From 1 July 2017, the ATO is reducing the amount of information needed for the business activity statement (BAS).

Small businesses with a GST turnover of less than $10 million will use Simpler BAS as the default reporting method. These businesses will only need to report total sales, GST on sales and GST on purchases.

Simpler BAS will reduce time spent on form-filling and making changes that do not impact the final GST amount.

The ATO will automatically transition eligible small business’ GST reporting methods to Simpler BAS from 1 July 2017. Small businesses can choose whether to change their GST bookkeeping software settings to reduce the number of GST tax classification codes.

New small businesses that registered for GST after 19 January 2017 can start using Simpler BAS reporting straight away.