Quarterly BAS due dates for tradies

The rule behind the dates#

Quarterly BAS due dates are not announced each year. They follow a standing rule: a standard quarterly BAS falls due on the 28th of the month after the quarter ends. That is why the calendar above can be worked out rather than looked up.

There is one exception, and it is the one people get wrong. The October to December quarter is not due 28 January. It is extended to 28 February, which is the ATO acknowledging that nobody does paperwork over Christmas.

Note the numbering. The ATO counts quarters from the start of the financial year, so July to September is Quarter 1 and January to March is Quarter 3. A conversation with your accountant goes sideways quickly if one of you is counting from January.

ATO: due dates for lodging and paying your BAS

What the form actually asks for#

A quarterly BAS for a small trade business is shorter than its reputation. Stripped of the labels that do not apply to you, it asks three things.

• Total sales. What you invoiced over the quarter, GST included.
• GST on sales. The GST you charged and collected on that work.
• GST on purchases. The GST credits you are claiming on what you bought for the business.

The amount you pay, or get refunded, is the second figure minus the third. Everything else on the form is either pre-filled, or a label for something you do not do.

Working out the figure#

The arithmetic is subtraction. What makes it feel hard is that the two numbers are spread across a quarter of invoices and a shoebox of supplier receipts, not that the sum is difficult. Here is a quarter for a one-person operation.

Two things follow from that shape. The GST you collect is not income, it is money you are holding for the ATO, and a quarter that felt profitable can still produce a bill. And a receipt you lost is not a small loss, it is the full GST on that purchase gone.

Lodging and paying#

Lodging and paying are the same deadline but two separate acts, and it matters that you do the first even if you cannot yet do the second.

1. 1

   Pull the quarter together

   Every invoice you issued, every purchase you want a credit on, and the tax invoice that backs each one.

2. 2

   Work out the two GST figures

   Collected on sales, credits on purchases. Divide GST-inclusive amounts by 11 to get the GST portion.

3. 3

   Lodge the statement

   Through ATO online services via myGov, through business software, or through your registered agent.

4. 4

   Pay what is owing

   By the same date. If you cannot pay it all, lodge anyway and arrange a payment plan with the ATO.

That last point is the one worth keeping. Lodging late and paying late are penalised separately, so a lodged statement you cannot yet pay is a much better position than an unlodged one. ATO: business activity statements.

Going through an agent#

The dates in the calendar above are the standard ones, for a business lodging on its own behalf. If a registered tax agent or BAS agent lodges for you, the ATO's lodgment program generally gives you a later date for the same quarter.

That concession is not automatic for anyone who happens to use a bookkeeper. Two conditions sit behind it.

• The person lodging is a tax agent or BAS agent registered with the Tax Practitioners Board, not simply someone who does your books.
• You are on that agent's client list with the ATO before the standard date passes.
• The dates themselves are the ATO's, published as a lodgment program, so they are worth reading yourself rather than taking on trust.

ATO: lodgment program due dates

If you are running late#

The ATO publishes two separate consequences, and conflating them is what makes people avoid the problem rather than deal with it.

• Failure to lodge on time is a penalty for the statement not arriving, and it accrues per period the statement is overdue.
• General interest charge applies to an amount owing that has not been paid, and it compounds daily.
• They are independent. Lodging on time with nothing paid avoids the first entirely.

The rates for both are set by the ATO and change, so this page does not quote a number at you. Read them at the source: ATO: failure to lodge on time penalty.

Making quarter end a check, not a scramble#

Every part of a BAS that hurts is a record-keeping problem wearing a deadline's clothes. The GST figures already exist the moment you issue an invoice or buy materials; the pain is reconstructing them three months later from memory and a glovebox.

Chippie calculates and shows GST on every line-item quote and invoice as you write it, with your ABN on the document, and keeps a running quarterly GST position with a BAS-readiness score so you can see where the quarter stands before it ends. Through the Xero integration, invoices land in your accounting file with the correct tax treatment.

The practical version of this is unglamorous: photograph the supplier docket at the counter rather than at quarter end, and keep the GST you collect somewhere other than the account you spend from.