Tax & GST

How to do your BAS as a personal trainer

A quarterly BAS is four numbers and a short job if the records behind it are in order, and a lost weekend if they aren't. Here's who has to lodge one, what each label means for a sole-trader PT, and the choice about prepaid packs that decides which of those two you get.

First: do you actually have to lodge one?

A BAS is the form you use to report and pay GST. The ATO collects a couple of other things on it: instalments toward your income tax, and withholding if you employ people. That's why it's an activity statement rather than a GST return.

The part that catches people: a BAS is a GST form. If you're not registered for GST, you don't have one. Registration becomes compulsory once your GST turnover reaches $75,000 over a 12-month period, tested on a rolling basis — the last 12 months, and what you reasonably expect over the next 12. Plenty of trainers cross it mid-year without noticing. When PTs need to register for GST →

One wrinkle. If you're not registered for GST but the ATO has put you into the PAYG instalment system (usually because last year's tax bill was large enough to trigger it), you may get a quarterly instalment notice. That's a different form with essentially one number on it. It isn't a BAS. The same goes if you employ someone but aren't registered for GST. You lodge an instalment activity statement for the withholding rather than a BAS.

The quarterly cycle and the dates

Almost every sole-trader PT lodges quarterly. The quarters follow the financial year, and the standard dates if you lodge yourself are:

Q2 is the one with the extra month, which covers the holiday period. A due date landing on a weekend or public holiday moves to the next business day.

Two variations matter. Lodging through a registered tax or BAS agent usually buys extra time — but that concession belongs to the agent relationship, so it only helps if you're on their books before the deadline, not if you ring them on the 27th. And monthly lodgement is compulsory above a turnover figure far beyond a solo trainer, though you can elect it voluntarily.

The labels you actually fill in

The form looks intimidating because it covers every kind of business in the country. Lodging online, most sole traders see a short version. What each label you'll touch means:

The form also asks whether G1 includes GST. For a PT charging GST-inclusive session rates, it does. 1A minus 1B is the GST position: positive and you owe the difference, negative and the ATO owes you. Add any PAYG instalment and that's the total.

Cash or accruals: the choice that actually matters to a trainer

When you register you choose how you account for GST. For most businesses it's a technicality. For a PT selling prepaid session packs, it's the difference between a comfortable quarter and paying tax on money you don't have yet.

• Cash basis: GST on sales when the client pays you; credits on purchases when you pay the supplier.
• Accruals (non-cash) basis: GST at the earlier of issuing the invoice or being paid, and credits when the supplier's invoice arrives, even if you haven't paid it.

For a pack paid on the spot both methods give the same answer, which is why it sounds academic until it isn't. Where it bites:

• You invoice a $1,100 ten-pack on 27 September and the client is slow — they pay on 20 November. The sale lands in the July–September quarter, so on accruals the $100 of GST goes in on that BAS, due 28 October. You hand over the GST more than three weeks before the client's money arrives. On cash the sale falls in the October–December quarter instead, and the GST isn't due until 28 February — well after you've been paid.
• A client goes quiet owing you for a pack you invoiced. On accruals you've already declared GST on a sale you may never be paid for.

Small businesses under a turnover threshold can elect the cash basis, and a solo trainer is comfortably inside it. Most choose cash for exactly those reasons. The choice covers sales and purchases together, and changing mid-stream needs handling so nothing is counted twice. A conversation with your agent, not a checkbox.

One thing a BAS never asks about, and you need to know anyway: how much of your balance is training you haven't delivered yet. A ten-pack paid in March and half used in June is a liability sitting in your bank account, and nothing here tracks it for you. How to track prepaid packs properly →

The mistakes that cost trainers money

On the sales side

Cash sessions left off G1. A cash session is a taxable supply exactly like a bank transfer. It goes in G1, and the GST inside it at 1A. Leaving it out puts your reported sales out of step with the size of the business your own records show.

Charging GST before you're registered. The same problem in reverse. Fix the invoice template the day you register, not before. What a compliant invoice needs →

On the purchases side

Bank fees and interest. Input-taxed financial supplies. No GST inside the price, so no credit — but still fully deductible at income tax time. Merchant and payment-processor fees are treated the same way in Momentum, and the sister guide on deductions says the same. If your provider's statement does show a GST amount, raise it with your agent before claiming it.

Overseas software with no Australian GST. Some overseas suppliers charge it and some don't. If the invoice shows no ABN and no GST amount, there's no credit — however obviously business the expense is. Check the invoice, not the price.

Parking and tolls. Momentum's default chart treats these as sitting outside the GST credit system: no credit at 1B, but the full amount is still an income-tax deduction.

The full amount on a part-private phone bill. Claim 70% of your phone as a business expense and you claim 70% of the GST credit too. Putting the whole bill at 1B while apportioning it at tax time is inconsistent on the face of your own records. How to apportion phone and internet →

Wages. There's no GST in a wage, and none in your own drawings. A sub-trainer you pay as a genuine GST-registered contractor is different: their invoice shows GST, and that is a credit.

No valid tax invoice over $82.50. For any purchase over $82.50 including GST you need a valid tax invoice to claim the credit. A bank line reading REBEL SPORT 214.00 shows an amount and a merchant, not what you bought or whether GST was in it.

What to do if you got it wrong

Assume you will, eventually. A quarter where you forgot an income stream, or claimed a credit on something that never carried GST, is normal and fixable. The ATO lets a lot of GST errors be corrected on a later statement rather than by revising the original, within limits that depend on your turnover and how old the error is. Your agent will know instantly which applies.

Penalties and interest can apply for lodging late, paying late, or getting figures wrong, and they get worse the longer something sits. What matters more than the mistake is the sequence: telling the ATO before they contact you is treated very differently from being found. If you can't pay, lodge anyway and sort the payment out separately — two problems, and combining them makes both worse.

Common questions