1A — GST on sales¶

1A is the box on your BAS for the total GST you collected on your taxable sales during the period (plus any increasing GST adjustments). Put simply, it is the GST you owe the ATO.

When you make a taxable sale, the price you charge already has GST built into it. The GST part of that price is what you add up and report at 1A.

Why this matters¶

1A is one of the numbers that decides whether you pay the ATO or get a refund. It sits against 1B (the GST on your purchases): if the GST you collected at 1A is more than the GST you paid at 1B, you send the difference to the ATO. Getting 1A right means you pay the correct amount.

What you will learn¶

• What goes at label 1A on a BAS
• How to work out the GST inside a GST-inclusive price
• Why 1A is GST you owe the ATO

Understanding the concept¶

A taxable sale is a normal sale that has GST on it. GST in Australia is 10%, but because the GST is already included in the price you charge, the GST part is not 10% of the total — it is one-eleventh of the GST-inclusive price.

Here is why. If something costs $100 before GST, you add 10% ($10) to make the GST-inclusive price $110. The $10 of GST is one-eleventh of that $110 total. So to find the GST inside any GST-inclusive price, you divide the price by 11.

At 1A you add up the GST from all your taxable sales for the period. The ATO also asks you to include any increasing GST adjustments here — for example, a change that increases the GST you owe from an earlier period. The total is the GST on sales you report at 1A.

Some sales have no GST — like GST-free sales — so they add nothing to 1A even though they still count towards your total sales at G1.

Example¶

Sam runs a mobile dog-grooming business. Over the quarter Sam makes taxable sales totalling $22,000, GST included. To find the GST inside that figure, Sam divides by 11: $22,000 ÷ 11 = $2,000. That $2,000 is the GST Sam collected on those sales, so it goes at 1A.

If Sam also had a GST-free sale in the quarter, it would add nothing to 1A, because no GST was charged on it.

The $2,000 at 1A is the GST Sam owes the ATO on sales. Sam will then look at the GST paid on purchases (1B) to see the net amount to pay or claim back.

Common mistakes¶

• Working out GST as 10% of the GST-inclusive price — for a GST-inclusive price the GST is one-eleventh, not 10%.
• Including GST-free sales in the 1A figure — they carry no GST.
• Confusing 1A (GST you collected on sales) with 1B (GST you paid on purchases).

How this works in myaccountant¶

Key points¶

• 1A is the total GST you collected on your taxable sales.
• It also includes any increasing GST adjustments.
• For a taxable sale, the GST is one-eleventh of the GST-inclusive price.
• GST-free sales add nothing to 1A.
• 1A is the GST you owe the ATO, set against 1B (GST on purchases).

Learn next¶

• 1B — GST on purchases
• G1 — Total sales
• G3 — Other GST-free sales

General information only — not tax, super or financial advice.