The Goods and Services Tax has been part of everyday business life in Australia since 2000, yet it never stands still. Every year the Australian Taxation Office tweaks the way it administers GST, tightens a few screws, and rolls out targeted programs designed to lift compliance and protect revenue. On paper 2025 looks calm because Parliament has not passed any new GST legislation and the 10 per cent rate remains untouched. Scratch the surface, however, and you will find policy shifts, data-driven enforcement campaigns and reporting tweaks that could dramatically alter your lodgement rhythm, cash-flow profile and record-keeping workload. The most significant of these is the ATO’s decision to push a cohort of non-compliant small businesses from quarterly to monthly GST reporting from 1 April 2025. At the larger end of town, the Supplementary Annual GST Return is being refreshed to align with the ATO’s expanding GST assurance program. Whether you run a café in Cairns, a construction company in Perth or a multinational headquartered in Sydney, you need to understand what is changing, what is not, and how to position your systems well before the first 2025 BAS deadline lands in your inbox.
Snapshot of GST Reporting in Australia
GST is levied at a single rate of 10 per cent on most supplies of goods and services. If your business has turnover of at least $75 000 ($150 000 for non-profits) you must register, charge GST on taxable supplies, claim input tax credits and periodically report your net amount on a Business Activity Statement. The GST Act allows three lodgement cycles: monthly, quarterly and annual. Monthly lodgers must submit and pay within 21 days of month-end, quarterly lodgers within 28 days after each quarter (with a concession to lodge electronically by the 28th of the next month for most taxpayers) and annual lodgers include their GST information in a single return. These frequencies are usually optional, but the Commissioner may force a taxpayer into a different cycle if compliance worries arise.
Under the Taxation Administration Act businesses must keep records for at least five years, lodge electronically unless granted an exemption, and correct errors within a four-year amendment window. Penalties for late lodgement start at one penalty unit ($313 after indexation on 1 July 2024) and can multiply quickly. Interest on late payment currently accrues at 11.15 per cent. The rules have not changed for 2025, but enforcement intensity will.
What the ATO Has Officially Said About 2025
When accountants scanned the 2024-25 Federal Budget papers they found no mention of GST rate hikes, base broadening or threshold adjustments. Likewise, the Treasury’s forward legislative program does not list any GST Bills scheduled for parliamentary debate in 2025. The ATO’s own “New Legislation” page confirms that nothing new takes effect on 1 July 2025. In that sense the law remains stable.
However, the ATO has flagged two administrative moves for the 2025 income year. First, it will proactively switch roughly 3 500 small businesses with a history of late or inaccurate BAS lodgements from quarterly to monthly reporting. This is not a legislative amendment; it is an exercise of the Commissioner’s existing power under section 27-15 of the GST Act to vary a taxpayer’s tax period. Second, the agency has finalised an updated version of the Supplementary Annual GST Return (SAGR) for large entities, tightening data fields to feed directly into its GST assurance data analytics. These refinements, again, do not require Parliament’s involvement, but they do carry legal force because failing to comply with a BAS instruction or SAGR specification is a breach of the Taxation Administration Act.
Targeted Shift to Monthly GST Reporting for Non-Compliant Small Businesses
From 1 April 2025 the ATO will begin issuing notices to about 3 500 small businesses advising that their tax period has been shortened to one month. The selection criteria focus on entities that have lodged BASs late, paid GST liabilities well after the due date, reported recurring errors or failed to lodge at all. The policy sits under the umbrella of the ATO’s “Getting it right” campaign, an initiative that leverages real-time data, industry benchmarking and behavioural nudges to lift voluntary compliance.
Once a business receives the notice it must start lodging monthly BASs from the first day of the next tax period. The ATO has confirmed that the minimum duration of this enforced cycle is 12 months. After that, the taxpayer may apply to revert to quarterly if it can demonstrate a sustained record of on-time, accurate lodgements and payments.
