Although there are several ways to check your transactions before you lodge your BAS in Xero, one way to do it is by using the “Detailed Account Transaction Report”.
NOTE! THE DETAILED ACCOUNT TRANSACTION REPORT NO LONGER EXISTS IN XERO (SINCE JULY 2023). YOU NOW NEED TO ACCESS THE GENERAL LEDGER DETAIL REPORT TO MAKE THIS PROCESS WORK!
Here are our step-by-step instructions for using this report:
Log into your Xero file.
To get to the Detailed Account Transaction Report (DATR), go to the “Accounting” tab, then “Reports”, then “Accounting”, then DATR.
Select “wide view”
Enter the date range of your BAS.
Sort by account code.
Choose “cash basis” if your BAS is cash-based.
Select “update”. Note that you will now see 2 columns – one for GST rate and one for GST name.
As part of the economic stimulus triggered by the Corona Virus pandemic, the Federal Government has introduced the “Boosting Cash flow for Employers” measure or as we like to call it, the PAYGW Boost Credit. This measure promises to “refund” the PAYG withholding reported on the BAS or IAS by employers back into their integrated client accounts (ICA) as an offset against any existing BAS/IAS debt. To be clear, this is not a supply of cash to employers into their banks. This is simply crediting PAYGW back into the ICA to effectively reduce BAS/IAS debt. The only time an employer will see any cash is when a refund is created because the PAYGW credit is more than the whole activity statement debt. So who gets these payments, how much do they get and how do they get it? Read on to find out!
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Businesses will be eligible for this stimulus measure if they:
Held an ABN on 12 March 2020 and continue to be active
Are a small or medium business including NFP, sole trader, partnership, company and trust entities.
Have an aggregated turnover under $50M
Have made payments from which they have been required to withhold (even if this a zero amount). Such payments may include salary and wages, director’s fees, eligible termination payments, compensation payments and withholding from contractor fees.
Have made GST taxable, GST free or input taxed sales in a previous tax period since 1 July 2018 and lodged a relevant BAS on or before 12 March 2020.
HOW MUCH IS PAID?
PAYG withholding amounts will be credited back to the integrated client account (ICA) of between $20K and $50K. These credits are not income and as such will not be taxed. The do not have to be repaid ever. The good thing is that the PAYG withholding you report on your BAS will still be tax deductible. Note, if you have a tax debt on your ICA, the credit boost amount will simply pay down that debt.
HOW IS IT PAID?
These credits will be applied in two stages to integrated client accounts after 28th April 2020 and after the March 2020 quarter or monthly BAS is lodged. You do not have to apply for this measure, AND you do not receive any actual cash – this is credit only, not cash paid to your bank. The second stage credit will be applied in quarter 1 of 2020-21.
HOW DO THE PAYMENTS WORK?
Put simply, there are 2 payment stages for this measure. The first stage is a payment of up to $50K based on the amount of PAYGW reported on the March 2020 BAS. Examples below:
Quarterly Lodgers
If your March 2020 BAS shows a PAYGW amount of $12,000, this amount will be credited back to your ICA. In your June 2020 BAS, if a $14,000 PAYGW is reported, then this will also be sent back to the ICA. So far, a total of $26,000 has been credited. This is the first stage amount. The second stage amount will be the same as the first one i.e. $26,000 and will be credited to your ICA split evenly across June to September 2020.
Monthly Lodgers
If your March 2020 BAS shows a PAYGW amount of $12,000, this amount is multiplied by 3 (to take up amounts for January and February 2020) to give you a credit of $36,000. April, May and June 2020 BAS’s will continue to be lodged which may or may not total more than $50K. For this example, let’s say April was $10,000, May was $8,000 and June was $6,000. This will be a total PAYGW of $60,000. As the first stage payable can be no more than $50K, then $50K is all that will be credited to your ICA. The second stage payment will also be $50K.
What if my PAYGW is less than $10K or zero in my March 2020 BAS?
In this case, you will be credited $10K in the first stage of credits and another $10K in the second stage for a total of $20K.
