BAS Statement Example & Template

A Business Activity Statement (BAS) is the form Australian businesses use to report obligations such as GST and/or PAYG to the ATO. This example focuses on the GST side — the GST collected on sales, less the GST paid on purchases. The easiest way to understand it is to walk through a single, simple example. Everything below uses round, illustrative numbers so the arithmetic is easy to follow — your own figures will differ.

For the official rules, lodgment dates, and form details, always check the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

How GST flows through a BAS

GST in Australia is charged at 10% — this is the standard rate published by the ATO. When you sell something, you collect that 10% on top of your price; this is GST on sales (sometimes called GST collected, and shown at label 1A on the BAS). When you buy something for the business, you pay 10% GST too; the GST portion you can claim back is your GST on purchases (GST credits, shown at label 1B).

Assumptions for this example. This example assumes every sale is a taxable sale and every purchase is a creditable purchase that includes GST. In reality some sales are GST-free or input-taxed, some purchases are not creditable or have private-use portions, and valid tax invoices are required to claim GST credits. Check the ATO for what qualifies.

The headline number on a typical quarterly BAS is the difference:

Net GST = GST on sales (1A) − GST on purchases (1B)

If 1A is larger, you pay the ATO the difference. If 1B is larger, the net BAS amount is in your favour — but that is not automatically a cash refund. The ATO may pay it to you, or offset it against other tax debts you owe. In practice most trading businesses collect more GST on sales than they pay on purchases, so a payable result is common — but a business making a large one-off purchase in a quarter can easily end up in a refund position for that period.

A worked example (illustrative)

Meet Harbour Cleaning Co, a small fictional business reporting GST quarterly. These figures are illustrative and rounded for clarity.

Sales for the quarter

Item	GST-exclusive amount	GST (10%)	GST-inclusive total
Cleaning services invoiced	$50,000	$5,000	$55,000

So Harbour Cleaning collected $5,000 of GST on sales. That is label 1A.

Purchases and expenses for the quarter

Item	GST-exclusive amount	GST (10%)	GST-inclusive total
Cleaning supplies	$8,000	$800	$8,800
Equipment & tools	$6,000	$600	$6,600
Vehicle fuel	$3,000	$300	$3,300
Phone & internet	$1,000	$100	$1,100
Totals	$18,000	$1,800	$19,800

So Harbour Cleaning paid $1,800 of GST on purchases it can claim back. That is label 1B.

The net amount

Now apply the formula:

• GST on sales (1A): $5,000
• GST on purchases (1B): $1,800
• Net GST owed to the ATO: $5,000 − $1,800 = $3,200

Harbour Cleaning would report a net $3,200 payable to the ATO for the quarter. The arithmetic is self-consistent: $5,000 collected minus $1,800 claimed leaves $3,200.

If the numbers had been reversed — say only $1,800 collected on sales but $5,000 of GST paid on a big equipment purchase — the net result would be $3,200 in your favour instead. Same formula, opposite sign. Whether that is paid to you as a refund or offset against other tax debts is up to the ATO.

A quick sanity check

Two checks help confirm an example like this is right:

1. The 10% rule. For every GST-exclusive figure, the GST should be exactly one-tenth of it. $50,000 × 10% = $5,000. $18,000 × 10% = $1,800. Both hold.
2. Inclusive vs exclusive. A GST-inclusive total divided by 11 gives the GST inside it. $55,000 ÷ 11 = $5,000, matching label 1A. This is handy when your records only show tax-inclusive totals.

What a simple BAS preparation worksheet contains

You do not lodge a worksheet — you lodge the BAS itself — but a tidy preparation sheet makes the final figures fall out cleanly. A basic worksheet usually has these columns and totals:

• Date of each transaction
• Description / supplier or customer
• Category (sale, expense, capital purchase)
• GST-exclusive amount
• GST amount (the 10% portion)
• GST-inclusive total
• A GST-free flag for items with no GST (for example, certain basic foods or exports — see the ATO for what qualifies)

At the bottom you sum two things only:

• Total GST on sales → flows to label 1A
• Total GST on purchases → flows to label 1B

Subtract one from the other and you have your net GST. A worksheet like this is just an organised view of your transactions; the categories and totals are what carry across to the actual form.

Keeping the worksheet up to date as transactions happen — rather than rebuilding it at the end of the quarter — also makes reconciliation easier and reduces the chance of missing a claimable expense. The discipline of recording each transaction's GST-exclusive amount, GST portion, and inclusive total at the time means the two sanity checks above are easier to apply.

Getting clean numbers out of your records

The slow part of any BAS is not the maths — it is pulling every sale and expense out of your bank records and sorting them so the GST totals are correct. If your transactions live in bank statements rather than accounting software, converting them into rows first makes the worksheet above straightforward to fill in. You can turn statements into a spreadsheet with the free bank statement converter, then total your GST columns from clean data.

For the full step-by-step process — registration, reporting periods, lodgment methods, and due dates — read how to do a BAS statement.

A note on accuracy

This example is illustrative only and uses simplified, rounded figures to show the mechanics. Real BAS preparation can involve GST-free and input-taxed items, capital purchases, PAYG instalments, and other obligations depending on your registration. The ATO publishes the authoritative rules, current rates, and lodgment dates — check them before lodging, or speak with a registered tax or BAS agent.