BAS estimator for AU locums
Estimate your quarterly BAS labels (G1, G3, 1A, G11, 1B, and net GST) from aggregated clinical and taxable receipts. No account needed.
What the BAS labels mean
Total sales including any GST. Feeds the ATO turnover view and is the first figure every BAS quarter starts with.
Export sales: supplies shipped outside Australia. Near-zero for locums, except cruise ship or offshore-platform medicine.
Other GST-free sales. For locums, this is almost entirely s38-7 clinical services.
GST collected on your taxable sales. Calculated on the GST-inclusive amount as amount divided by 11.
Non-capital purchases: everyday business expenses including GST-inclusive and GST-free lines.
Input tax credits: GST you paid on business purchases and can claim back. Only available when GST-registered.
Net GST payable is 1A minus 1B. A positive result is owed to the ATO; a negative result is a refund. Locums with mostly GST-free clinical receipts and taxable business expenses often see a small refund each quarter once registered.
Quarterly BAS is the default for AU locums. Monthly lodgement only kicks in at $20 million of turnover, which no individual locum approaches. A registered tax or BAS agent usually gets a four-week extension beyond the standard lodgement dates.
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Common questions
What is a BAS?
A Business Activity Statement is the quarterly or monthly form a GST-registered business lodges with the ATO to report sales, purchases, GST collected, GST paid, and any PAYG instalments. For most AU locum contractors it is a quarterly form. Key labels: G1 (total sales), G3 (GST-free sales), 1A (GST on sales), G11 (non-capital purchases), 1B (GST on purchases). Net GST payable is 1A minus 1B.
Do I lodge BAS monthly or quarterly?
Quarterly for most locum contractors. The ATO moves businesses to monthly once GST turnover reaches $20 million, which is well above any single locum. A handful of locums lodge monthly voluntarily to smooth the cashflow, but the default for everyone on Sessional is quarterly.
Are my clinical receipts GST-free or taxable?
Clinical services supplied by an AHPRA-registered practitioner as appropriate treatment of the recipient are GST-free under GST Act s38-7. This covers the bulk of locum work: GP consults, specialist consults, hospital shifts, pharmacy dispensing, allied health consults. Taxable at 10% instead: medico-legal reports, insurance reports, employer fit-for-duty assessments, cosmetic and aesthetic work, teaching, committee fees, and agency service fees billed to you.
What about mixed-supply receipts?
A mixed supply has clinical and non-clinical components in one receipt, for example an event medicine contract that pays for both active treatment and standby cover, or a shift that includes teaching time. Mixed supplies must be apportioned between GST-free and taxable before lodgement. The estimator cannot split these for you: apportion your receipts into the correct buckets first, then enter the split totals.
When does the $75,000 GST registration threshold bite?
You must register for GST once your projected annual GST turnover reaches $75,000. Importantly, GST-free clinical receipts still count toward the turnover test, even though no GST is charged on them. A GP billing $150,000 of GST-free Medicare work has turnover of $150,000 for the threshold test and is required to register, even though the BAS will show $0 in 1A until they add taxable work.
When are BAS quarters due?
Standard lodgement dates: Q1 (Jul to Sep) due 28 October, Q2 (Oct to Dec) due 28 February, Q3 (Jan to Mar) due 28 April, Q4 (Apr to Jun) due 28 July. A registered tax or BAS agent usually gets a 4-week extension on each of these. Pay by the same date to avoid the general interest charge.
Does this estimator lodge the BAS for me?
No. Sessional never lodges BAS on your behalf. The tool prepares the numbers you or your accountant type into the ATO Online Services or the ATO Business Portal when lodging. If you use a registered tax or BAS agent, they lodge through their own software and this estimator is a sanity check.
Let Sessional generate your BAS, not just estimate it
Track shifts, invoices, and expenses with GST classification built in. Your BAS labels populate automatically every quarter; export for your accountant or lodge yourself.