Tax (AU)

Manage your Business Activity Statement (BAS) obligations, including GST and PAYG withholding.

Tax Module Overview

The Tax module helps you prepare, lodge, and pay your quarterly BAS. It automatically calculates your GST collected, GST paid, and PAYG withholding from your transactions and payroll.

Tabs

Overview Tab

The Overview tab gives you an at-a-glance view of your ATO position:

• GST Position — Net GST owed or refundable
• PAYG Withheld — Total PAYG withholding outstanding
• Total ATO Position — Combined amount owed to (or refundable from) the ATO
• Outstanding Periods — Quarters that have ended and are ready to prepare, with due dates
• Current Quarter — Estimated GST and PAYG figures for the quarter in progress

Periods that have ended but are not yet past their due date are shown as “Ready to prepare”. Overdue periods show how many days past due they are.

Not Registered for GST?

If your business is not registered for GST, you can still use Rebased for all your accounting needs. Rebased knows your registration status from your GST Registration settings and handles everything automatically:

1. You can’t charge GST — every tax code except N/A is blocked on invoices, quotes, and credit notes, so unregistered sales are always recorded as N/A (this also lets Rebased absorb the GST cleanly if you later backdate your registration)
2. GST Collected / GST Paid stay at $0 — the non-claimable GST you pay on purchases is posted to the GST Expense (Non-claimable) account (6995) instead
3. Prepare BAS is hidden — Rebased does not create outstanding BAS periods while your business is outside GST registration
4. Overview shows threshold guidance — you can see current financial-year turnover against the $75,000 GST registration threshold

When you register for GST later, set your registration date in Settings → Company Details → GST Registration. Rebased automatically reclassifies the GST on transactions inside your registration window — including backdated registrations — so you don’t have to re-edit historical transactions. Outstanding BAS periods start from the quarter containing your effective registration date, not from older pre-registration activity.

See GST Registration for the full guide, including backdating, de-registration, and how the non-claimable GST account works.

How BAS Works in Rebased

Quarterly Periods

Australian businesses typically lodge BAS quarterly, aligned to the financial year:

Rebased automatically detects your next BAS period based on your GST registration date and existing BAS history.

BAS Components

Your BAS includes:

• GST Collected (1A) — GST on sales invoices
• GST Paid (1B) — GST on purchase bills
• Net GST — Amount payable to (or refundable from) the ATO
• W1 Gross Wages — Total wages paid (if running payroll)
• W2 PAYG Withheld — Tax withheld from employee wages

3-Step Workflow

1. Prepare — Review GST and PAYG figures with transaction drill-down, then finalise the BAS clearing journal
2. Lodge — Lodge with the ATO via their online portal, using the ATO-aligned figures and copy buttons in Rebased
3. Pay — Record your payment (or refund) to clear the BAS Clearing Account

Lock Dates vs Reopen

After finalising a BAS, you can optionally lock transactions up to the end of that period. Locking is useful when you want to prevent accidental changes, but many accountants leave periods unlocked for later adjustments and lock once the year is closed.

• Lock / Unlock — Settings → Accounting → Lock Date (edit protection only)
• Reopen BAS — BAS History detail panel (reverses the clearing journal so you can Prepare again)

Finalise does not auto-set a lock date. Unlocking does not revise a finalised BAS.

See Lock Dates and BAS History for more information.

Related Pages

• GST Registration — Set your registration status and date
• Prepare BAS — Step-by-step BAS preparation
• BAS History — View past periods
• Lock Dates — Protect reconciled periods
• Reports — Financial reporting