Every morning, I flick through Accountant Daily, and lately, it’s become crystal clear that the ATO is using the publication to quietly drip-feed their latest strategies to accountants like us. This is their way of getting us to carry their message to our clients — and the latest one is worth paying attention to.

What’s Happening?

Starting 1 April 2025, the ATO will move some small businesses from quarterly to monthly GST reporting — and they aren’t doing it randomly. They’re targeting businesses with a history of non-compliance. That means if you’ve:

• Missed BAS lodgement deadlines;
• Lodged your BAS incorrectly; or
• Fallen behind on your tax payments (even if you’ve been trying to catch up);

You could very well find yourself switched to monthly BAS reporting whether you like it or not.

The ATO says they’re doing this to help you embed better habits — and to be fair, there’s some logic to it. Monthly reporting forces you to stay on top of your accounts, keep your cash flow tight, and manage your GST obligations in smaller, more regular amounts instead of one big hit every three months.

But make no mistake — this isn’t just the ATO playing coach. It’s about monitoring your business more closely and making sure they have a clearer window into your finances every single month.

What This Means for You — and Why You Should Talk to Us Now

If you’ve been avoiding dealing with your ATO debt or hoping the quarterly BAS cycle will give you breathing room, those days could be numbered. Moving to monthly BAS lodgement will dramatically change how you manage your books and your cash flow.

This would be a great time to come and talk to us — because once the ATO starts breathing down your neck every month, it’s going to be a lot harder to stay out of trouble without a solid plan.

If you already have a payment arrangement with the ATO, or you’re working with us to clean up your tax situation, you might avoid this shift. But if you’ve been ignoring those overdue BAS notices or letting debt pile up, it’s only a matter of time before you receive that formal letter from the ATO.

How This Affects Our Business — The Hidden Cost of Monthly BAS for Accountants Like Us

We’re not just thinking about what this means for you — we’re also thinking about what this means for us.

Many of our clients are fantastic at what they do — but staying on top of tax compliance and payments hasn’t always been a priority (that’s why they work with us). Right now, we manage a large chunk of BAS reporting on a quarterly cycle, which spreads the workload fairly evenly across the year.

But if the ATO forces large numbers of our clients into monthly BAS reporting, this would:

• Triple the reporting workload for each affected client.
• Compress the turnaround times — monthly deadlines come around fast.
• Increase the risk of errors and missed deadlines — especially if clients are still slow in getting their records to us.
• Put pressure on our internal team — because each monthly BAS has to be reviewed, reconciled, and lodged.

This is a huge shift in workflow for us, and if enough clients get caught up in this new policy, we’ll need to rethink how we allocate resources, prioritise work, and price our BAS services.

The Catch-22 for Clients Who Don’t Pay Their BAS

Here’s the kicker — many of the clients who could be forced into monthly reporting are also the ones struggling to pay their tax debt. Lodging BAS more often doesn’t make the debt magically go away — if anything, it exposes you to faster enforcement action from the ATO.

If you lodge late once under quarterly reporting, you might buy yourself a few months before the ATO starts knocking. But under monthly reporting? You’re only ever a few weeks away from the next deadline — and the next missed payment notice.

This creates a perfect storm where:

• You have more frequent lodgement deadlines.
• You have less time to scrape together funds to pay the ATO.
• The ATO has a closer, more real-time view of your cash flow and financial struggles.

This is why we’re encouraging all clients with tax debt issues to talk to us now — not in 6 months when the ATO forces the issue.

What We’re Doing to Prepare

We’re already reviewing our workflows, client lists, and compliance schedules to see how many clients might be affected by this shift. If we need to restructure how we manage BAS work, we’ll do it — but we’d rather help you avoid being dragged into monthly reporting in the first place.

If you’re struggling with tax debt, behind on BAS lodgements, or worried about ATO enforcement, now is the time to get proactive. We can help you:

• Negotiate payment arrangements to get the ATO off your back.
• Review your accounts and get your lodgements up to date.
• Develop a cash flow plan to manage GST better.

The ATO isn’t backing off — they’re just changing tactics, and they’re using us, your accountants, to help spread the message. Let’s work together to keep your business compliant, your cash flow under control, and your tax headaches to a minimum.

Don’t Wait — Call Us Now

If you’re not sure where you stand with the ATO — or you know you’ve fallen behind — give us a call today. The earlier we act, the more options we have.

Serviced by related company Fresh Number Pty Ltd