BAS & GST Lodgement in Newtown: What Business Owners Need to Know

BAS can become stressful when the bank feed is behind, payroll does not match Single Touch Payroll, or you are unsure which purchases include GST. The good news is that the process can be handled step by step: keep the books current, reconcile the key accounts, review the GST treatment and lodge by the correct Australian Taxation Office deadline.

Graham Chee, FCPA, CPA, GRCP, GRCA, principal of Local Knowledge, writes from a practice that pairs FCPA-grade compliance with Goldman Sachs, BNP Investment Management and Merrill Lynch institutional experience. Local Knowledge Pty Ltd, based in Mascot and established in 2003, is the operating entity behind this service. It is a CPA public practice and registered tax agent—not a separate Newtown business.

The service is principal-led, with FCPA sign-off on every file. Work is carried out under the CPA Code of Ethics and APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. Our review is designed to provide reasonable assurance that the BAS agrees with the available records and has been treated consistently with current ATO requirements.

Newtown has a distinctive business mix bookkeeping support for BAS, GST and payroll. A King Street cafe may deal with delivery platforms, cash sales and casual payroll. A retailer near Newtown Station may use several card terminals and sell both in-store and online. A sparky working on local terrace renovations may have vehicles, materials, subcontractors and progress invoices. Creative studios and growing startups around Newtown and Enmore often have software costs, overseas suppliers and contractor payments. Each business needs the same basic BAS cycle, but the bookkeeping details can be quite different.

A BAS starts with the day-to-day books. Sales, expenses, payroll, bank transactions and merchant settlements need to be recorded for the correct period. We then reconcile the bank accounts, credit cards, loans, payroll reports and GST control accounts before preparing the activity statement.

Consider a King Street cafe using Square, Uber Eats and a business bank account. The delivery platform may deposit a net amount after taking fees, but the accounting records may need to show the gross sale, the platform fee and the GST treatment of each part. Recording only the net bank deposit can understate sales and produce the wrong GST result.

For a Newtown tradie, common issues include private use of the work vehicle, supplier invoices crossing BAS periods, transfers between accounts being coded as income, and materials bought without a valid tax invoice. The ATO generally requires a tax invoice to claim a GST credit for a taxable purchase above $82.50 including GST, subject to specific exceptions.

For a startup or creative studio, overseas software and digital services need attention. GST may not appear on every invoice, and an overseas charge should not be treated as containing Australian GST simply because it is a business expense how STP Phase 2 payroll reporting works. Director loans, owner contributions and transfers between accounts also do not automatically create GST.

Payroll needs its own checks. We compare the payroll ledger with Single Touch Payroll reports and the PAYG withholding shown on the activity statement. The ATO generally requires employers to report payroll information through Single Touch Payroll on or before payday, while Fair Work requires employee records to be kept for seven years. ASIC states that companies must keep sufficient financial records for seven years. These recordkeeping duties support accurate BAS, payroll and director oversight.

Common errors we fix include claiming GST on wages, super, loan repayments, bank transfers or residential rent; missing GST on taxable sales; treating GST-free or input-taxed items as taxable; duplicating transactions from bank feeds; recording merchant settlements as total sales; using the wrong cash or accrual basis; omitting cash takings; and carrying old GST coding errors from one quarter into the next.

Where a correction is needed, we assess whether it can be made on a later BAS under the ATO correction rules or whether a revision is required. We do not simply push a balancing figure into the next quarter without checking the cause.