GST and the Business Activity Statement, built properly in Odoo
A tax report is not a BAS. If the chart of accounts was not designed to produce one, somebody ends up rebuilding the numbers in a spreadsheet every quarter, which is exactly the work the ERP was bought to remove.
The rules that shape the build
What Odoo has to get right
The rate
GST is 10% on most goods, services and other items sold or consumed in Australia. The federal government levies it and distributes the revenue to the states.
Registration thresholds
Compulsory at AUD 75,000 of GST turnover, AUD 150,000 for non-profits, and from the first dollar for taxi, limousine and ride-sourcing operators and anyone claiming fuel tax credits. You have 21 days to register once you know you will cross it.
BAS is the reporting unit
GST and PAYG withholding are reported together on the Business Activity Statement. The ATO assigns the cycle: quarterly, monthly or yearly. Your reporting design follows the cycle you were given, not the one you would prefer.
PAYG instalments
All companies with turnover of AUD 20 million or more pay monthly; most others monthly or quarterly. Companies with annual tax below AUD 8,000 that are not GST-registered sit outside the instalment system entirely.
The one people miss
Payroll tax is a state tax, and Odoo ships nothing for it
There is no national payroll tax rate. Each state sets its own rate and its own exemption threshold, so a business operating across two states carries two of each.
| State | Rate | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 5.45% | AUD 1,200,000 |
| Victoria, general | 4.85% | see state guidance |
| Victoria, regional | 1.2125% | see state guidance |
Rates change at state budgets. Treat the table as the shape of the problem and confirm the current figure with the relevant revenue office before you configure.
Next
Where this usually goes wrong
Two patterns account for most of the remediation work we are asked to do. The first is a chart of accounts imported from another country and relabelled, which produces numbers that do not roll up to BAS boxes. The second is GST handled per invoice rather than per tax code, which looks fine until the first reporting period closes.
Both are cheaper to prevent than to unpick.