The area of “meal entertainment” is an absolute minefield for accounting professionals like us. It can be very difficult to know when an expense incurred by a client relating to food or drink should be recorded with GST or not. Luckily there is a resource out there via the ATO that brings some clarity to the situation.
As a BAS Agent, of course I understand how BAS lodgement works [or you would hope that I do lol!] Sometimes I forget that what is old hat for me, can be confusing to my clients or even present as completely new information. Yesterday a client asked me why his monthly instalment activity statement for September hadn’t yet been lodged. The simple answer is that it’s not due yet, something that I thought he understood – apparently not! This has prompted me to write this blog – 5 BAS lodgement facts in 5 minutes. Yep, it will only take you 5 minutes to read this blog which I recommend you do if you don’t understand the mechanics of BAS lodgement.
My last blog was all about the new “Netflix Tax” and was really just an informational blog outlining what, how and when etc. In this blog, I want to look at the tax from a bookkeeper’s perspective and provide a real “from the trenches” viewpoint. All is not what it seems with the Netflix Tax!
For some time now, larger IT companies have been charging GST to their Australian consumers. Examples of these are Google, Adobe and Linkedin. They are doing this because of a new law that began formally on 1 July 2017. This new law is known colloquially as the “Netflix Tax”, requires all international companies with an annual GST turnover of $75K or more and selling services and digital products to Australian consumers, to enter the Australian GST system. While most of us aren’t too impressed with the 10% price hike on these products, GST registered business owners understand that they can claim the GST back in their BAS which alleviates the sting a little……or so they thought! Sadly, this is not the case with this new law. The “Netflix Tax” tells us something different and if you’re not paying attention, you or your BAS Agent are likely to get things wrong when processing your next BAS. Read on.
The ATO has recognised that there are too many labels to complete on the BAS – you can see just how many if you check out my blog series on BAS Labels – way too many! So, to make things easier for small business, a new “simpler BAS” will be introduced from 1 July 2017. It has been designed to help businesses reduce the time spent on BAS compliance and its associated costs. So how exactly does the “Simpler BAS” work and will it actually simplify our business lives? I’m not so sure…….
When I’m checking out companies on social media I often see that they’re doing exactly what I’m doing – sharing content related to their industries rather than sharing information directly about their companies. They do this so as not to come off as doing the “hard sell” to potential customers but rather go the “soft sell” approach by offering free content in the hopes that customers will visit their website through sheer intrigue. Don’t get me wrong, this approach does work – I should know, I use it! Lately, however, when pursuing companies on social media, I’ve started to really wish that they would just tell me what their product does and how to use it. Yes, I appreciate the extra free content they provide, but in general, if I’m half interested in their product, all I really want to see is information about that product. So that said, I’ve decided to apply this rationale to my own blogging strategy for a bit because I wouldn’t mind betting there are potential customers out there saying the same thing about this e-BAS Accounts! For the next few weeks, this blog will be all about e-BAS Accounts – how we work and the products and services we provide. That’s right – it’s going to be all about us – the how, why and what! To kick off this new blogging strategy, today’s blog is going to be all about our Business Activity Statement (BAS) procedure. I’ll explain what we do and what clients need to do (and stop doing) to make this “system” work.
There are only 16 short weeks until the end of the financial year (freak out!). If you haven’t yet recorded a vehicle logbook for tax purposes for the 2016 tax year, you need to start now. This is because a logbook must be kept for 12 continuous weeks. So what is a vehicle logbook and how does it relate to expense claims?
Sometimes business owners are required to create tax invoices on behalf of their suppliers. This type of tax invoice is known as a recipient created tax invoice (RCTI). For more specific information about the RCTI, go to our blog here – there’s a free fact sheet to download! The main thing about the RCTI is that you must ensure the information you are using to create them is current and correct. The ATO has an updated template for you to download. This template will help you create the perfect RCTI!
so you can find it easily when you do your next BAS.
so you can find it easily when you do your next BAS.
