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Guide to goods and services tax (GST)

 
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Taxable sales

If you are registered for GST - or required to be - the goods and services you sell in Australia are generally taxable unless they are GST-free or input-taxed. For these taxable sales, you:

  • include GST in the price
  • issue a tax invoice to the buyer
  • pay the GST you've collected when you lodge your BAS.

You can claim GST credits for purchases you used to make these taxable sales - for example, if you bought something wholesale and sold it retail, you claim a credit for the GST in the wholesale price. You do this in your BAS.

You make a taxable sale if you are registered or required to be registered for GST and:

A sale is not a taxable sale if it is a GST-free or input-taxed sale.

Sales may be partly taxable and partly GST-free or input-taxed if they can be separated into identifiable parts and one or more of those parts are GST-free or input-taxed. Such sales are known as 'mixed supplies'.

If you are registered or required to be registered for GST, sales of business assets such as office equipment and motor vehicles are usually taxable sales. GST also applies to business assets you trade in or otherwise dispose of by transferring ownership.

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Find out more: GST and the disposal of capital assets.

Example

A service station sells $110 worth of petrol to a customer. The receipt issued to the customer is a tax invoice: it must show, among other things, the service station's ABN and the amount of GST ($10) included in the price. The service station sends the $10 GST to the ATO when it lodges its BAS, so the actual income for the service station is $100.

If the customer is registered for GST and has bought the petrol for business purposes, she can claim a GST credit of $10 in her BAS, so the actual cost of the petrol for her will be $100.

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Goods and services tax (GST) - home

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Last Modified: Monday, 3 December 2012

 
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