Home » community » News » ATO Simplifies BAS for Small Businesses

ATO Simplifies BAS for Small Businesses

Good news to start the new year! The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has announced that they are working on making the Business Activity Statement (BAS) simpler for small businesses.

The ATO said that they have “listened to the concerns of entrepreneurs, tax professionals, and software providers that BAS has too many GST labels,” making record keeping and reporting complex and costly.

With these changes, the only information that will be required on the BAS starting 1 July 2017 are GST on sales (1A), GST on purchases (1B) and total sales (G1). Also, businesses would only need to classify their transactions into two GST codes – GST or no GST.

Besides savings on costs and time associated with GST record keeping and reporting, these changes are expected to “simplify account set up, ongoing bookkeeping, BAS preparation and lodgement.”

New small businesses which register from 19 January 2017, will be given the option to report less GST information on a simpler BAS.  The following should be done to take advantage of this option:

• If a “quarterly” reporting cycle is selected when registering for GST, the business will need to select “Option 2: Calculate GST quarterly and report annually” on their first BAS. The Tax Office says that it will no longer seek the additional GST information or lodgement of the Annual GST Information Report, resulting to a simpler BAS reporting.

• If “monthly” reporting cycle is selected upon registration, businesses can insert “0” at G2, G3, G10 and G10 on their BAS.

• If an “annual” GST reporting cycle is selected at registration, businesses can leave their GW, G3, G10, AND G11 blank on their annual GST return.

If you have questions or need assistance with your BAS record keeping and reporting, our accountants are more than willing to help. Contact us here.

written by:

Nigel Plowman

Prior to forming McKinley Plowman, Nigel specialised in management consulting and international accounting, enjoying success in Australia and in the United Kingdom. His extensive experience in management consulting, international accounting and innovative tax structures has been a major driver in the success of McKinley Plowman as well as the many businesses he has steered towards new levels. Nigel is dedicated to fast-tracking his client goals with cutting edge tax and business strategies. He is a member of the CPAs and the Taxation Institute of Australia and enjoys developing tax strategies that work well here and around the world.