8 Useful Tips to Manage Business Activity Statements
Understanding your business’s finances is crucial for every business owner in order to track and manage them properly. However, completing and submitting Business Activity Statements (BAS) correctly and on time helps you avoid penalties and manage your finances efficiently.
It can all be a bit tricky if you don’t know all the ins and outs, especially if you’re busy doing all that’s required to run your business. So, if you’re struggling with managing business activity statements and looking for a simple approach, you can directly connect with a registered tax accountant in Surry Hills to ease your process.
Yes, managing Business Activity Statements (BAS) can be daunting for small business owners, but not so much anymore.
In this guide, we’ve covered everything about Business Activity Statements (BAS), their importance, and eight useful tips to manage BAS efficiently.
So, let’s dive in!
What is a Business Activity Statement (BAS)?
The Business Activity Statement (BAS) is a financial document Australia-based businesses use to track and pay their tax obligations on- time to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Simply put, it’s a complete financial summary report of a company, including sales, revenue, and key expenditures, that helps companies determine the number of taxes businesses need to pay
The BAS includes GST, Pay as you Go (PAYG) instalment, PAYG without holding tax, Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT), Wine equalisation tax, and Luxury car tax.
In Australia, the BAS report plays a crucial role for the government to regulate the taxation on businesses. So, business owners need to manage their BAS reports for efficient taxation functionalities. It’s got to be done!
So, without further ado, here’s:
8 Useful Tips to Manage Business Activity Statements
1. Adapt Accounting Software
Creating and managing an in-depth BAS report is time-consuming and requires more effort. So instead of managing data, invest in accounting software to keep your records safe for filing taxes and returns. This software consists of all the essential features required for managing the accounting for start-ups and established firms.
It is always best to make the effort to take some time to review the finances weekly and store all the real-time data, including GST records and other data, in the right categories. You can save yourself some valuable time and hire business accountants in Surry Hills for all these tasks. By tracking the business’s finances weekly, you’ll be aware of the company’s finances with a straightforward approach.
2. Create Your Structured Record-Keeping System
To manage a BAS report, you must create a well-structured filing system to store all the required documents, including financial statements, investment details, records, etc. Also, remember to have a physical and digital copy of the BAS report for easy retrieval and security.
To ensure security, you can use a cloud-based platform to store the records easily. Creating a complete system to maintain the BAS reports reduces the chances of any errors and allows you to submit your report on time.
3. Preserve Compliance and Audit Records
When preparing a BAS statement, you must comply with all the regulatory requirements. Thus, maintain the record with superannuation and tax laws. Also, you must record fund-related correspondence, trustee minutes, and annual returns lodged. Furthermore, remember to add any changes to the trustee structure, investment strategies, and more.
4. Assistance of Professional Tax Agents
Tax agents in Sydney greatly help businesses fill their BAS on time without worrying about late fees. Apart from filling up your BAS, agents will also help you prepare your GST account review. Plus, you can even make the most of an agent’s assistance to help you develop and grow your business. Therefore, this simple step will help you complete your BAS on time while developing your business.
5. Contact ATO For Any Negotiation
When you cannot create a BAS statement, you need to contact the ATO (Australian Taxation Office). The ATO allows you to make valid negotiations based on your strong reason. However, if you are still waiting for a suitable response from the ATO, you can connect with professional and registered tax accountant Surry Hills who will help you to manage BAS. They have significant experience in talking to ATO officers.
6. Keep Your Investment Records
While creating an optimised BAS report, you must properly document all the investment transactions within SMSF. It will include sales agreements, purchase contracts, and earned income from investments.
You also must record each investment’s market value at the end of the fiscal year. If you have invested in assets like properties, you must maintain limited recourse borrowing arrangements. All these investment records will help while creating your BAS reports.
7. Document Benefit Payments and Member Contributions
Managing a BAS report requires considering the benefit payments and member contributions. In simple words, you should document all the benefit payments and member contributions of your business in your self-managed super funds (SMSF).
Ensure you consider all the contributions, such as personal and employer contributions. It would help if you also attributed the contribution to the respective member account. Do not forget to document the benefit payment proceeded to any member. It includes the pension or lump sum amounts.
8. Maintain Comprehensive Financial Statements
In an in-depth BAS statement, you’re required to add an accurate and updated financial statement. Thus, you must add the bank statements, rental income, capital gains, and dividend statements.
Moreover, you also must make the newly required changes in these financial statements to maintain the real-time accuracy. These comprehensive financial statements are used to add all the finances related information to the BAS statement.
Wrapping Up!
Creating and managing a Business Activity Statement (BAS) report can be challenging for businesses. By following the right guidance and useful tips, you can easily create and manage a BAS report and follow the financial regulations. We hope this article with its useful tips helps you to better and more easily manage your accounting responsibilities. If you struggle in managing your BAS, connect with business accountants in Surry Hills to give you a helping hand.
FAQs
Q1. Why do businesses use BAS?
For Australia-based businesses, BAS is an overall financial report that business owners create and submit to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to ensure all business taxes have been paid on time.
Q2. What are the major components of a business activity statement?
Some of the major components of BAS include – GST Tax, Pay as you go (PAYG) income tax instalments and Pay as you go (PAYG) tax withheld.
Q3. Is it easy to do your own BAS?
Yes, lodging your own BAS is a quick, easy, and secure process with user suitability. However, you can always take help from professionals if needed for an error-free process.