IRD-ready bills: a plain guide for restaurant and shop owners

If you collect VAT in Nepal, every bill you hand a customer has to follow the Inland Revenue Department’s format. It sounds heavy, but most of it comes down to a few habits that your billing system should do for you.

What a bill has to show

• Your registered name and PAN or VAT number.
• A bill number that follows on from the last one, with no gaps and no repeats.
• The date (in the Bikram Sambat calendar as well as the English date is helpful) and the fiscal year.
• Each item with quantity, rate and amount, then the taxable amount, VAT and the total.
• The total in words, and who printed it.

Numbers that never skip

A gap in bill numbers is the first thing an auditor looks at. That is why numbering belongs in the system, not in a notebook: every new bill takes the next number, and a mistake is fixed with a credit note instead of a deleted bill.

When the internet is down

Power cuts and slow connections are normal. A good till keeps selling and printing numbered bills offline, then sends them to the IRD when it is back online. Check this before you choose any system: pull the cable on a busy evening and see what happens.

Copies and credit notes

A reprint should say it is a copy of the original, and a refund after the bill is issued should be a credit note linked to it. Both keep your books and your VAT return honest.