GST Chart of Accounts and Lodgement Journal Overview

Chart of Accounts Overview

Chart of accounts are created automatically based on the tax liabilities enabled during setup. These are:

• GST Liabilities Payable - GST (all files)
• ATO Clearing Account - formerly BAS Suspense (all files)
• PAYG Withholdings Payable - Payroll Withholdings (optional)
• PAYG Instalment Liabilities - Income Tax Instalments (optional)
• Luxury Car Tax Liabilities - Other Taxes (optional)
• WET Liabilities - Other Taxes (optional)
• FBT Liabilities - Other Taxes (optional)
• Fuel Tax Credit Income - Other Taxes (optional)

The GST Liabilities payable account is where the GST Collected and GST Paid amounts are posted when transactions include GST.

The ATO Clearing account is where the amount payable or refunded from the ATO will be posted once you lodge your BAS or IAS.

The PAYG Withholdings payable account will now be created during GST setup, in addition to the BAS-W1 and BAS-W2 tax codes, to be ready if customers enable Employment Hero OR if they process payroll outside of QuickBooks.

The PAYG Instalment liabilities account will be created if enabled in settings and posted to if a customer inputs an instalment amount in the lodgement flow.

For other taxes, Luxury Car Tax, WET, and FBT Liabilities accounts will now be created if enabled in GST settings. When lodging your BAS in QuickBooks, you can input the figures directly into the lodgement flow. QuickBooks Online will write a journal against the respective liabilities account when the BAS is lodged.

Separate expense transactions for accruing each of the other tax liabilities will need to be manually created against the appropriate expense account.

Lodgement Journal Details

When marking a BAS or IAS as lodged, the journal entry will move what is owed (or what you are owed) from all of the respective liability accounts reported on the activity statement to the ATO Clearing Account (formerly called BAS Suspense) based on the tax liabilities enabled within the lodgement form.

• DR to GST Liabilities (when lodging includes GST)
• DR to PAYG Withholdings Payable (when lodging includes payroll withholdings)
• DR to PAYG Instalment Liabilities (when lodging includes income tax instalment)
• DR to Luxury Car Tax Liabilities (when lodging includes Luxury Car Tax)
• DR to WET Liabilities (when lodging includes Wine Equalisation Tax)
• DR to FBT Liabilities (when lodging includes Fringe Benefits Tax instalment)
• CR to Fuel Tax Credit Income (when lodging includes Fuel Tax Credits)
• CR to ATO Clearing Account (all lodgements)

There are a number of other aspects to the journal entry that may apply due to rounding or other scenarios, but the basic and most common structure is described above.