The below page includes some of the most frequently asked questions about GST and Tax.
GST and BAS
Why does the BAS have a variance?
The GST Clearing account total balance on the Balance Sheet at the end of each period, should match what is also being lodged. The GST Clearing account is only for transactions automatically created by the System. If manual entries have been allocated to this account over time you may have a variance. You may need to review with your BAS Agent or Accountant to assist.
Check the Local Transactions for the GST Clearing Account code for any strange looking items that may have been manually applied to the account in error. Example:
- ATO Refund (if should have been applied to the ATO Creditor instead).
- Opening Balances, should be reconciled to $0.00 for the first period after the setup of the Building / Plan.
- Opening Balances should always be applied to a separate account at setup so as to not be missed on the first reporting period as these are manual entries to be lodged with the StrataMax BAS.
- Manual transactions that are not the same as the system created GST entries, as these will not have been included on the BAS.
How should a variance be resolved, once identified?
There are likely to be three outcomes:
- The GST Clearing Account is wrong and a transaction/s need to be removed to resolve the variance. This is likely to be journal to be completed in Journal Preparation. i.e. Income Tax refund in GST Clearing Account.
- The GST Clearing Account is correct, however a manual amount entered into the GST Clearing Account previously should have be included on the BAS Lodgement. This is likely when an entry was created but not with the correct system details GST *** and would have then not been reported on the BAS. This variance will have been an issue since the original transaction occurred, however the prior BAS did not check the variance, which is a new feature. This variance, should only require investigation and resolution on the first period using the new GST / BAS enhancements. This scenario will require a manual entry to the ATO Creditor for payment / refund and should also be manually included on the ATO lodgement, either for a prior period or added to the current period.
- Unable to determine reason for the variance, journal to resolve this at a later time. This is a interim solution, as the above investigation is highly recommended. This option will leave a balance on the financial statements for reconciliation at a later time - this may need to be discussed with your BAS Agent / Accountant. A new balance sheet code may be added in Account Maintenance, for example "GST Adjustment", or "GST Variance" or similar. The date of the the journal must be in the current GST reporting period to correct the variance.
NOTE: It is not recommended that journals are completed to the GST Clearing Account after the variance is resolved, all adjustments can now be easily done in the BAS or using Local Transactions, Edit Tax Code. Review to the Business Activity Statement article for further details.
Why can I not access Search BAS?
This is a new search. Security Setup permissions are maintained by your administrator who will provide access as new areas or reports become available. The recent enhancements for GST and BAS and Tax have several new areas and reports, including Income Tax & Pay Employees, Search Income Tax & Search Pay Employees, Income Tax Report and BAS Reconciliation Report.
How do I change the Tax code on a transaction in a prior period?
Local Transactions or Search Creditor Invoice Items or Global Transactions will allow you to locate the expenses / income for adjustment, then edit the tax code. The transactions will be updated then be included in the current BAS reporting period.
What is the difference between Full and Simple BAS?
If registered for Full BAS, this is where the requirements for reporting to the ATO require a few more amounts to be completed on the GST portion of the BAS. This is only required if the Gross Income is greater than 10 million, so most Buildings / Plans are usually registered with the simple reporting method. Update in Building Information if advised that reporting should be on the Full BAS. These extra fields will be included and can also be reported by adding these columns in Search BAS.
- G2 - Export Sales
- G3 - Other GST free Sales
- G10 - Capital Purchases
- G11 - Non-Capital Purchases
How can the BAS reports be easily provided to an Accountant / Tax Agent?
The use of the BAS Reconciliation Report will allow for the configuration settings to set as 'All Active Buildings' which will produce a combined PDF BAS Report for all of the portfolio to distribute as required. the configuration will also allow to setup for the last quarter or last month.
If I have Finalised the BAS can I make adjustments to the BAS?
Often the adjustments are minimal and can be included in the next period. If it is imperative that the last BAS is adjusted, you may use 'Reopen BAS' action in the BAS Status screen. New adjusting Creditor Invoices / Credit Notes will be processed when the BAS is re-finalised.
Tax
Why are there no amounts reporting for Fully or Partially Claimable Tax items?
These are new fields available in Account Maintenance which will need to be setup and copied to Master Chart and All Buildings once on this version. The other new field when reviewing Income Accounts, is called Non Claimable Expense. If you are not sure of the correct accounts to update, please discuss with your accountant or tax agent.
If amounts have been removed from Income Tax in error, how do I restart so that all items are refreshed?
The latest or prior period can be opened and then 'deleted'. The prepare option will re-check all information within the selected period and include for review or adjustment.
What happens when the Income Tax is prepared for the end of the Tax Year?
All transactions for the period will be marked as reported for the period. There are no transactions created in StrataMax. Use the Search Income Tax or Income Tax Report to provide to your accountant for lodgement. Once lodgement is complete, manually enter the amount due for payment or refund using Creditor Invoices from the lodgement details, ensuring BPay CRN or EFT References are correctly entered.
Wages
Can we produce a pay slip when paying employees?
The Pay Employees must be used to ensure that the tax and payments to be made to an employee are recorded correctly. Creditor Invoices can be created for payment to the Employee, ATO and Superannuation Fund. The payment to the Employee will issue an EFT Remittance advice, which if paid using Payment Entry, can also have 'Remittance Advice Notes' included. If the payment has already been processed, Payments Management can be used to resend and include remittance advice notes.
Can Creditor Invoices still be used for paying employees, instead of Pay Employees?
No, pay employees is the recommended option to ensure that the correct tax codes are used and that the right amounts will be included in the PAYG Withholding section on the BAS. The Pay employees correctly applies the withholding tax as part of the generation which used to be a separate process and not always correct applied.
