What is the deferred GST scheme? How importers stop paying at the wharf

Approved importers do not pay GST at the border at all. The 10% moves onto the monthly BAS instead — where, for stock imported for your business, the matching input tax credit offsets it in the same statement. Instead of paying at the wharf and claiming back later, the cash simply never leaves.

For a regular importer, the deferred GST scheme (DGST) is the single largest cash-flow lever in Australian customs — and it costs nothing but a change of lodgment cycle.

(General information only, current at August 2026. Confirm your own position before acting.)

The problem it solves

Without deferral, every shipment over A$1,000 stops at the same toll gate: 10% of the customs value plus freight, insurance and any customs duty, payable before the goods clear. You then recover that GST as a credit on your next BAS — weeks or months later.

The tax comes back, but the cash conveyor it creates is expensive: money permanently trapped between wharf and refund, growing with your import volume, financed out of your working capital at exactly the moment stock costs peak.

An importer bringing in A$50,000 of stock a month fronts A$5,000 per cycle. Across a year that is A$60,000 of payments made and then waited on — and proportionally more in the pre-Christmas build when shipments cluster.

What deferral changes

With DGST approval, customs entries clear with the GST deferred, not collected. The deferred amount is reported on the first BAS lodged after import — and on that same BAS, a fully creditable import generates an equal input tax credit.

Label against label, the net cash effect of the import is zero. No payment at the wharf, no waiting for recovery, no conveyor.

	Without DGST	With DGST
At the border	Pay 10% before clearance	Nothing — GST deferred
On the BAS	Claim credit later	Deferred GST reported and credited in the same statement
Cash position	10% trapped per shipment until refund	Neutral

The conditions — and the one that needs sequencing

To be approved you must:

• Hold an ABN and standard GST registration. Simplified (limited) registrants are outside the scheme — one more way that registration choice decides your margin
• Lodge your BAS monthly, online. This is the real price of admission. Quarterly lodgers must switch to monthly — and the switch takes effect from the start of the next quarter, so you cannot defer imports until then
• Be otherwise in good standing — outstanding lodgments, unpaid liabilities or relevant convictions can see approval refused or revoked

That timing rule is the trap worth planning around. Decide in the middle of a quarter, and your deferral starts months later — after the container you were trying to defer has already paid at the wharf. Sequence the application ahead of your shipping schedule, not behind it.

Apply online with the ATO’s approval form (NAT 75136). Once approved, your ABN connects to customs processing and entries clear with deferral applied.

Is monthly lodgment worth it?

Monthly BAS means twelve lodgments a year instead of four. Whether that trade pays depends on scale:

• Importing steadily (say A$20,000+ a month at the border, i.e. A$2,000+ of GST per cycle): almost always yes — the working capital freed dwarfs the extra compliance
• Importing occasionally (a few shipments a year): the case is thinner; run the numbers against your BAS costs
• In a growth or stock-build phase: deferral is at its most valuable exactly when shipments cluster and cash is tightest

One adjacent benefit: monthly cycles surface errors quarterly lodgment hides for months — wrong importer names, missed credits — while they are still cheap to fix.

The prerequisite most non-resident sellers trip on

Deferral moves the GST onto your BAS; the credit side still depends on the same conditions as ever: standard registration, and your entity named as importer on the customs entry. Deferring GST on entries lodged in your forwarder’s name defers a liability you cannot offset. The importer-of-record article in this series covers that field — check it before you apply, not after.

What to do next

Three numbers decide this: your monthly border GST (10% of customs value plus freight, insurance and any duty), your BAS cost on a monthly cycle, and the working capital you currently have trapped between wharf and refund. If the first number is four digits, the scheme is usually not a close call.

Confirm your registration position first with the 2-minute GST registration check. For the full setup — standard registration, importer-of-record instructions, DGST approval sequenced to your shipping calendar, and the monthly cycle run for you — see AusTax Bridge.

General information only, current at August 2026. It does not take your circumstances into account. Scheme eligibility and approval are administered by the ATO and can change. Confirm your position with a registered tax agent before acting.