1. Professionals have been trained in BAS compliance.
What this means for you, the business owner is that a Registered BAS Agent knows how to capture ALL your expenses. They know what expenses include GST and in many cases, capture much more GST than a business owner with little BAS experience.
I had a client once, give me his file to check and lodge the BAS. He had entered most of the transactions into MYOB and thought he’d caught everything. When I had a look at the file, I discovered he had entered everything in as a transfer and not an expense. Therefore, he had not used the correct codes and none of his expenses itemised the GST. In the end, he would have repaid the ATO for the GST collected on his sales and not claimed any credit for the GST he had already paid on his purchases. Fixing his file saved this business owner hundreds of dollars in one quarter.
Not only does a BAS agent understand the correct allocation of GST, they know the right questions to ask such as: ‘Did you use your personal funds to pay for smaller items?’, ‘Where is the bank statement for the credit card so we can capture all those expenses?’ etc.
Just like going to an accountant to get your taxes done correctly, a BAS agent will help you lodge your BAS correctly with the most deductions you can claim.
2. Professional BAS agents can get you a lodgement and payment extension!
That’s right. If you lodge your BAS yourself, you will need to lodge and pay by the 28th April for the March Quarter. However, if a registered BAS agent lodges your BAS, you can lodge and pay usually 4 weeks after this. So effectively, you have almost two months to get the data together, lodge and pay, which is more money in your bank account, earning interest, than in the ATO’s.
3. Your Accountant will have less to do on your data file, saving them time and you money.
Imagine your accountant opening your data file, sorting through the account code allocation, trying to work out what you (or a mate) has done, working out the adjustment to the BAS that will need to be lodged to correct anything obvious, and with a sigh, setting out to fix everything before they do the tax return. You can imagine the fee to be inclusive of their time.
Now picture your accountant opening your data file, seeing that the BAS lodgements are clear, the accounts reconcile with the balance sheet and the accounts are allocated correctly to the asset, liability, income, expense, equity etc. accounts. They breath a sigh of relief and go to work calculating your annual tax return. The bill from your accountant will reflect this.
Accountants love to deal with a business owner that understands the benefit of keeping a good system of bookkeeping. Your discussions will be more meaningful and purpose driven.
The nett result for you by using a registered BAS agent, is your bookkeeping system will be accurate, up to date and in an orderly state for your accountant to log in and check on from time to time.
This will save you money spent on accounting, give you longer to pay and lodge your BAS and IAS statements and ensure you capture as many expenses as possible in the right quarter.
