GST turnover tracker

There are two turnover tests, and only one of them decides it

Nearly every GST calculator asks for one number and compares it to $75,000. The ATO does not work that way, and the difference is the reason people register when they did not have to.

Two twelve month windows, both including the current month:

• Current turnover. This month plus the previous 11.
• Projected turnover. This month plus the next 11.

Reaching the threshold on either one is enough to require registration, with one exception that matters more than the rule. In the ATO's own words, even where current turnover is at or above the threshold, you do not have to register if projected turnover will be less than it.

So the forward window is the one that decides. A roofer who had a single enormous year on one contract and is back to domestic work can be well over $75,000 on the last twelve months and under it on the next twelve, and the answer is that registration is not required. A calculator that only looked backwards would have told them to register.

Turnover is income, not profit

This is the other place it goes wrong, and it goes wrong in the expensive direction. Turnover is total business income. Materials, fuel, tools, subcontractors, insurance and every other cost stay in the figure. Somebody who takes $88,000 and spends $30,000 on materials has turnover of $88,000, not $58,000.

What does come out of the figure:

• GST already included in sales to your customers.
• Input-taxed sales.
• Sales not connected with an enterprise you run.
• Sales not connected with Australia.
• Sales to associates that are not for payment and are not taxable.

And the projected window drops two more: the sale of a capital or business asset, and anything sold only because the enterprise is ceasing or being cut back substantially and permanently. Selling the van as you wind up is not turnover for this purpose.

The cases with no threshold at all

Some activities require registration whatever the turnover, and for anybody in them the two windows are irrelevant rather than merely unhelpful.

• Taxi, limousine and ride-sourcing travel for passengers. At any turnover, for owner-drivers and for anybody leasing or renting the vehicle.
• Claiming fuel tax credits. You cannot claim them without being registered.
• A new business that expects to reach the threshold in its first year.Treated the same as one already over it.

Once you are required, and if you choose to anyway

Registration is due within 21 days of the point it becomes required, and an ABN has to exist first. You register once however many businesses you run.

Registering voluntarily while under the threshold is a real option, and there are sound reasons for it, notably claiming GST credits on what you buy. The caveat worth knowing in advance is that choosing to register generally means staying registered for at least twelve months, so it is not something to switch on for one quarter.

It does not know your turnover, only your figures

It does not know your turnover. It applies the two tests to the figures you type, and whether those figures are right is a question for your own records or your BAS agent. It also does not tell you that you are exempt: it reports how the two windows fall against the threshold and leaves the position with you and, where a decision turns on it, with the ATO.

Your turnover stays yours

Turnover is the number a competitor would most like to know and the number a scam email most wants you to confirm. Both tests run in your browser, so the figures are never transmitted, never logged against an ABN and never associated with you. There is nothing to unsubscribe from afterwards, because nothing was collected.