Moving from quarterly to monthly reporting has two immediate implications. Cash-flow management becomes tighter because GST payable is remitted sooner, stripping out the implicit three-month interest-free loan businesses enjoy under the quarterly model. At the same time, the administrative workload rises because BAS preparation now occurs 12 times a year. The upside is that errors are caught earlier and credits flow back more quickly. If your business sits in the firing line, early preparation is crucial.
Updated Supplementary Annual GST Return for Large Businesses
Large businesses—those with a turnover above $20 million—already lodge BASs monthly. In addition, certain large taxpayers must complete the Supplementary Annual GST Return, a detailed schedule that reconciles annual GST outcomes with financial statements and provides transactional data for the ATO’s GST assurance review. The ATO has redesigned the SAGR for the year ending 30 June 2025 to align each field with its Justified Trust methodology.
Key enhancements include expanded disclosures on cross-border supplies, refined reporting of adjustment events and a new section capturing data on related-party transactions. The form now also dovetails with the GST analytical programs the ATO runs in partnership with Treasury. Although the legal obligation to lodge the SAGR stems from the same provision in the Taxation Administration Act, the format and electronic specifications are set administratively. Failing to lodge in the updated format will trigger the same failure-to-lodge penalties as an overdue BAS.
Key Dates and Deadlines You Cannot Miss
The calendar below plots the main GST reporting milestones for 2025. All dates assume electronic lodgement, which covers more than 95 per cent of registered entities.
| Date | Obligation | Affected taxpayers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 February 2025 | December quarter BAS due | Quarterly lodgers | Last quarterly BAS before targeted switch to monthly cycle for selected businesses |
| 1 April 2025 | Commencement of enforced monthly cycle | Approximately 3 500 small businesses selected by ATO | First monthly BAS will cover April 2025 and is due 21 May 2025 |
| 21 May 2025 | April 2025 BAS due | Monthly lodgers (including newly transferred cohort) | Payment also due |
| 28 July 2025 | June quarter BAS due | Quarterly lodgers not selected for monthly | End-of-year PAYG instalment reconciliations align here |
| 15 August 2025 | Supplementary Annual GST Return (new form) due | Large businesses in SAGR program | Lodged via the ATO Business Portal or Standard Business Reporting channel |
| 28 October 2025 | September quarter BAS due | Quarterly lodgers | First full quarter after commencement of monthly cycle for targeted cohort |
| 21 July 2026 | Earliest date cohort can apply to revert to quarterly | Selected small businesses | Must demonstrate 12 months of perfect lodgement and payment behaviour |
Practical Steps to Prepare Before 1 April 2025
Preparation starts with awareness. If you suspect your past BAS behaviour places you in the high-risk category, review your lodgement history now. Correct any outstanding errors, pay overdue amounts, and lodge any missing BASs to show good faith. Update your bookkeeping software so that it can roll forward monthly tax periods without manual intervention. Train your staff or external bookkeeper on monthly workflows, including calendar reminders, document collation and bank reconciliation frequency.
You should also revise your engagement letter with your tax agent. Clarify who will draft the monthly BAS, who will review it for accuracy, who will authorise lodgement, and who will transfer funds. If you maintain a separate GST clearing account, test whether the additional monthly outflow disrupts your cash management. Set aside liquidity lines or increase buffer reserves so that your business can fund the more frequent payments without tapping overdrafts at short notice.
Cash-Flow Implications of Monthly GST Reporting
The move from quarterly to monthly lodgement effectively accelerates the GST cash cycle by an average of 45 days. Consider a retailer with net GST payable of $12 000 per quarter. Under the quarterly regime the business hands $12 000 to the ATO every three months, freeing up an average float of $6 000 over the quarter. When the cycle changes to monthly, the retailer pays $4 000 each month. The float shrinks from $6 000 to $2 000 and the implicit working-capital benefit drops by two-thirds.
The table below illustrates the annual cost of that lost float at different interest rates.
| Average quarterly GST float | Equivalent monthly float | Interest rate | Annual opportunity cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| $6 000 | $2 000 | 6 per cent | $240 |
| $6 000 | $2 000 | 8 per cent | $320 |
| $6 000 | $2 000 | 10 per cent | $400 |
While the dollar amounts may look modest, multiply them across thousands of small businesses and the aggregate opportunity cost becomes material. For individual businesses operating on wafer-thin margins or juggling seasonal cash flows, the timing shift can make the difference between an overdraft breach and a clean bank statement. You can cushion the impact by synchronising customer invoicing with month-end so that incoming GST on sales lands before the BAS payment date, accelerating collection of overdue debtors and using debtor financing facilities where appropriate.
