Suitable for: Anyone who is a rideshare driver

Tax Difficulty: Beginner

Airtax Experience: First time users

Time to read: 3-5 minutes

A rideshare driver's BAS example

We get lots of customers asking us to give them an overview of how to undertake a BAS. The goal of this article is to show you how an example Airtax rideshare user would complete their expenses section on their BAS, given their circumstances. This example profile contains some features that are relevant for a wide range of business activities, and most are specific to rideshare drivers. 

When you come to complete your BAS on Airtax, every expense entry you make and business use percentage you apply impacts your overall GST position for the period. The effect of this can range from a couple of dollars, to over $100, which is why it is so important to use an accurate and consistent approach as you work through your BAS.

Our Airtax BAS form has been developed in a collaboration between our Accountants and our customers. A lot of our customers say the BAS form is so simple to use, however, we recognise for a first time user it can be a bit complicated.

Breaking down the form

Firstly, the user needs to sign-up for Airtax and then start a BAS for the relevant period. Once you have completed sign-up, then you can start a BAS from your dashboard here and clicking the BAS plus-sign (highlighted below).

The BAS form lists a number of expense fields for you to use - which is really useful - however, it is how you use them which matters!

Background context for an Airtax user's rideshare business for the quarter:

• They are a rideshare driver, and use their car sometimes for personal use.
• They have determined from their logbook that the business use percentage that relates to the running of their car is 70%.
• The Airtax Uber prefill function has loaded tolls and rideshare fee amounts for them based on the trips they have made with Uber, and has also set a business use percentage of 100% for these expenses (as there is no personal use attributable for these expenses when there is an Uber passenger in the car).
• They also drive with Didi and Ola.
• $500 (inc. GST) worth of fuel was incurred for the period - this is the total amount of personal + business purpose fuel.
• They paid their annual car insurance bill during this BAS period, totaling $600.
• A $250 service was completed during this period, which has been listed in the ‘Maintenance’ field.
• They paid for $50 worth of car supplies during the period, including air fresheners and mints, for which they determined 90% of this expense was incurred for a business use.
• Total car wash charges for the period was $50.
• They have a phone internet bill of $99 for 3 months. They estimate that it is used 60% of the time for the purposes of rideshare driving, and 40% for a personal use.
• In the third month of the BAS period, the user purchased a new car for $25,000 (inc. GST) using a loan arranged through a bank.

Based on the above information, this is how this user would complete their Airtax BAS: This is what their BAS form looks like once they have entered their background information.

• Notice how the business use percentage of the car has been applied to those expenses that relate to the running of the car, including fuel, car insurance, maintenance and cleaning. 
• This is how the user should enter their phone internet bill, given the 60% business use percentage they have determined.

Accounting for the car purchase is a more difficult concept. If you would like to read more about the BAS treatment of a car purchase, check out this Help Centre article.

Where you can get more help:

• Feel free to search for other topics in the Help Centre
• If interested, consider using our Business Assist service to discuss with a qualified Tax Specialist about your BAS (recommended for first time users)

• If you want to speak to someone about your current Airtax income tax return, book in a Tax Assist call or Tax Professional call with a tax specialist.

This document merely provides a broad outline of the subject and is necessarily general in nature.  If you require specific advice, which is tailored to your specific circumstances, please do not hesitate to contact us (fees would apply).