Searches for “STC price and GST” and “STC price including GST” both come back to one figure and one rule. The figure is $40 excluding GST. The rule is that GST is added on top only when the seller is registered for GST.
The Clearing House price
The Clean Energy Regulator states the Clearing House price as $40 excluding GST. A GST-registered seller therefore receives $40 plus $4 of GST, a total of $44 from the buyer, and passes the $4 to the ATO through their business activity statement. An unregistered seller receives $40 and no GST is charged.
The regulator warns that it cannot adjust a completed transaction if GST was applied incorrectly. That makes your account settings the first thing to check, before you list anything.
Why this trips people up
The $40 headline is quoted ex GST, which makes it sound like less than the buyer actually pays. Consumer sites sometimes quote a figure “including GST” to make a rebate look larger, and a trader’s rate can be shown either way. Mixing the two is the commonest reason an installer thinks they were underpaid by about 9 per cent.
A simple test: take a rate you were quoted, multiply by 1.1 and see if the result is the number on your remittance. If it is, the rate was ex GST and GST was added. If the remittance equals the quoted rate, GST was either already included or you are not registered.
Registered or not
Businesses with a GST turnover of $75,000 or more must register. Many installers are well above that threshold, and most are registered. Sole traders just under the line may not be, and the answer changes how you invoice and how you read a rate card. We explain the thresholds and the structure questions in installer GST and turnover.
Who writes the invoice
Certificate buyers commonly issue a recipient created tax invoice, or RCTI, on behalf of the seller, under an agreement between both parties. That means you do not raise an invoice for each sale, but the paperwork still needs your ABN and GST status to be right. See our RCTI, GST and ABN guide for what each document has to show.
What this means for installers
Confirm your GST registration status, make sure your registry and trader accounts match it, and read every rate card for the words “ex GST” or “inc GST”. Our pricing page shows the rate we publish daily, and the STC trading overview explains how a sale is settled. For the tax treatment of the customer discount on the invoice, see GST on the STC discount.