Simplified GST accounting methods for food retailers

What are the SAMs?

There are five SAMs to choose from, depending on:

• your turnover
• the nature of your business
• the nature of your point-of-sale equipment (except for the purchases snapshot method).

The following table summarises these methods but they are explained in detail later in this guide.

These methods help you work out the information you need to correctly complete the GST section of your activity statement. However, they can only be applied to sales and purchases of trading stock. If you decide to use a SAM, you will still need to separately consider other sales (such as non-stock or capital items) and expenses (such as rent, phone and any capital items) when you complete your activity statement.

Method	Business norms	Stock purchases	Snapshot	Sales percentage	Purchases snapshot
Turnover threshold	SAM turnover of $2 million or less	SAM turnover of $2 million or less	SAM turnover of $2 million or less	GST turnover of $2 million or less	GST turnover of $2 million or less
How you estimate your GST-free sales and/or purchases	You apply standard percentages to your sales and purchases. See business norms method	You take a sample of purchases and use this sample. See stock purchases method	You take a snapshot of your sales and purchases and use this. See snapshot method	You work out what percentage of GST-free sales you made in a tax period and apply this to your purchases. See sales percentage method	You take a snapshot of your purchases and use this to calculate your GST credits. See purchases snapshot method