Overdue BAS for hairdressers, beauty and tattoo artists

Let 2Fin do the boring bits

Catching up is mostly sorting, and sorting is the part 2Fin takes off you. Bring in two years of bank statements at once — CSV, Excel or PDF, several files in one go — and Fin reads every line; in testing, 1,891 transactions came in in about a second on a desktop computer. Each transaction is categorised with its GST or VAT worked out, every overdue quarter is listed with its due date, and Fill all periods saves a draft of each one with a single press.

What is left for you is the decisions, not the data entry. Purchases are grouped by payee — the product supplier, the chair rent, the booking platform — so you answer each payee once and the answer covers every quarter. Fin’s confident guesses (80% sure or more) can be accepted in one tap and undone one by one, and a payee can become a rule so the next import sorts itself. Every figure opens to the transactions inside it, and the finished statements export for you or your agent to check and lodge.

Takings: cash, card and bookings

Every service you are paid for is a sale: cash in the drawer, card terminal settlements, deposits through a booking app. They all count toward the $75,000 threshold, and once you are registered they all go in G1 with their GST in 1A. The ATO publishes small business benchmarks for hairdressers and asks salons to check they have reported all their income; under-reported cash is one of its small-business focus areas.

Card terminals and booking platforms usually settle in batches, net of their fees. In a catch-up, the sale is the full amount your client paid, and the fee is a separate cost. This is general information. Check what applies to you with a registered tax or BAS agent, or with the tax office.

Stock, products and equipment

Colour, ink, needles, skincare and retail products carry GST credits once you are registered, with a tax invoice for anything over $82.50. Product you take home for yourself or your family is private use, which the ATO asks salons to account for. Chairs, tattoo machines, lights and sterilising equipment are claimed in 1B at the business share; on Simpler BAS there is no separate capital purchases label.

Chair rent and working from someone else’s studio

Renting a chair or room in someone else’s salon or studio and keeping your own clients’ payments points to a business of your own: your takings are your sales and the rent is a cost, with a GST credit when the owner is registered and gives you a tax invoice. Working for the owner is different, and whether you are an employee or a contractor changes whose BAS the work belongs on. The ATO’s employee-or-contractor guidance sets out the difference; settle it before catching up. This is general information. Check what applies to you with a registered tax or BAS agent, or with the tax office.

Hair and beauty in the UK or New Zealand

In the UK, HMRC’s Flat Rate Scheme rate for hairdressing or beauty is 13%, and VAT registration starts at £90,000. In New Zealand, GST registration starts at $60,000 a year.