The Administrative Appeal Tribunal (‘AAT’) has held that a taxpayer could not claim $91,239 of input tax credits (‘ITCs’) at least partly because it lodged the relevant BASs more than 4 years too late.
Specifically, the GST Act operates such that, if an extension of time to lodge a BAS has not been granted prior to the expiry of 4 years after the day on which it was required to be given to the ATO, the entitlement to ITCs immediately ceases.
The AAT also noted that there is no discretion to circumvent this part of the GST Act, and the ATO cannot provide further time to lodge a BAS retrospectively outside of the relevant 4 year period.
It did not matter that the taxpayer was (for example) involved in a dispute with a franchisor nor that they were impacted by lockdown restrictions.
Therefore, the taxpayer was no longer entitled to claim ITCs in relation to the BASs lodged by the taxpayer 4 years after they were required to have been given (and was also denied other ITCs for BASs that were lodged within the required 4 year period, as a substantial amount of the ITCs claimed remained unsubstantiated by a valid tax invoice).
Robinson Voss Partners can provide further information about managing BAS, bookkeeping and advice for tax matters affecting your business, and we invite you to contact us to find out more. Phone our team on 03 9708 8801 or email info@rvpartners.com.au..
Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the information’s applicability to their particular circumstances.
The information contained within this document is of a general nature only and neither represents nor is intended to be personal advice on any particular matter. Robinson Voss Partners (RV Partners) strongly suggests that no person should act specifically on the basis of the information in this document, but should obtain appropriate professional advice based on their own personal circumstances.
