Thousands miss BAS

THOUSANDS of businesses are believed to have missed the November 11 deadline for their quarterly Business Activity Statements remittance.

Most recent Australian Tax Office figures are for two weeks before the due date and show only 250,000 had been collected. The ATO is expecting to receive more than two million.

It is believed tax office help line staff have been given leave to grant BAS extensions beyond the deadline.

An ATO spokeswomen said people who had not remitted their BAS should talk to the tax office.

Small Business Development Corporation director enterprise dev-elopment services Bruce Macfarlane said some clients found the BAS forms problematic.

“There’s been a bit of angst about the ATO’s BAS guide which is about 30 pages long. People need to realise it is meant to be used as a guide and not read cover to cover,” Mr Macfarlane said.

Pay As You Go tax is another concern. Businesses have to pay their GST instalments, their own income tax and group tax for their employees four times a year.

Mr Macfarlane said the cashflow drain this placed on businesses could be the “big sleeper issue” of the new tax system.