If you lodge your own Business Activity Statement (BAS) then you can get in trouble if there are mistakes or it’s overdue. You may even have to pay fines, however if your BAS Agent lodges for you then you are safe.

If you lodge your own BAS then you have to lodge and pay by the due date, however your BAS Agent is afforded the courtesy of extra time.

Anyone can call themselves a bookkeeper and they don’t have to play by the rules, unlike your BAS Agent. If he/she isn’t honest, independent, confidential or competent, the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) have got your back. You can call them anytime if you’re not happy.

To become registered, a BAS Agent needs to be qualified and experienced. We are required to have a minimum of 1,400 hours supervised experience lodging BAS’s in the past 4 years, a minimum of a Cert IV Financial Services in Bookkeeping or Accounting, completed a Board Approved Course in GST/BAS Taxation Principles, obtained Professional Indemnity Insurance and continue to do ongoing study (CPE) every year. This minimum standard will help you sleep at night.

To make sure your BAS Agent knows their stuff, the TPB ask us to study and give evidence that we are keeping our knowledge and skills up to date through taking relevant courses.

This means as a BAS Agent, we spend a whopping 90 hours every three-years studying our little hearts out about things that would probably make you….zzzzzzz.

As a BAS Agent, we spend time, money and tonnes of brain-power doing seminars, webinars, workshops, courses and other educational activities like research, writing and presentations.