Technology and System Upgrades to Stay Compliant
ATO enforcement relies increasingly on data-matching algorithms that sift millions of lodgements to flag anomalies almost instantly. That shift means your accounting software and internal controls must produce clean, reconciled data every month. Choose a cloud platform that supports standard business reporting (SBR) and integrates directly with the ATO portal. Automate source document capture through optical character recognition so that supplier invoices feed straight into the GST input credit workflow. Reconcile bank feeds daily rather than weekly to avoid month-end bottlenecks.
For large entities preparing the redesigned SAGR, map each new field to your general ledger and tax engine. Run test extracts in February and March 2025 to check that line items reconcile to your monthly BASs and to your annual financial statements. Document the mapping logic in a word file or spreadsheet and store it with your tax governance pack; the ATO may ask for it during a Justified Trust review.
How the ATO’s “Getting it right” Campaign Affects Your Business
“Getting it right” is more than a slogan. It represents a multi-year push to pair education with urgency. The ATO will send tailored letters, SMS reminders and emails to businesses approaching BAS deadlines. If your business misses a date the system automatically issues a warning and may apply a failure-to-lodge penalty without human intervention. The campaign also includes industry-specific webinars and one-on-one coaching sessions, which you should treat as an opportunity rather than a threat. By engaging early you can sometimes negotiate payment plans, rectify honest mistakes and avoid harsher enforcement.
The monthly-reporting cohort is the sharp end of this campaign. Moving taxpayers into a more frequent cycle forces them to engage with their records regularly, reduces the build-up of unreported tax debt and gives the ATO faster visibility of errors. Some businesses will see the experience as a hassle; others will find that regular reconciliation delivers better insights into profitability and cost control. Whichever camp you fall into, compliance is non-negotiable once the notice lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many business owners want to know whether they can volunteer for monthly reporting ahead of time. The answer is yes. Any registered entity can elect to lodge monthly by notifying the ATO through Online Services for Business. You must stay monthly for at least 12 months after the change.
Another common question involves penalties for mistakes on monthly BASs. Honest errors can be corrected on the next BAS if the net effect falls within the adjustment limits set out in Division 35 of the GST Act. If the error exceeds those limits, you must revise the original BAS and may incur shortfall penalties if the ATO considers you did not take reasonable care.
Businesses that receive the enforced-monthly notice sometimes believe they can appeal. You can object under Part IAB of the Taxation Administration Act, but success is rare. The ATO only reverses its decision if the factual basis—poor lodgement history—turns out to be wrong. Demonstrating hardship does not ordinarily sway the outcome, although you can negotiate payment deferrals through the ATO’s debt management division.
Large taxpayers ask whether the new SAGR replaces their monthly BASs. It does not. The SAGR is a reconciliation statement that supplements the 12 BASs. Think of it as the GST equivalent of an income tax return schedule.
Turning Compliance into a Competitive Advantage
GST compliance is sometimes framed as a burden, yet in a digital economy where trust and transparency drive customer choice, tight compliance can be an asset. Businesses that lodge on time, pay on time and maintain clean records generally negotiate better banking terms, win tenders with government and large corporates, and avoid the distraction of ATO audits. The 2025 reporting tweaks—the shift to monthly lodgement for the non-compliant minority and the upgraded SAGR for large entities—send a clear message that the ATO will reward discipline and penalise neglect.
If you prepare early, automate intelligently and treat your BAS obligations as a monthly performance checkpoint rather than a chore, you will navigate 2025 with confidence. More importantly, you will embed a culture of financial hygiene that pays dividends long after the “Getting it right” campaign fades from the headlines. In an environment where legislative change is minimal but administrative scrutiny is rising, proactive adaptation remains the smartest play.
