Lodging a general purpose financial statement (GPFS) is a crucial step for various entities in Australia. Under section 3CA of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 , you're required to submit a GPFS if you are:
- a corporate tax entity (that is, a company, corporate limited partnership, or public trading trust) for the income year
- a country-by-country reporting entity for the income year
- an Australian resident or a foreign resident operating an Australian permanent establishment (PE), at the end of the income year.
If you're a subsidiary member of an accounting group, but not a member of a tax consolidated or multiple entry consolidated (MEC) group, you may still have an obligation to lodge a GPFS even where your parent entity may have already lodged.
However, if you lodge a trust or partnership tax return, there's no obligation under section 3CA to lodge a GPFS.
To ensure your GPFS meets the necessary standards, your entity must prepare it in accordance with applicable accounting standards. It's important to note that we don't accept special purpose financial statements (SPFS) as GPFS.
Entities must lodge their GPFS by the company tax return due date, unless they've already lodged with ASIC. To avoid penalties, lodge your statements on time, and in the approved form. Penalties are considerably higher for significant global entities.
For more information, see Guidance on providing general purpose financial statements.
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