BAS agent services – what’s in it for your small business?

bookkeepersSydney

BAS agent services – what’s in it for your small business?

Even in the world of taxation, there is no discrimination between small firm or larger enterprise. Everyone is obligated to pay their fair share in terms of tax to the government and government promises to return it in terms of investment in public sector, providing healthcare, infrastructure and subsidies, etc. Even in certain cases if the tax paid over the year is more than tax payable then one gets the perk of receiving it back. It’s a simple rule which keeps the cycle of equal wealth distribution running.

In this article we shall discuss the significance of BAS agent services and their role in facilitating small firms. For that we first have to find out what a BAS agent is and what exactly is their function that can be of advantage to the small business?

Defining BAS-

BAS is the abbreviation of Business Activity Statement. Basically BAS is a document that reports Australian businesses’ total calculations and figures, and state the businesses’ tax liabilities which are submitted in the form of a report to the ATO.

The first introduction of BAS was made along with GST in year 2000 and so it became a required document for all ongoing businesses once businesses became liable to pay their taxes. In this case when a BAS was submitted the business became liable of paying their due tax enabling government to collect the tax returns rather sooner. Hence this enabled businesses to distribute their tax payments over the year and balance their cash flow.

Role of BAS Agent

The basic functions of a BAS Agent are mentioned as follow;

  • He is to prepare and file BAS on the business’s behalf
  • Proposal of advice regarding BAS-related matters which involve; GST and PAYG.

The authorized role of BAS Agent is rather new for all bookkeepers Sydney. In 2009 it was officially introduced to standardize the BAS associated services offered by bookkeepers with the qualifications not below the Certificate III from TAFE or institutions like OTEN. Till then, most contract bookkeepers were quite happily computing and filing their client’s GST and PAYG liabilities, with no requirement of any official training or experience. At that time for either small or large business owners, it was a huge substitute to their hired accountants who charged rather high rates hourly, therefore the service of calculating and filing BAS was  expected to be offered from anyone providing accounting services. This legalization of BAS accountants enabled the government to create the accountability of both normally hired and BAS for errors or poorly executed tax calculations and fined accordingly.

BAS Agents-Advantage for small businesses?

It is rather very difficult for a small enterprise to hire an accountant for computation of their accounting and tax records to avoid any errors and proper execution of calculation of taxable income and hence identification of accurate tax amount. Therefore many small firms are able to hire BAS agents to perform bookkeeping services Sydney. However with government’s step of making BAS official made it easier for small companies to contract BAS agents and get their auditing done legally sort of boosted the requirement for BAS agent services.

A trained, proficient BAS agent would save time by keeping from the lengthy struggle of identifying exactly what should be included in the BAS and its proper organization and preparation. A properly skilled and certified BAS agent would tend to save a lot of money of their client, by utilizing their thorough knowledge of the tax rules which would allow them what exactly to exempt or deduct to which your business is liable.

Not hiring a BAS Agent and BAS goes wrong-

One can lodge their BAS and pay their tax electronically, either by mail, or in-person. However it must be submitted on the assigned time in order to elude any interest, fines or penalties.

However doing bookkeeping Sydney yourself can be very boring and dry if one doesn’t have proper training and skill when running a small business. BAS could be rather complicated and very time consuming compared to all the other activities that could be done to improve and grow a business. A possibility lies that there could be an underpayment of taxes due to a mistake and Australian Tax Office has very strict policies on penalties for such mistakes.

Small Businesses hire BAS Agent- save thousands of dollars! can be very boring and dry if one doesn’t have proper training and skill when running a small business. BAS could be rather complicated and very time consuming compared to all the other activities that could be done to improve and grow a business. A possibility lies that there could be an underpayment of taxes due to a mistake and Australian Tax Office has very strict policies on penalties for such mistakes.

  • Is the BAS agent certified? You can look for the registration and certification of a accountant as a proper BAS Agent by examination of the public register in Tax Practitioners Board.
  • By hiring a certified and experienced the owner can the accuracy of the BAS. Furthermore he can also contribute by keeping the up-to-date record of all the data and provide it to the BAS agent for the preparation of BAS.
  • Keeping your agent updated with data and discussing all the possibilities of acquiring claim through BAS enlisted items and further on extra items that can be claimed on BAS such as Fuel Tax Credits. Properly executed and prepared BAS by a significantly trained BAS agent can literally save an owner of small enterprise stacks of dollars.