What is a BAS Calculator?

This BAS Calculator checks your financial information for errors, and shows you which amounts to include at which items on your BAS form.

When preparing your Business Activity Statement, it is important to use some method by which to check your information. This BAS Calculator provides a simple, completely external method by which to check that your GST has been calculated correctly. The basic concept is to determine the total amount of income and expenses which are taxable, and check to ensure that the GST you have recorded is 10%.

This BAS Calculator

Basic Usage

Whilst it looks complicated, this BAS Calculator has been designed to be as simple as possible.

• You can input information in any blue fields.
• Headings (in blue) can be changed or deleted.
• Hover over items for help.
• Always enter GST-Exclusive amounts

Step 1 - Income Accounts

Begin with a cash (not accrual) Profit and Loss, and Trading Account if applicable. You will also need to know the total GST collected and paid during the period, as reported by your accounting software or cashbook.

Start by itemising your income accounts, you can change the headings from "Sales, Contract, or Interest" to something more relevant for you, or you can create as many new headings as you need. Put a tick in the box next to the amount if the income is Gst-Free.

Step 2 - Expenses

Expenses are treated quite differently to income accounts. Rather than itemising every account, just list the total trading and operating expenses. Next list the expenses which are not included in "Purchases", like depreciation, superannuation, and wages. Once again, you can adjust the headings to something more meaningful for you.

Now itemise all of the GST-Free Expenses. Some cost categories will have some GST, but not a full 10%, this means that a portion of the total cost is GST-Free. For example, if the total motor vehicle license cost is $200 GST-Exclusive, and $10 GST has been collected, then $100 of that expense is GST-Free. Include only the $100 GST-Free portion in the GST-Free section of the BAS Calculator.

Next input the total GST paid on purchases (gst on capital items is included elsewhere).

Step 3 - Other Items

Pay As You Go Withholding

From your accounting package, generate a report which shows the gross wages paid and the tax withheld, such as the "Payroll Activity Summary" in MYOB. Input the Gross wages, and the total tax withheld in the appropriate fields of the BAS Calculator.

Capital Items

Items of capital expenditure, such as the purchase of depreciable equipment or assets, will not appear in a Profit and Loss statement. Such purchases need to be listed in the Capital Items section of the BAS Calculator. Although these items are depreciated over time for the purposes of Income Tax calculation, they are claimed in total in the period of expense for GST. Input the total GST-Exclusive value of the Purchase, followed by the total GST amount. The BAS Calculator will show the total GST-Inclusive price so you can ensure the amounts are correct.

Fuel Tax Credits

Input the number of litres you have purchased for each relevant rate. A full listing of which activities are credited at which rate, see the Australian Tax Office list here.

Step 4 - Check for Errors

Now that you have input your information, the BAS calculator will show any discrepancies between your reported GST credits, and your income and expenditure. If your data shows that the correct amount of GST has been recorded given your income and expenditure, no amounts will be shown in the Discrepancies section of the BAS Calculator.

Feel free to print this page for your records, the page has been designed to play nicely with your printer, only the tables from the BAS Calculator will be printed, formatted nicely to fit on an A4 page.