We often get questions from prospective students if they need to register as a BAS Agent. There are quite a few aspects to consider but essentially if you are providing BAS services to a client/customer (not employer) then you are most likely required to register as a BAS agent.
What are BAS Services?
BAS services cover a range of bookkeeping and BAS activities. These include providing BAS advice, reconciling, preparing or lodging activity statements or representing clients to the ATO. If you give a client specific advice about the figures they put in their activity statements, this is a BAS service too, even if the client lodges their own activity statement with the ATO.
BAS service can also include activities such as setting up a client’s accounting software for their business needs, working out default GST codes, deciding on the codes to apply to tax invoices and FBT collection and recovery.
If you prepare payroll and you work out or calculate your client’s withholding obligations for their employees (including preparing payment summaries) you may also need to be registered.
Do you need to register as a BAS Agent?
Essentially if you provide BAS Services then in majority of cases you would need to register as a BAS Agent. If you provide BAS services that you are paid for (where you receive a fee or reward), you need to be registered. You’ll also need to register if you are a contractor and are providing BAS services to another registered tax or BAS agent or other clients.
When Don’t you need to register as BAS Agent?
There are a number of situations where it is not necessary to register as a BAS Agent. Firstly, if you are an employee of a registered agent who pays your wages to help them provide BAS services you do not need to register as a BAS agent. You also don’t need to register if you are an employee of a business where you prepare the BAS. The same also applies if you are a business owner that prepares their own activity statements. It is also not necessary to register if you don’t receive a fee or reward for BAS services you provide.
Training to become a BAS Agent
There are a number of education and experience requirements to register as a BAS agent. Applied Education has a number of training options available to meet the education requirements for BAS Agent registration, including our BAS Agent registration course. Please contact us if you require any further information.
Source – www.tpg.gov.au