Online BAS agent: quarterly BAS lodged for you, Australia-wide

Searching for a BAS agent near you usually means you want the quarterly statement off your desk and done right; location is beside the point, because the lodgment reaches the ATO electronically whoever prepares it. SMT Accounting is a registered tax agent, which permits us to prepare and lodge activity statements, and we do it for businesses in every state from Shepparton North: your figures or your software, our review, your approval, our lodgment, a fixed fee per BAS.

What a BAS covers

A business activity statement is the ATO's single form for several obligations. Depending on your registrations, yours may include:

• GST: sales, purchases, GST collected and GST paid, netting to an amount payable or refundable. Registration is compulsory once GST turnover reaches $75,000 ($150,000 for not-for-profits), and from the first dollar for taxi, limousine and ride-sourcing drivers.
• PAYG withholding: the tax withheld from employees' wages and from suppliers who did not quote an ABN, reconciled to your Single Touch Payroll reports.
• PAYG instalments: prepayments towards your own income tax, as an ATO-calculated amount or a rate applied to your income, which can be varied if the year is tracking differently.
• Fuel tax credits for fuel used in eligible business activities such as heavy vehicles on public roads and machinery off road.
• Less commonly, FBT instalments, wine equalisation tax and luxury car tax.

Quarterly or monthly?

Most small businesses report quarterly. The ATO requires monthly reporting where GST turnover is $20 million or more, or where it has directed a business to report monthly; a smaller business can elect monthly, which some do to keep payments small and regular. Monthly statements are due on the 21st of the following month. We handle whichever cycle you are on and advise on changing it, which the ATO generally allows from the start of the next period.

The quarterly cycle and agent due dates

Standard quarterly due dates are the 28th of the month after the quarter ends. Clients of a registered agent whose statements are eligible for the ATO's lodgment program get later dates for three of the four quarters:

Two conditions matter. The agent dates apply to statements generated after your previous activity statement was lodged electronically, so a brand-new client's first BAS, or one following a paper lodgment, may still fall on the standard date. And the October–December quarter has no agent extension because 28 February already builds in an extra month. When a due date falls on a weekend or public holiday, the next business day applies. Our ATO key dates page keeps the full calendar.

How lodgment through an agent works

1. Authority and nomination

   You complete the online engagement form, which verifies your identity and gives us authority to act. A company, trust or partnership also nominates SMT in ATO online services; our guide shows how. From then on your activity statements appear in our practitioner system when the ATO generates them.

2. Figures each quarter

   If we keep your books, the BAS comes straight from the reconciled file. If you or another bookkeeper do, you send us the reports or give us adviser access, plus the items on our BAS checklist: payroll summary, fuel litres by use, any large asset purchases or sales, and anything unusual.

3. Review

   We check GST coding on larger and unusual items, confirm PAYG withholding to the STP reports, calculate fuel tax credits, consider whether a PAYG instalment variation is warranted, and raise questions with you by WhatsApp, email or a short call.

4. Approval and lodgment

   You receive the completed BAS with the amount payable or refundable, approve it in writing, and we lodge it electronically through the ATO's practitioner lodgment channel under our registration. You get the lodgment receipt and payment details the same day.

Overdue BAS and catch-up

If you are behind, the order of operations is lodge first, then sort out payment. The ATO can apply failure-to-lodge penalties and general interest charge, and a run of unlodged statements tends to attract attention. We reconstruct each overdue quarter from bank statements or your software, prepare and lodge them in order, and then deal with the balance: a payment plan if one is needed, and a remission request for penalties where there are reasonable grounds. One fixed quote covers the catch-up. Our overdue returns and tax debt page explains the process in detail.

What we need from you each quarter

• Adviser access to your accounting file, or a sales and purchases summary and bank statements for the quarter.
• Payroll summary showing gross wages and PAYG withheld, or STP access.
• Fuel purchases by litre and use, if claiming fuel tax credits.
• Details of any asset bought or sold, insurance payout or grant received.
• The full list is on the BAS checklist.

Fees and working across Australia

We quote a fixed fee per BAS, or a monthly amount that includes bookkeeping and BAS together, in writing before the first statement is prepared. GST, PAYG withholding and PAYG instalments are federal, so a BAS is prepared the same way in every state and territory; we are on Melbourne time, and quarter-end queries are handled by message in your own hours. Your TFN and identity documents are collected only through the encrypted onboarding form, never by email or WhatsApp.