What a BAS agent does, and why we run it as part of the accounting work
A BAS agent is registered with the Tax Practitioners Board to prepare and lodge business activity statements and advise on the GST, PAYG and other obligations that go into them. A tax agent holds a broader registration that covers income tax returns and tax advice as well as BAS. New Wave is a registered tax agent (25483393), which means the same team that prepares your BAS also prepares your tax return, plans your tax before 30 June and reconciles the two, so the GST and PAYG figures lodged each quarter agree with the financial statements at year end.
That matters more than it sounds. Most BAS problems we inherit are not lodgement errors; they are coding errors in the bookkeeping that the BAS faithfully reported. When the bookkeeper, the BAS preparer and the accountant are three different people, nobody owns the number. At New Wave they are one designated team, and BAS is part of the monthly package rather than a separate service with a separate bill.
What goes into a BAS
GST
GST collected on your sales less GST credits on your purchases, with the right treatment for GST-free sales (exports, some food and health services), input-taxed items (financial supplies, residential rent) and purchases with no GST (wages, bank fees, some overseas services). You must register once turnover reaches $75,000, or $150,000 for a not-for-profit, and can choose cash or accruals accounting below $10 million of turnover. Our guide to cash versus accruals GST covers that choice.
PAYG withholding
The tax you withhold from employee wages and from some contractor payments, reported on the BAS and reconciled to what your payroll system has already reported through Single Touch Payroll. We do not run your payroll; we make sure what it produces is correctly reflected in the books and on the BAS.
PAYG instalments
Prepayments of your own income tax, set by the ATO from your last return. Instalments can be varied when profit is clearly down, and should be reviewed when it is clearly up so the year-end bill is not a shock. Variation is a tax planning decision, which is why it belongs with the people doing your tax planning.
Other items
Fuel tax credits, wine equalisation tax, luxury car tax and fringe benefits tax instalments appear on the BAS for the businesses they apply to. Most of our clients deal with GST and the two PAYG items only.
Lodgement deadlines, and the extra time an agent gives you
Quarterly BAS is due on the 28th of the month after the quarter ends: 28 October, 28 February, 28 April and 28 July. Businesses lodging through a registered agent generally receive a later due date for three of the four quarters under the ATO’s lodgement program, which gives the bookkeeping time to be reconciled properly rather than rushed. The December quarter already has an extended date of 28 February for everyone. Monthly BAS, which applies once GST turnover passes $20 million or where the ATO requires it, is due on the 21st of the following month with no agent extension.
The practical point is this: an agent-lodged BAS prepared from a reconciled file in the extra weeks is a review; a BAS lodged on the 28th from an unreconciled file is a guess that gets corrected later. Late lodgement attracts a failure to lodge penalty per 28 days overdue, and the ATO notices patterns.
How New Wave runs BAS
- Weekly reconciliation. Your designated bookkeeper reconciles the bank feeds, codes bills and invoices with the right GST treatment and queries anything unusual in one batch. See the bookkeeping service.
- Month-end GST reconciliation. GST on the balance sheet is reconciled to the activity in the period each month, so the quarter is already balanced before the BAS is drafted.
- BAS prepared and reviewed. The BAS is prepared from the reconciled file and reviewed by your accountant, who also checks the PAYG instalment against where the year is heading.
- You approve, we lodge. You see the figures and the amount payable or refundable before anything goes to the ATO, with the due date and payment details.
- Year end agrees with the quarters. Because the same team prepares the tax return and financial statements, the four BAS lodged during the year reconcile to the annual figures, and amendments are rare.
If your business is on Xero, this is all done in your file. If it is not yet, our Xero setup and migration service moves you across with the GST codes set up correctly from the start.
What it costs
BAS preparation and lodgement sits inside the monthly package with your tax returns, financial statements, tax planning and ASIC compliance. The package is priced on the number of entities, transaction volume and complexity, and agreed up front before anything starts. Nothing is billed by the hour. A one-off catch-up of overdue BAS is quoted separately before it begins. The pricing page explains how the package is built.
Catching up overdue BAS
If you have one or more BAS outstanding, the order of work is: reconcile the periods, lodge the oldest first, agree a payment plan with the ATO if the total is more than the business can pay at once, and set up the weekly rhythm so it does not happen again. The ATO is far more accommodating with a business that lodges and asks for time than one that goes quiet. We handle the lodgements and the payment plan request as part of onboarding.
Who this is for
Businesses registered for GST and doing roughly $1M and up in turnover, with staff and the PAYG obligations that come with them, across trades and construction, ecommerce, medical and allied health, hospitality, property and professional services. If you only need a BAS lodged and nothing else, a standalone BAS agent may be cheaper. If you want the BAS, the tax return and the tax planning to come from one team that owns the numbers, book a FREE discovery call, 30 minutes with a New Wave team member.