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What is the annual GST return?

The annual GST return is an activity statement that reports a whole year's GST in one go, instead of quarter by quarter. If your business reports GST annually, the ATO issues you this form and myaccountant shows it alongside your other statements — you don't choose it yourself; the app displays whichever forms the ATO has issued.

How it appears in myaccountant

  • Go to Tax → Activity Statements and stay on the Statements tab. The annual GST return shows in the Form column with the GR code, and its Period spans the full year rather than a quarter or month.
  • To see only annual forms, set the Form filter to Annual.
  • Sync from ATO brings it in with its due date, like any other statement. If you need to create it manually, New BAS → Form type → GR — Annual GST Return.

How it differs from a quarterly BAS

  • One period, one statement. It covers a full year of GST, where a quarterly BAS covers three months.
  • GST only. Opening it shows the GST section and the Summary — there are no PAYG Withholding or PAYG Instalments sections, because those are reported on your other activity statements during the year.
  • The same labels. Total sales (G1), GST on sales (1A) and GST on purchases (1B) work exactly as on a BAS, just for the whole year. Businesses on simpler GST reporting see only those three; full reporters also get the GST calculation worksheet.

Everything else behaves identically: figures prefill from your books, each one shows where it came from, and you can Edit and Save a section to change an amount.

Lodging it

The flow is the same as any BAS: open the statement, Prefill from ATO, review the figures, optionally Validate, then Submit, complete the declaration and click Submit to ATO. On success the status shows Lodged with an ATO receipt. See How do I lodge my BAS? for the full walkthrough.

Tip: because the return covers a whole year, it's worth checking your GST position before lodging — see How do I check my GST?

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