Professional BAS Returns done on time & correctly
Your BAS is only as accurate as the records it is prepared from and only as protected as the person who lodges it
BAS Returns service by a registered bookkeeper in Melbourne
Packages start at just $150 per month & the first consultation is free.
- If your bookkeeper is not a registered BAS agent, they are not legally authorised to prepare or lodge your BAS, which means every return they have lodged on your behalf has been prepared outside the law and without the professional protections that registration provides
- A BAS lodged by a registered agent comes with an automatic four-week extension on both the lodgment deadline and the payment due date, and if you are self-lodging or using an unregistered bookkeeper you are forfeiting that extension every single quarter
- Safe harbour protection, which shields your business from penalties arising from errors in a lodged BAS, only applies when the return was prepared and lodged by a registered BAS agent, so every BAS lodged any other way leaves the full liability for any error sitting with you personally
- The GST figures on your BAS are only accurate if the bank reconciliation is complete, the supplier invoices have all been entered, and every transaction has the correct GST treatment applied, and if any of those three things are not true the return you are lodging does not reflect your actual position
- Two of our case studies involve businesses whose BAS returns were either overdue, incorrect, or both, and in one case the errors across five consecutive returns produced a recoverable amount exceeding $5,000 once the underlying records were corrected
- Every quarter you lodge a BAS without a registered agent reviewing the figures is a quarter where the full risk of any error, any miscoding, any missed input tax credit or overstated GST liability sits with your business rather than with a professional who is accountable for getting it right
Your business can hire a bookkeeper to submit your BAS Statements
The Business Activity Statement is the quarterly report every GST-registered business in Australia lodges with the ATO, reporting the GST collected on sales, the input tax credits claimed on purchases, the PAYG withholding collected from employees, and in some cases PAYG instalments on income tax.
What it submits to the ATO becomes part of the business’s permanent compliance record, and what happens when it is wrong ranges from an amended assessment and additional tax payable, through to a formal ATO review of the records the return was prepared from.
Most small business owners lodge their BAS in one of three ways.
- They do it themselves from records they have maintained throughout the quarter.
- They use a bookkeeper who is not registered as a BAS agent.
- They use a registered BAS agent (which we are).
Only one of those arrangements is fully legal for the person preparing the return, provides an automatic four-week extension on both the lodgment deadline and the payment due date, and covers the business owner with safe harbour protection if an error is subsequently identified.
That arrangement is a registered BAS agent, and it is the arrangement that every GST-registered business in Australia should be using.
What preparing and lodging a BAS actually involves
Preparing and lodging a BAS is not simply entering a few figures into the ATO’s online portal.
It is the end product of a full quarter’s worth of bookkeeping, and its accuracy is entirely dependent on the quality of the records it is prepared from. A BAS prepared from clean, reconciled, correctly coded records is a reliable lodgment that reflects the business’s actual GST position.
A BAS prepared from records that are behind, inconsistently coded, or have not been reconciled against the bank is not a compliance document, it is an estimate dressed up as one, and the consequences of the gap between the estimate and reality sit with the business owner who lodged it.
Before any BAS figures are calculated, the bank reconciliation must be complete and current for the entire quarter, every transaction must be entered, every account must be reconciled, and every unresolved item must be investigated and addressed. We do not prepare a BAS from unreconciled accounts because doing so would mean lodging figures that cannot be verified, which defeats the purpose of having a professional prepare the return in the first place.
The GST liability reported on the BAS represents one-eleventh of all taxable supplies made during the quarter, which requires that every sale or revenue transaction has been coded with the correct GST treatment throughout the period.
Industries with mixed GST treatment including healthcare, hospitality, education and financial services require particular precision because incorrect coding on a material portion of transactions produces a materially incorrect BAS.
So for example a dental practice with both GST-free health services and taxable cosmetic procedures, a restaurant with GST-free basic foods and taxable prepared meals, or a consulting firm with both domestic and export engagements all have GST complexity that must be managed correctly at the transaction level before the BAS figures can be considered reliable.
The input tax credits claimed on the BAS represent the GST paid on business purchases, and this figure is only accurate if every supplier invoice has been entered, correctly coded and correctly GST-treated throughout the quarter. Invoices not entered means credits not claimed. Invoices coded incorrectly means the credits reported do not match the entitlement.
A registered BAS agent preparing the return from complete and correctly coded records claims the full input tax credit entitlement rather than an undercount produced by incomplete records.
Where the business employs staff, the PAYG withholding remitted to the ATO each quarter is also reported on the BAS, and this figure must match the payroll records exactly. A discrepancy between the payroll system and the BAS PAYG withholding figure is one of the most common triggers for an ATO compliance review, and it is entirely avoidable when the bookkeeper preparing the BAS is the same person who has maintained the payroll records throughout the quarter.
