Advice to keep in mind when completing your business activity statements

Posted on: 25 November 2015

Completing your business activity statement (BAS) can be an extremely stressful and overwhelming process. This document will be issued to you on either a monthly or quarterly basis if you are self-employed in Australia.

The main purpose of the document is to relay your tax situation to the Australian Taxation Office so they can ensure that the proper taxes are being paid as well as providing information that will help the government predict how much tax income they can expect for the year. This is a vital estimate as it helps them to allocate resources come budget time and they might need to borrow money if the tax intake will be significantly less than needed. Here is some advice you should keep in mind when filling out your business activity statement.

When should you lodge the business activity statement?

If you are required to lodge the document on a monthly basis, it should be submitted on the 21st of each month. If you have to lodge it quarterly, you need to lodge it on the 28th of October, February, April and July of each year. If this date is on a public holiday or a week day, you can have the document submitted by the next day of business. For annual forms, they will be sent to you after you have lodged the fourth quarter BAS and it will need to be lodged on or before the 28th of February, or in advance of when your annual tax return is due, whichever one of these that comes first.

How to navigate through the lodgement process

The process of filling out these documents and paying them has become a lot easier with online banking and credit cards. You can also fill out the forms and submit them instantly online. This stops you form worrying about the postal system and thinking about whether they reached their destination or not.

Many small businesses or self-employed people do not have a team of accountants that can help them to track all of the relevant data as well as fill out the forms and keep track of their tax situation. Therefore, it is important to consult with a professional who will be able to walk you through the process as well as making you aware of any tax benefits that you were previously unaware of. This will severely decrease the stress that is associated with submitting these documents. Another worthwhile investment is to purchase accounting software that is relevant to your industry, as this will be able to track your information automatically.

For more information, contact a company like JSPN Bookkeeping Solutions.

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