ABN BAS

By enrolling in the Certificate IV Bookkeeping with the Bookkeeping Institute of Australia students are not only able to obtain an academic qualification that meets the requirements of the new law but as membership of the Australian Bookkeepers Network (ABN) is included in the enrolment fee they are also able to provide BAS services legally under the new law.

ABN BAS is a Registered BAS Agent firm that exclusively services members of the Australian Bookkeepers Network (ABN) and their clients. ABN BAS offers a range of services to benefit both BAS Agents and non-BAS Agents. ABN BAS is a separate entity to ABN and has its own web site at www.abnbas.net, however ABN and ABN BAS share the same directors, staff and business premises. Membership of ABN BAS is complimentary and automatic for all Australian Bookkeepers Network (ABN) members.

The main service offering of ABN BAS relates to Activity Statements and is two fold:

1. They perform Quality Assurance Reviews of Activity Statements for both BAS Agents and non-BAS Agents; and

2. Act as the BAS Agent for clients of ABN members who are not BAS Agents themselves, and attend to the electronic lodgement of their client’s Activity Statements with the ATO.

For non-BAS Agents, who have yet to obtain a Certificate IV in Bookkeeping or can prove 1400 of relevant experience in the preceding three years they have three options:

1.        The first option is to not provide bookkeeping services that amount to “BAS Services”. However, given how broadly BAS Services are defined by the Act, this is difficult. It requires that the services be confined to mere data entry and bank reconciliations.

2.        The second option is that after a non-BAS Agent has performed bookkeeping services, the bookkeeper must ensure that their client visits their tax agent/accountant to have the work reviewed and the BAS lodged. This will shift the client’s reliance to the tax agent. However, this may not appeal to many clients, firstly because they would prefer that the bookkeeper offered the complete service, and secondly due to the higher costs imposed by tax agents.

3.        The third option is that once a non-BAS Agent has performed the bookkeeping services, the bookkeeper must ensure that their client visits another bookkeeper who has the status of a registered BAS Agent to have their work reviewed and the BAS lodged. This shifts the client’s reliance to the BAS Agent. However, this may not appeal to many clients as they would prefer that the bookkeeper offered the complete service, rather than them having to deal with another party to have their BAS prepared. Furthermore the bookkeeper may not feel comfortable relinquishing part-ownership of their client to another bookkeeping firm.

BAS Lodgement through ABN BAS

ABN BAS presents an alternative to the above options.

With ABN BAS, it is not necessary for the bookkeeper to relinquish control of their client to a competing bookkeeping firm. Instead, ABN BAS – as a BAS Agent in its own right – can review and lodge the BAS for the client.

This enables the non-BAS Agent bookkeeper to retain the control of the client relationship and pay a per-BAS lodgement fee to ABN BAS, which can either be on-charged or marked-up to the client.

ABN BAS are able to do this by performing a detailed Quality Assurance Review and by the completion by the non-BAS Agent bookkeeper of their sophisticated Excel tool, BAS Wizard.

Detailed Quality Assurance Review

This service is mandatory if ABN BAS will be lodging the non-BAS Agent bookkeeper client’s BAS with the ATO.

The service entails:

• ABN BAS performing a range of reconciliations, proofs and integrity checks based on the information have entered into the BAS Wizard.

• Verifying many of these figures by referring to reports and source documents that ABN BAS asks the non-BAS Agent bookkeeper to insert into Attachment sheets contained within BAS Wizard.

• ABN BAS also check the postings for certain “Reviewable Transactions” against source documents which they ask the non-BAS Agent bookkeeper to attach. Reviewable transactions include the purchase or sale of a business, purchase or sale of real property, purchase of a capital asset under a finance instrument, purchase of a luxury motor vehicle, or sales of capital assets over $5,000.

• Upon completion, ABN BAS emails the non-BAS Agent bookkeeper an ABN BAS Declaration to confirm that they have conducted a Detailed Quality Assurance Review on the Activity Statement.

• As ABN BAS will be the BAS Agent that will lodge the Activity Statement with the ATO, they will also email the non-BAS Agent bookkeeper a copy of the BAS that was electronically lodged.

ABN BAS will not conduct a Detailed Quality Assurance Review for any clients of a non-BAS Agent bookkeeper operating in “Complex Industries” as the degree of supervision and control required is too great for the service to remain price-competitive. “Complex Industries” are where:

• The client offers insurance either as an insurer or underwriter

• The client is a second hand goods dealer

• The client makes financial supplies which are partly or wholly input taxed

• The client operates in the property industry and makes supplies of real property

• The client accounts for GST using the Business Norms method, Stock Purchase method, Snapshot method or Sales Percentage method

• The client is a self-managed superannuation fund

• The client is not-for-profit

• The client is involved in a GST group, GST branch or GST joint venture

• The client collects Wine Equalisation Tax (WET)

• The client collects Luxury Car Tax (LCT)

Non-BAS Agent bookkeepers with clients operating in complex industries will need to consider using options two or three above for the lodgement of Activity Statements with the ATO. This might include another BAS Agent or more likely their Tax Agent.

Non-BAS Agent bookkeepers could also consider utilising ABN Tax (another division of ABN) as the client's Tax Agent, in which case they can provide the BAS Services that your client requires. For further details, visit www.abntax.net.

ABN BAS Pricing

The price – as at the second half of 2010 – of the ABN BAS Detailed Quality Assurance Review is calculated as follows:

Base Fee

The base fee is $55 for Business Activity Statements and $27.50 for Instalment Activity Statements.

Electronic Lodgement with the ATO

If ABN BAS are electronically lodging the client’s BAS with the ATO, an additional fee of $22 applies which reflects their attendances in maintaining the client on their BAS Agent Portal and entering the Activity Statement itself into that Portal.

Reviewable Transactions