I’m not an accountant, but I’ve dealt with a similar GST situation before, so hopefully this helps clarify things a bit.
Once you became GST-registered, any taxable sale of business assets (including the caravan) generally becomes subject to GST — even if you originally bought the item second-hand and no GST was included in the purchase price. So yes, in most cases you would need to report 1/11th of the sale price as GST on your final BAS.
The second-hand goods rules can be confusing. My understanding is that those rules mainly allow GST-registered businesses to claim input tax credits when purchasing eligible second-hand goods for resale, even when the seller didn’t charge GST. They usually apply to businesses trading in second-hand goods (like dealers or resellers), not to business assets used in operations (like a coffee caravan you operated from). Because the caravan was used as a business asset rather than inventory for resale, that rule likely wouldn’t apply here.
Regarding cancelling GST registration — you were actually right to keep the registration active until trading stopped and all business assets were sold. The Australian Taxation Office generally expects businesses to remain registered until they’ve completed final sales, lodged the last BAS, and finalised obligations. Cancelling earlier can sometimes complicate things.
What I would suggest now:
- Include the caravan sale in your final BAS while still registered for GST.
- Declare GST on the sale if it was sold as part of closing the business.
- Then cancel GST registration after lodging the final BAS.
Since your accountant disappeared (which is incredibly frustrating), it might be worth calling the ATO small business helpline directly — they’re usually quite helpful with closure questions and can confirm your exact situation without charging you.
You’re definitely not alone closing a business has a lot of moving parts, and GST on asset sales catches many people off guard.
6 views
0 replies