You recorded a bank fee, an interest payment and a laptop. Your activity statement needs each of them on a different label — and getting one wrong means over-claiming credits or under-reporting sales. Fin gives every category a tax treatment so the statement fills itself in, label by label, with a source on every figure.
A bank fee, an interest payment and a laptop look like three ordinary lines on a bank feed, and each belongs on a different part of the activity statement. The bank fee has no GST in its price, so it is a purchase at G11 with nothing to claim, noted at G14. The interest is income with no GST, but it is not GST-free — it is input-taxed, reported at G4, and it quietly denies credits on anything you bought to earn it. The laptop is a capital purchase: its GST is claimable now at 1B through G10, while the cost itself is written off over years in the asset register.
No GST in the price. Part of G11 as a purchase, and recorded at G14 on the worksheet so no credit is claimed. Treatment: GST-Free Expenses.
A financial supply. Part of G1 on the BAS and recorded at G4 on the worksheet as input-taxed income, not G3 GST-free. Treatment: Input Taxed Income.
A capital purchase with $200 of GST. G10 on the statement, the $200 to 1B this quarter, and the $2,000 written off over two years. Treatment: GST on Capital.
A tax treatment is a tax code, not a rate. It answers two questions for every line at once: is tax inside this price, and which label on the return does the amount feed. A 10% rate tells you how much GST is in a taxable sale; it cannot tell you that an export goes to G2, that residential rent goes to G4, or that a transfer between your own accounts goes nowhere at all. Accounting platforms call the same thing a tax rate or a tax code — GST on Income, GST Free Income, Input Taxed, GST on Expenses, GST on Capital, BAS Excluded — and the codes are the vocabulary your accountant already uses.
Bank Fees defaults to GST-Free Expenses, Interest Income to Input Taxed Income, Computer Equipment to GST on Capital. Set it once and every transaction sorted into that category inherits it.
The merchant fee that did carry GST, or the one export invoice in a domestic sales category, gets its own treatment from the inline GST editor. The transaction always wins over the category.
A recorded GST of zero does not make a line GST-free — it might be input-taxed, out of scope, or simply not enriched yet. Where no treatment is set, Fin falls back to what it can see and marks the result Inferred on the statement, so you know which rows to check.
The GST rate on the transaction date, the BAS labels and the ATO's definition of each one are kept up to date for you and checked against the worksheet the ATO publishes. Nothing to reconfigure when the rules change.
Pick the treatment once on the category and Fin puts every matching transaction on the right labels. Here is where each one lands, with the kind of spending that usually carries it.
| Treatment | Typical transactions | BAS and worksheet labels |
|---|---|---|
| GST on Income | Sales and fees you charge GST on | G1 · 1A |
| Export sales | Goods or services supplied overseas | G1 · G2 |
| GST-Free Income | Basic food, some health and education sales | G1 · G3 |
| Input Taxed Income | Interest earned, residential rent | G1 · G4 |
| GST on Expenses | Everyday purchases with GST in the price | G11 · 1B |
| GST on Capital | Laptops, tools, vehicles, equipment | G10 · 1B |
| GST-Free Expenses | Bank fees, basic food, most medical costs | G11 · G14 |
| Input Taxed Expenses | Repairs and agent fees on a residential rental | G11 · G13 |
| Private | The personal share of a phone plan or car | G11 · G15 |
| Wages / PAYG withheld | Staff pay and the tax you withhold from it | W1 · W2 |
| BAS Excluded | Transfers, loan principal, drawings, the GST payment itself | Not reported |
G1, 1A, 1B, W1 and W2 go on the BAS you lodge, and so do G2, G3, G10 and G11 if you use the full reporting method. G4, G13, G14 and G15 are calculation-worksheet amounts: they work out your sales and 1B credit, and never appear on the form itself. Costs of earning interest only count at G13 once you pass the financial acquisitions threshold, which most small businesses do not.
Not sure about one? Run "Suggest treatments" and Fin proposes a treatment for every category — you review the list before anything changes.
The activity statement in Fin is a document, not a form to fill in. It carries your business name, tax identifier, period, basis and who prepared it; one row per label with the official code and a plain description; and a provenance badge on every figure.
Any label can be adjusted, and the adjustment needs a reason — an invoice that arrived after the cut-off, a correction your accountant asked for. The original figure, the new one, the reason, who and when all go into the audit trail under the statement, and the trail lists the source transactions behind each section so a reviewer can walk from a label back to the bank line.
The simple view shows the labels most small businesses lodge. The full view adds the G1 to G20 worksheet and the instalment labels, with each section linked to the authority page that defines it. Print either to PDF.
Fin prepares; you lodge. A declaration step gates marking the statement final, and from there you lodge through the ATO, myGov or your registered tax or BAS agent, with every figure traceable to the transactions behind it.
Step 1
Every category gets a grouped treatment picker — income treatments, expense treatments, capital, private, wages and BAS Excluded — with the labels each one feeds and the authority definition beside it.
Step 2
Fin proposes a treatment for each category from its name and history (bank fees to GST-Free Expenses, interest to Input Taxed Income, computers to GST on Capital). Nothing is applied until you review and accept the list.
Step 3
A merchant fee that did carry GST, or an export invoice in an otherwise domestic sales category — set the treatment on that one transaction from the inline GST editor. The transaction override always wins over the category default.
Step 4
For a phone plan or a vehicle used privately too, set the business share once. The statement sends the business share to G11 or G10 and the private share to G15.
Step 5
Each label shows Auto-filled, Inferred, Manual or Adjusted. Inferred rows are the ones worth a second look — they mean no treatment was set and Fin had to fall back to what it could see.
A capital purchase is two tax events on different clocks: the GST credit now, the cost over its effective life. The register carries the second one.
GST-free, input-taxed and BAS Excluded are the three codes people mix up. The long version, with the interest-income and bank-fee examples worked through.
A quick 1A, 1B and net figure from your quarter's totals — the arithmetic, without an account.
Single-term definitions: tax treatment, input-taxed, GST-free, BAS Excluded, capital purchase. Built for the way you work: sole traders, small business, working with an accountant.
Tax treatment, answered
The labels and formulas on this page come from the authorities' own worksheets. Read them directly:
Computed from published government rates and guidance. General information to prepare with, not personal tax advice — confirm what applies to you with your accountant or tax authority.
Connect your bank, accept the suggested treatments, and your next activity statement is already drafted — with a source on every figure.
