Overdue BAS for painters: paint receipts, the ute and TPAR

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 paint supplier, the hardware store, the fuel — 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.

Paint and materials: the credits you are owed

Paint is most painters’ biggest cost, and the GST on it is a credit you can claim once you are registered. For any purchase over $82.50 including GST you need a tax invoice; a bank line alone is not one. If a supplier never gave you one, ask: they have 28 days to provide it. Wait until you hold it before claiming, even if that moves the credit into a later quarter.

Anything bought for a job and a bit for home — leftover paint on your own fence — is claimed at the business share only. Most painters are on Simpler BAS, so these credits go straight into 1B; there is no separate purchases label to fill.

The ute, and the car you quote in

For GST, a “car” carries a load of under one tonne and fewer than nine passengers. A ute or van built to carry a tonne or more falls outside that, so the car limit does not cap its GST credit; you claim the business-use share of the GST on the price. A passenger car or SUV is different: its credit is capped at 1/11 of the car limit — $6,353 for 2026–27 — and then cut to the business-use share.

Fuel and servicing on the work vehicle follow the same business-use rule. This is general information. Check what applies to you with a registered tax or BAS agent, or with the tax office.

Cash jobs and the threshold

Cash for a weekend job is a sale like any other, and it counts toward the $75,000 threshold. The ATO names under-reporting cash to stay under the threshold as one of its small-business focus areas, and raises GST, income tax and penalties of up to 75% of the shortfall when it finds it. In a catch-up, put the cash jobs in the quarter they were paid; a diary of jobs and amounts is the record.

Paying other painters: the TPAR

If you pay contractors and at least half of your business income or activity (this year, or income last year) is building and construction, you lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report by 28 August each year. Painting and decorating are on the ATO’s list. Report what you paid each contractor, in whole dollars; an invoice mixing labour and paint is reported in full, while materials-only payments are left out. The TPAR is a report, separate from your BAS, but a catch-up is the time to check every year you paid subbies has one.

Painting in the UK or New Zealand

In the UK, VAT registration starts at £90,000 of taxable turnover. On the VAT Flat Rate Scheme, HMRC places painters in labour-only building or construction (14.5%) when materials are under 10% of turnover, or general building or construction (9.5%) otherwise. In New Zealand, GST registration starts at $60,000 a year; see the New Zealand guide for late filing penalties.