GST deadline passes

IT IS now too late to register for the GST and an Australian Business Number and be guaranteed it will be processed before 1 July.

However, assistant commissioner GST WA Brian Fitzgerald said

businesses that missed the deadline should not lose heart.

Mr Fitzgerald said the sooner businesses registered, the sooner they could avoid the consequences of not being GST compliant.

The sooner a business registers for an ABN and the GST, the sooner it can start to claim input tax credits.

Without an ABN, a business

cannot register for the GST. It cannot claim back GST it pays or claim a credit for wholesale sales tax paid on stock at hand at 30 June.

Other businesses can withhold tax at a rate of 48.5 cents in the dollar from a business that does not have an ABN.