E-commerce · 🇦🇺 Australia
Four overdue BAS periods and a superannuation problem underneath
The BAS backlog was visible. The missed superannuation quarters underneath it were the expensive part.
Australian e-commerce brand, 11 staff, 3,100 transactions/month. Client identity withheld — we publish names only with written permission, so this engagement is described by its shape rather than by who it was.
4
BAS periods lodged
3
Super quarters remediated
6 weeks
To current
The situation
- A Melbourne e-commerce business had grown through a strong season and stopped reconciling. Four quarterly BAS periods were outstanding.
- The founder's concern was the ATO failure-to-lodge penalty. The larger issue had not been noticed.
What we found
- Three quarters of superannuation guarantee contributions paid after the quarterly deadline, which forfeits deductibility and triggers the Superannuation Guarantee Charge.
- Marketplace payouts recorded net of fees, understating both revenue and expenses and distorting the GST position.
- Inventory never reconciled to the platform, so cost of goods sold was an estimate.
What we did
- Sequenced superannuation first, because that liability compounds differently from a lodgement penalty.
- Rebuilt marketplace payouts gross, separating revenue, fees and GST for each channel.
- Reconciled inventory to the platform and restated cost of goods sold.
- Lodged the four outstanding BAS periods against reconciled figures.
The outcome
- Lodgement brought the penalty clock to a stop, and the super position was remediated and disclosed rather than found later.
- Restating payouts gross moved reported revenue up and margin down — the margin figure the founder had been using for ad spend decisions was wrong.
What we'd flag
Superannuation deductibility for those three quarters could not be recovered. That is a permanent cost of the delay, not something a cleanup can undo.
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