Alternate Australian GST setup

The following GST scheme is used by MYOB BussinessBasics.

Since GST is money you owe the government (or visa versa) you create an account called:

• Liabilities:GST

Then, to make your balance sheet more informative, you create two sub accounts:

• Liabilities:GST:Collected
• Liabilities:GST:Paid

Whenever you receive income you record the GST component in Liabilities:GST:Collected and whenever you make a purchase you record the GST component in Liabilities:GST:Paid.

At the end of each accounting period if you owe the government money then you record the amount you paid it in Liabilities:GST:Paid. Or if the government owes you money then the amount you receive should be recorded in Liabilities:GST:Collected.