. A single total with "inclusive of VAT" written under it is not a tax invoice, and the buyer cannot claim against it.
The numbering matters more than the layout
An auditor's first question is rarely about the design of your bill. It is whether the numbers run in an unbroken sequence through the fiscal year.
That means:
- No gaps. A missing number is a bill somebody has to explain.
- No reuse. Two bills with the same number is worse than a gap.
- Cancellations stay in the sequence. A voided bill keeps its number and is marked void. It does not disappear.
- Reprints are marked as copies. The original is the original.
A book of numbered bills does this naturally, which is why the paper system worked. Software has to be told to, and a lot of it is not.
What usually goes wrong
Three failures we see repeatedly:
Two people billing at once. Two counters, two devices, and a number issued twice. If your system hands out numbers from one place this cannot happen; if each device counts on its own, it will.
Editing an old bill. A price corrected on last month's invoice changes a document somebody already filed. The correct move is a credit note, not an edit.
Starting again in a new system. Moving software mid-year and restarting numbering at 1 creates a duplicate for every bill of the year so far.
Where BaseBlock stands
BaseBlock issues tax invoices numbered in sequence through the fiscal year, shows VAT at 13% separately, marks reprints as copies, and keeps a cancelled bill in the sequence rather than removing it. That is not a feature list so much as the minimum for a bill an accountant will accept.
If you are not VAT-registered, none of this applies to you and the plain bill is fine — you can switch it on the day you register.
[See how billing works →](/features)
Run your shop on BaseBlock
Products, stock, orders and billing. A website that takes orders into the same tables. Free on one product, priced in rupees.