PAYG. BAS. IAS. Payroll tax. Payday Super. If half of that sounds like alphabet soup, you're not alone — here's what it all actually means, in plain English.
These get mixed up constantly, and most business owners aren’t sure who to actually call when something comes up. Here’s the honest breakdown.
In practice, these two go together. A bookkeeper handles the day-to-day — recording transactions, reconciling bank accounts, tracking what’s owed and what’s owing, and keeping your records accurate and ATO-ready. But most of that work touches GST coding, payroll and BAS-related figures, and legally, providing that kind of advice or lodging on your behalf requires registration as a BAS Agent with the Tax Practitioners Board. In other words, there’s very little bookkeeping left that can properly be done today without also holding BAS Agent registration. If someone’s doing your bookkeeping and touching your compliance obligations without that registration, it’s worth asking the question.
Focuses on the bigger picture: your annual tax return, tax planning and structuring, and higher-level financial strategy. Think of it as a journey and a destination — day-to-day compliance keeps you on track along the way, and your accountant gets you to where you’re going at the end of the year. Ideally, both work together and talk to each other, rather than operating in isolation.
The tax you withhold from an employee’s wages each pay run and send to the ATO on their behalf, so they’re not left with a large tax bill at the end of the year. This is separate from superannuation.
Regular prepayments you make toward your own expected income tax bill for the year (as a business or an individual), based on your income. The idea is to spread your own tax out across the year instead of one lump sum at tax time. Easy to confuse with PAYG Withholding, but it’s the opposite direction — withholding is tax you collect from someone else; instalments are tax you prepay for yourself.
The periodic statement GST-registered businesses lodge with the ATO, reporting GST collected and paid, PAYG withholding, PAYG instalments, and a few other obligations depending on your business. Usually quarterly, sometimes monthly.
Similar idea to a BAS, but used by businesses that aren’t registered for GST, or to report PAYG obligations in the months between BAS lodgements. Less well known than BAS, but plenty of small businesses and sole traders deal with these.
Tax on what you actually earn — profit, not turnover. Applies to individuals, sole traders, partnerships, trusts and companies, though the rates and rules differ depending on the structure. Rates and thresholds are set federally and do change, so always check the current figures rather than relying on last year’s numbers.
A state tax, not a federal one — and genuinely one of the most commonly confused obligations. It only applies once your total wages bill (across all employees, sometimes grouped across related businesses) crosses a threshold set by your state or territory’s revenue office. It has nothing to do with PAYG withholding, even though the names sound similar.
The minimum super contribution employers are legally required to pay for eligible workers, currently 12% of ordinary time earnings. Non-negotiable, and applies regardless of how the business itself is performing that quarter.
This is the compliance change causing the most questions right now, so it gets its own section.
From 1 July 2026, employers must pay super at the same time as wages, instead of quarterly. Contributions generally need to reach the employee’s super fund within 7 business days of payday (a small number of situations, like a new employee’s first pay, allow up to 20 business days).
It’s designed to stop super going unpaid or arriving late, and to let employees’ balances start earning returns sooner instead of sitting unpaid for up to a quarter.
You become liable for the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) — calculated on total wages rather than just ordinary time earnings, plus interest and an administration fee per employee. Unlike a normal, on-time super payment, SGC payments are not tax-deductible. The ATO has said it will take a measured approach to compliance in the first 12 months, but the obligation itself starts from 1 July 2026 regardless.
This is the part that catches people out. Having an ABN and invoicing like a contractor doesn’t automatically mean someone is excluded from super. The law looks at the substance of the arrangement: if a contract is essentially for a person’s labour — they’re doing the work personally, can’t delegate or subcontract it to someone else, and aren’t supplying significant equipment of their own — they can still be treated as an employee for super purposes, even though they’re paid as a contractor and handle their own income tax. If that applies, the same Payday Super timing rules apply to them too — there’s no separate or relaxed timeframe for contractors.
One thing worth understanding clearly: contractor payments generally aren’t reported through Single Touch Payroll the way employee wages are, so the ATO doesn’t have the same real-time visibility into whether a contractor’s super was paid on time. That’s a gap in detection, not a gap in the obligation. It would typically surface later — through a contractor complaint, an ATO audit or data-matching exercise, or a misclassification review — and if a contractor is found to have been misclassified, the super liability backdates across the entire engagement, not just from the point it’s picked up. Lower visibility now isn’t the same as lower risk. This is well worth reviewing in any subcontractor arrangement, rather than assuming an ABN settles the question.
This page is general information only, current as of July 2026, and isn’t personal tax, financial or legal advice. Rates, thresholds and rules change — for guidance specific to your business, let’s have a conversation.
That’s completely normal — most business owners are flat out running the business, not studying legislation. Let’s talk through what actually matters for yours.