BAS or the Business Activity Statement is a pre-printed document. It’s issued by the Australian Taxation Office or ATO on a quarterly or a monthly basis. The business activity statement is utilized for summarizing the amount of GST that is receivable and payable by you for a certain time. If you do not submit your BAS on time, you will experience an FTL or Failure to Lodge penalty. The fine can be much higher when you often delay or become late when providing the BAS. Within 28-day, if you do not submit your business activity statement on time, you might be charged around $110.
Business Activity Statement: How to prepare it?
You can only complete your BAS after you register your business for GST or goods and service tax. Business Activity Statement will help you meet all your tax obligations annually, monthly, and quarterly. Listed below are several steps that will help you prepare your BAS lodgement without any issues. Check it out!
- Check All The Information:
The first thing you need to do is reconcile all your accounts as it will assure that all your information is up-to-date and correct. In other words, you need to take a closer look at all your monetary records and check whether or not the bank statements match well with your accounting information. Another thing you need to make sure of is if the cash and purchases expenses are recorded or not. You also need to check the information based on the creditors are correct or not and whether or not the outstanding funds are justified. You must gather all those accounts that contain a business transaction, invoices, and receipts.
- Provide All The Missing Transactions:
You can take the help of a software called Xero, which will streamline this particular method by directly connecting to your bank account. If you are conducting the missing transaction process manually it might take a lot of time. You must record all the missing transactions for which you have the invoices and receipts. For every missing transaction, you need a description, GST, date and the overall amount of the transaction.
- Total Up Your Records:
When you have entered all the information correctly, you can run an activity statement from your software. Otherwise, if you are doing everything manually, you can then add up all the numbers that will help determine the amount of GST you owe for the tax period. In this particular section, you need to make sure everything is completely accurate. For such reasons, you must double-check the information to see if it’s correct. You also need to calculate the PAYG, which is the amount of tax withheld through the employee’s wage payments. You must enter the gross wages of your employees, and the amount of tax that is withheld. You also need to evaluate your payroll. Also, if you do not have any workforce or employees you can simply place zeros there.
- Update The Lodge And Records:
When you have completed your business activity statement, you can have all your records updated with brand-new data and make copies of all the relevant documents. You can electronically file through the ATO website, or you can mail the hardcopy of your documentations to ATO without any hassle. Remember to pay back what you owe in a given time or make proper arrangements with the ATO payments.
Things you need to know about the professional BAS agents?
Getting the guidance and assistance of a registered and trusted BAS agent will make the job easier for you. It’s because about 96% of the small businesses rely on the BAS agent to manage all their supper affairs and tax. Being a registered agent, they have the power to change the fee for delivering the tax. Along with that, all the BAS agents are registered under the Tax Practitioners Board or TPB.
The BAS agents are highly-qualified, carry plenty of experience, and have excellent knowledge and understanding about BAS. The agents spend plenty of money and time performing courses, seminars, workshops, and webinars. It will enable them to do what they are good at.
Why take the services of the BAS agents?
Opting for the BAS agent services will provide you with a countless number of benefits. It will provide you with the support and guidance you need when it comes to preparing the BAS lodge. Given below are some of the reasons to hire a professional BAS agent. Take a look!
- Reconciliation: To make sure your BAS is correct, the agent will reconcile all the wages payable, the GST, super payable, PAYG, and wages expenses. The agent will reconcile the ATO integrate accounts as well.
- Ongoing study: The BAS agents learn and studies for 45-hours for every three years. They learn all the complex topics, updates that are made to the tax law and GST, and the changes that took place within the industry. They complete their studies so that they can stay registered and help you with your BAS preparation and other tax-related things.
- A safe harbour: When you try to lodge your BAS by yourself, you will make several mistakes that will charge you with a fine. For such reasons, taking the services of the BAS agent will be the right thing to do. It’s because all the BAS agents are protected under the safe harbour law. So, hiring them will provide your business with an extra level of protection.
- Code of conduct: The Code of Conduct wants all the BAS agents to be competent, professional, honest, confidential or independent. If the BAS agent you hired breaches the code, then you are free to contact the Tax Practitioners Board and state your query.
- Have more time lodge: When you try to lodge your own BAS, then you have to pay within the given due date. But when it comes to BAS agents, things are pretty different. It’s because all the BAS agents fall under the BAS lodge program, which gives them more time to lodge the BAS.
Over to you!
Preparing and submitting the business activity statement is compulsory for all large, medium and small businesses. Lodging your BAS within a given timeframe will save you from unwanted penalties and fines. When you do not know how to do so, you can consult an Accounting Firm in Perth to hire a registered BAS agent for the job.
