Restaurant accounting in Sydney answers to the ATO and Revenue NSW.

A Sydney restaurant lodges with the ATO, Revenue NSW and icare

Payroll tax is a NSW tax, lodged with Revenue NSW through Payroll Tax Online, and workers compensation is a premium paid to icare. Add the ATO, and each of the three runs to its own dates:

• Every payday: STP to the ATO on or before payday, and super to each fund within 7 business days.
• Every month: an IAS to the ATO if you withhold $25,001 or more a year, and payroll tax to Revenue NSW 7 days after the month ends once the yearly bill passes $20,000.
• Every quarter: the BAS, due 28 October, 28 February, 28 April and 28 July.
• Every year: the payroll tax annual return by 28 July, even when it's nil, and icare's actual wages declaration within four months of the policy year ending.

We lodge the IAS and BAS as your registered tax agent, and lodging the quarterly BAS through an agent may get you extra time. The payroll tax and icare figures come from the same pay runs. Our hospitality accounting page covers the ATO side in full.

A second restaurant in a new company shares the first one's threshold

NSW charges payroll tax at 5.45% on wages above $1.2 million a year, and employer super counts as wages. A second site in a new company doesn't get its own $1.2 million if the same people control both. Revenue NSW groups businesses under common control, which for a company means more than 50% of the voting power at directors' meetings or of the voting shares, and only one member of a group can claim the threshold.

Take two restaurants, each in its own company, with the same two directors:

• First restaurant: $13,500 a week of wages plus 12% super, or $786,240 a year
• Second restaurant: $9,000 a week of wages plus 12% super, or $524,160 a year
• Group wages: $1,310,400
• Less one threshold: $1,200,000
• Taxed wages: $110,400
• Payroll tax at 5.45%: $6,016.80 a year, about $116 a week

As two unrelated businesses, neither would owe anything. Grouped, they owe $6,016.80. Their wages and super run at $25,200 a week, about $111,600 in a 31-day month, which is over the $101,918 monthly threshold, so the group has to register within 7 days after that month ends. With a yearly bill under $20,000, it can pay with the annual return or choose to pay monthly.

We'd put that number in the second site's forecast next to rent and fitout, before the lease is signed. Our piece on restaurant break-even shows the rest of that forecast. Revenue NSW can exclude a business from a group in some cases, which is a question for a lawyer or specialist adviser before you rely on it.

Late super costs payroll tax as well

Before super moved to payday, we lodged super guarantee charge statements for venues that came to us with super paid late or not at all. In NSW, super guarantee charge is liable for payroll tax too, so a group already over the threshold pays 5.45% on the charge on top of the ATO's bill.

Our piece on payday super covers what the 7-day rule does to a venue's cash. If the ATO side is already behind, our ATO debt help page sets out how we get the lodgments up to date and help set up a payment plan you can keep.

A restaurant lease fixes rent and outgoings for years

A retail lease runs for an initial term, often 3, 5 or 7 years, and the rent is usually reviewed every 12 months by the method the lease sets, such as a set percentage, CPI or a market review. The landlord's disclosure statement, due at least seven days before you sign, has to set out the rent, the review method and the outgoings.

We'd run those numbers through the forecast before you sign: base rent, the reviews, the outgoings and any land tax, which a retail landlord can only pass on as if the shop's land were the only land they own. If a dispute comes up later, retail lease disputes go to mediation through the NSW Small Business Commissioner, and applying costs nothing.

Before you sign for a second site

• The group: every business the same people control, with its wages and super.
• Payroll tax: 5.45% on the combined wages above $1.2 million, and the month the group will pass the monthly threshold.
• The lease: rent, reviews and outgoings in the forecast, and the option deadline in the diary. It's often 1 or 3 months before the lease ends, not the last day.
• The first site: every BAS, IAS and STP lodgment up to date before the second one opens.

Bring the list to your monthly call with Amit before you sign.

Restaurant accounting for Sydney, from Bella Vista

We're at Colab in Bella Vista and work remotely for restaurants across Sydney, from the Inner West, the Eastern Suburbs and the CBD to the North Shore, the Northern Beaches, Parramatta and the Hills. To start, you nominate us with the ATO using our agent number, 26371473, and give us access to Xero. We clean up the history free, then lodge from books reconciled every week.

Every package includes a monthly call with Amit, who started Soul Burger and has spent 15 years in hospitality. The weekly bookkeeping underneath is on our restaurant bookkeeper in Sydney page, and the national version is on our restaurant bookkeepers and accountants page.

What restaurant accounting costs with us

The accounting starts in Essentials, $599 a month, which lodges your monthly IAS and quarterly BAS on top of the weekly payroll, supplier payments, reconciliation and P&L. Foundation, $799 a month, adds annual company and personal tax returns. Core, at $499, is the bookkeeping without the BAS, for owners keeping their accountant.

Every package is on our pricing.