Before any BAS is lodged, we provide a summary of the figures including the GST liability or refund, the PAYG withholding, and the net amount payable or refundable, for the business owner to review and confirm. If anything looks unexpected or requires explanation it is resolved before lodgment rather than after, because an amended BAS filed after the fact is more work, more cost, and a less clean compliance record than getting it right the first time.
The four-week extension and what it is worth in practice for a business
The four-week extension available through a registered BAS agent is not a concession that needs to be applied for or justified on a case by case basis. It is a standing entitlement that applies automatically to every quarterly BAS lodged through a registered agent, and it applies to the payment of any GST owing as well as the paperwork.
The standard quarterly BAS deadline is the 28th day of the month following the end of the quarter. Lodging through a registered agent moves that deadline approximately four weeks further, giving the business additional time and cash flow flexibility every quarter without any negotiation or application required.
For a business managing cash flow carefully, four additional weeks of working capital four times a year is a genuine operational benefit that has real dollar value relative to self-lodgment or lodgment by an unregistered bookkeeper, neither of whom can access the extension.
The safe harbour protection and what it means for your business
When a BAS is lodged by a registered BAS agent and an error is subsequently identified, the safe harbour provisions under the Tax Agent Services Act determine where the liability for any resulting penalty sits. If the error arose from the agent’s failure to do something they should have done, rather than from information the business owner withheld or misrepresented, the penalty rests with the agent rather than with the business. This protection does not exist when a business lodges its own BAS or uses an unregistered bookkeeper. In both of those cases, the full liability for any error sits with the business owner regardless of who prepared the figures.
The steel manufacturer case study from our portfolio illustrates what incorrect BAS lodgments cost a business in practice. The GST position was wrong across five consecutive BAS returns because the underlying records had never been properly reconciled. Once the reconciliation was completed and the errors were identified and corrected, the business recovered more than $5,000 in GST refunds across those returns.
The errors had existed for long enough that the cumulative financial impact was significant, and the correction required amended returns across multiple periods.
The real estate agency case study provides a second illustration from a different angle. BAS returns were overdue entirely, the income being recorded was not drawn from the correct source, and personal expenses were running through the business accounts in a way that affected the GST position. Once the records were corrected and the BAS returns brought current, the financial position of the business looked entirely different from what the incorrect lodgments had been suggesting.
We are registered with the Tax Practitioners Board. You can verify his registration at tpb.gov.au. Every BAS lodged for a Clients Needs Bookkeeping client is prepared by a registered agent, lodged on time using the extended deadline, and covered by the professional protections that registration requires.
How we manage BAS lodgment for Melbourne businesses
We prepare and lodge BAS returns for small businesses across Melbourne and nationally as a registered BAS agent, working across industries including restaurants, dental and medical practices, real estate agencies, tradies, consultancies and professional service firms.
Every BAS is prepared from fully reconciled accounts with the correct GST treatment applied across all transaction types, PAYG withholding confirmed against payroll records, and figures reviewed by the business owner before lodgment. The automatic four-week extension applies to every lodgment and safe harbour protection covers every return.
BAS lodgment is available as a standalone service for businesses that maintain their own records but want a registered agent to review and lodge, or as part of a full bookkeeping package where we maintains the records throughout the quarter and prepares the BAS from those records.
Packages start from $150 per month and the first consultation is free.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a BAS agent and a tax agent?
A BAS agent is registered specifically to prepare and lodge Business Activity Statements and advise on obligations covered by BAS provisions including GST, PAYG withholding, PAYG instalments, and superannuation guarantee. A tax agent is registered to prepare income tax returns and provide income tax advice. Most businesses need both, a registered BAS agent for quarterly compliance and an accountant who is a registered tax agent for annual tax returns, and the two roles complement each other rather than competing.
Can you lodge BAS returns for prior periods that are overdue?
Yes.
Overdue BAS returns are prepared and lodged as part of the catch-up service. Failure-to-lodge penalties may apply for late lodgments and in some cases penalty remission can be requested where there is a reasonable explanation for the delay. We manage this process as part of the lodgment. Bringing overdue lodgments current removes the ongoing penalty accrual and establishes a clean compliance record going forward.
What if the BAS figures look wrong after lodgment?
An amended BAS can be lodged to correct errors in a previously lodged return. If the amendment results in additional tax being owed, general interest charge may apply on the shortfall from the original due date. If it results in a refund, the ATO processes the refund to the nominated bank account. We manage the amendment process where errors are identified after lodgment, including preparing and lodging the amendment and corresponding with the ATO as needed.
How do I know the BAS figures are correct before they are lodged?
We provides a pre-lodgment summary for every BAS return showing the GST collected, the input tax credits claimed, the PAYG withholding, and the net amount payable or refundable. If any figure looks unexpected or significantly different from the prior quarter without an obvious explanation, it is investigated and resolved before the return is submitted. The business owner sees and confirms the figures before anything is lodged with the ATO.