Overdue BAS for tradies: the ute, cash jobs and catching up

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 wholesaler, the fuel card, the phone company — 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.

The vehicle: ute, van or car

Whether your work vehicle is a “car” for GST decides how much credit you get. A car carries under a tonne and fewer than nine passengers; a ute or van built for a tonne or more is not one. For a car, the credit is capped at 1/11 of the car limit — $69,883 for 2026–27, so $6,353 — and then reduced to the business-use share. For a heavier ute or van, there is no cap: you claim the business-use share of the GST on the price. A leased car’s lease payments are claimed by business use and are not capped at the car limit either.

Luxury car tax is never claimable, and fuel used in light vehicles on public roads is outside the fuel tax credits scheme; the GST on that fuel is still a normal credit at the business share. This is general information. Check what applies to you with a registered tax or BAS agent, or with the tax office.

Cash jobs

A cash job is a sale. It belongs in the quarter you were paid, in G1, with its GST in 1A, and it counts toward the $75,000 threshold. The ATO treats under-reported cash as a small-business focus area and can raise GST, income tax and penalties up to 75% of the shortfall. A job diary with dates, customers and amounts is a sound record for a catch-up.

Phones, tools and the everyday

Phone, internet, tools and consumables are claimed at the business share with a tax invoice for anything over $82.50. Most tradies are on Simpler BAS, so these credits go into 1B with no capital purchases label to fill. If you are not sure a purchase was for work, leave the credit out for now: a missed credit can be claimed in a later BAS within four years.

Lodging the catch-up

Lodge the oldest quarter first through Online services for business, or hand the prepared figures to a BAS agent to check and lodge. The failure-to-lodge penalty for a small business is one penalty unit ($364 from 1 July 2026) per 28 days late, capped at five, and the ATO considers remission once the outstanding statements are in. The full BAS catch-up guide has the penalties, interest and payment plans.