What GST actually is (and when you need to charge it)
You've registered for GST because your accountant told you to. But do you actually know where the money goes? Here's the ten-minute version.
You registered for GST because you hit $75,000 in revenue, or because your accountant said you should. Now you add 10% to every invoice. Every quarter you fill in a BAS form. Money goes to the ATO. You don’t think about it much.
But GST isn’t your money. It was never your money. Understanding that one fact changes how you think about your cash flow.
The flow
When you charge a client $1,100 (including GST), you’ve collected $100 on behalf of the ATO. That $100 was never yours — you’re holding it temporarily. When you do your BAS, you send it to the government.
But here’s the other side: when you buy a $550 camera cable (including GST), you paid $50 in GST that you can claim back. Your BAS submission nets the two: you collected $100, you paid $50, you owe the ATO $50.
That’s it. That’s the whole system. You’re a collection agent for the government, and the BAS is your settlement.
Try it yourself
Punch in an invoice amount and see the split. Toggle between GST-inclusive and exclusive to see how the numbers change.
When you don’t charge it
Not everything attracts GST. Some services are GST-free. Some are “input taxed” (which is a different thing). And if you’re under $75,000 in annual turnover, you don’t have to register at all — though you might choose to, because claiming back the GST on your expenses can be worth more than the compliance cost.
If you’re a freelancer earning $60,000 a year and spending $15,000 on gear, the GST on that gear is $1,363 you could claim back. Whether that’s worth the quarterly BAS filing is a conversation for your accountant, not a blog post.
Does GST apply?
What Autobooks does with it
When you set up a tax preset (Australia has 10% GST), Autobooks applies it to every line item and shows you the breakdown. The invoice displays the GST component separately. When you export to Xero, the tax codes are already mapped. The BAS isn’t Autobooks’ job — that’s your accounting software — but the numbers that feed into it are clean and correct because they were calculated properly from the start.
The cash flow trap
The most expensive lesson freelancers learn about GST: that 10% isn’t spare money. When a $11,000 invoice lands in your account, $1,000 of it belongs to the ATO. If you spend it, you’ll need to find it again at BAS time.
Set it aside. Separate account, automatic transfer, whatever works. The money was never yours.