The ATO is reducing the amount of information needed to be included in the business activity statement, to simplify GST reporting.
From 1 July 2017, ‘Simpler BAS’ will be the default GST reporting method for small businesses with a GST turnover of less than $10 million.
They will only need to report:
- G1 – Total sales
- 1A – GST on sales
- 1B – GST on purchases
This will not change a business’ reporting cycle, record keeping requirements, or how they report other taxes on their BAS.
Simpler BAS is intended to make it easier for practitioners to classify their clients’ transactions and lodge their BAS, and should also reduce the time that tax practitioners spend on form-filing and making changes that don’t impact the final GST amount.
The ATO will automatically transition eligible small business’ GST reporting methods to Simpler BAS from 1 July 2017, and small businesses can choose whether to change their GST bookkeeping software settings to reduce the number of GST tax classification codes.
To help the transition, the ATO will email tax practitioners to advise which of their clients are affected and how they can benefit, and practitioners may wish to talk to clients and help them decide whether reduced or detailed GST tax code settings are best for them.
New small businesses that registered for GST after 19 January 2017 can start using Simpler BAS reporting straight away.
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