One of the most common mistakes I see being made by small businesses is the reporting of incorrect figures on their Business Activity Statement. The worst being the inclusion of figures that are not actually required to be reported on the BAS due to their nature.
Therefore, today I thought I would give a bit of a list of those items that are not reportable to clear up some confusion.
Items That Are Not Reportable on a BAS:
- Wages – only reportable if you are registered for PAYG Withholding and then only in the relevant section on the BAS that appears once registered
- Superannuation
- Tax Payments
- Fines
- Shareholder Loans
- Dividends Received or Paid
- Depreciation
- Principal Repayments on Finance
- Private Expenses or the private portion of any expenses that are not deductible
- Non-Deductible Entertainment
- Donations
- Stamp Duty
All of the above items may affect your Profit & Loss and Trading figures but are not part of the GST regime and therefore should be coded as Not Reportable on the BAS (dependent on how your accounting software allocates GST codes to your transactions).
Reporting these transactions on the BAS incorrectly could misrepresent your figures each quarter and possibly trigger an ATO audit of your business. Especially after the end of the financial year when your tax return is lodged and the amounts reported on that tax return have quite a substantial variance to the figures that have been reported during the year on each BAS.
If you are ever unsure of whether a figure should be included on your BAS or not, it is best to contact the ATO direct or go to your Accountant or Bookkeeper for advice.