Oct 13, 2025 Joel Hernandez

Staying on Top of Your GST Registration and Reporting

Whether you’re a startup or an established business, staying on top of GST requirements is essential to avoid expensive mistakes. In this article, we highlight some aspects of GST that could be relevant to your business.

Register for GST on Time

You must register for GST if your business fits into one of the following:

• your current GST turnover, being your turnover for the current month and the previous eleven months, totals $75,000 or more
• your projected GST turnover, being your turnover for the current month and the next eleven months, is likely to be $75,000 or more
• if you are a non-profit organisation and you have a GST turnover of $150,000 per year or more
• if you are a taxi or rideshare driver
• if you want to claim fuel tax credits for your business.

If you are not registered for GST, it’s important that you check your turnover regularly against the threshold, particularly when your turnover is approaching the threshold. Once you are required to register for GST, you need to register within 21 days. Failure to register may result in penalties and the requirement to pay GST on sales made since the date you were required to register, even if you didn’t include GST in the price of those sales.

You can apply to backdate your registration up to 4 years.

As a GST registered business, you are obliged to:

• include a tax of 10% in the price you charge your customers. For taxable sales, your profit margin may be reduced if you cannot pass on the GST to your customers.
• issue a tax invoice to the customer
• lodge your Business Activity Statement (BAS) on time, paying the net GST liability to the ATO.

It’s recommended to track your turnover regularly, plan in advance, and stay on top of the above requirements.

GST mistakes

Some of GST mistakes businesses make include:

• Incorrectly classifying sales as either exempt or subject to GST
• Incorrectly claiming GST on expenses that do not actually carry any GST
• Not claiming back all the GST they are entitled to claim
• Failing to issue tax invoices correctly
• Overlooking GST on imported goods and services
• Reporting GST incorrectly on the BAS
• Not keeping adequate records

Correcting GST errors

If you find that you’ve made GST mistakes after lodging your BAS, depending the type and value of errors, you may be able to correct them on a later BAS or revise the original BAS.

If you need any assistance, please feel free to contact us for more information.