Australian GST- Time to pay up

[Andrew Greig]

On Thu, 2005-09-01 at 21:13 +1000, Elizabeth Dodd wrote:
> On Thu, 1 Sep 2005 21:01, Maf. King wrote:
> > Well, the transaction I use to pay UK VAT looks something like (viewed in
> > the bank account register):
> > VAT:OutputTax (my sales) :  dep 5000
> > Bank:Current (the payment): cr:2000
> > VAT:InputTax (my purchases): cr 3000
> >
> > That has the effect of reducing what you owe by cancelling out what they
> > owe you.
> We are supposed to report total sales/ major purchases/ minor purchases and 
> then calculate the tax 
> i put in the tax, multiply it by 11 and claim that as the sales or purchases. 
> the reporting required doesn't fit with a computerised accounting system in 
> which you add up each unit of tax paid and collected and remit it (our tax 
> office is known for making the simple as complex as possible)
> liz


Hi Liz,

I have a fairly simple business, just Sales and Expenses, so everything
which is sold has a "Tax Collected" item and all purchases have a "Tax
Paid" item.  Like you I can multiply the respective taxes by 11 and
arrive at my Sales and Expenses figures for the Australian Tax Office.
My question is how to handle the payment record, because the payment of
Nett GST owing to the Government is "their money" not mine, I am just
holding it for them for a while.

So when I write out the Cheque (EFT in real terms) it is not an expense
that I am paying.  How do you classify your BAS (Business Activity
Statement) payment?

Thanks

Andrew Greig
Melbourne, Australia
Community Distributor, OpenOffice.org