Alternate Australian GST setup
The following GST scheme is used by MYOB BussinessBasics.
Since GST is money you owe the government (or visa versa) you create an account called:
- Liabilities:GST
Then, to make your balance sheet more informative, you create two sub accounts:
- Liabilities:GST:Collected
- Liabilities:GST:Paid
Whenever you receive income you record the GST component in Liabilities:GST:Collected and whenever you make a purchase you record the GST component in Liabilities:GST:Paid.
At the end of each accounting period if you owe the government money then you record the amount you paid it in Liabilities:GST:Paid. Or if the government owes you money then the amount you receive should be recorded in Liabilities:GST:Collected.
This simple scheme can easily be modified to be the same as the 3-account system. In this scheme Liabilities:GST:Paid is exactly the same as in the 3-account system, but Liabilities:GST:Collected is given the rather confusing name of Liabilities:GST:Payable. To move to the 3-account system all you need to do is create a new account called:
- Liabilities:GST:BAS
This is where all of the GST money you pay the government is recorded. In the 3-account system this account is called Liabilities:GST:Payments.
Another variation of the 3-account setup is to have the BAS payments (or refunds) as separate sub-accounts, rather then entering the transactions directly in the Collected and Paid accounts.
- Liabilities
- GST
- Sales
- Collected (gst received from sales)
- BAS (net gst payments to ATO)
- Purchases
- Paid (gst paid on purchases)
- BAS (net gst refunds from ATO)
- Sales
- GST
You are free to change the names to be more explicit if it makes things easier for you :)
- Liabilities
- GST
- Sales
- GST Received (gst received from sales)
- BAS Payments (net gst payments to ATO)
- Purchases
- GST Paid (gst paid on purchases)
- BAS Refunds (net gst refunds from ATO)
- Sales
- GST
Gnucash 2.7 or later
The following 3-account structure can be used, and will greatly ease the periodic reporting:
- GST (placeholder account) (type ASSET/LIABILITY)
- GST:Collected (from Sales) (type LIABILITY)
- GST:Paid (from Expenses) (type ASSET)
- GST:BAS (from periodic BAS) (type ASSET/LIABILITY)
As above, GST collected on Sales and paid on Purchases will be recorded with a split to the above.
Periodically (usually quarterly) the ATO will require reporting of all GSTs collected and paid from business expenses. This can be obtained by running the report Income & GST Statement, which is useful to add GSTs paid and collected, for ATO reporting. This report will obtain source transactions from your business expenses & sales, and will obtain GST splits from the Collected & Paid accounts selected in the Accounts tab.
The GST wholly received/paid to the government can be recorded into GST:BAS.
Date | Description | Total Sales | Net Sales | GST Sales | Total Purch | Net Purch | GST Purch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
03/08/17 | Agency | $4000 | $4000 | $1760 | $1600 | $160 | |
03/09/17 | Agency | $5050 | $5000 | $50 | $2200 | $2000 | $200 |
06/09/17 | Marketing | $220 | $200 | $20 | |||
Totals | $9050 | $9000 | $50 | $4180 | $3800 | $380 |
GST receivable for this period = $380 - $50 = $330 (to be claimed back from ATO)
Remittance into my bank = $9050 - $4180 = $4870 (what I initially receive into bank)
Income after expenses, relevant to annual income tax = $9000 - $3800 = $5200