The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has held that a partnership’s entitlement to $16,361 of input tax credits claimed for the quarterly periods of 1 July 2012 to 31 March 2017 had ceased by the time the associated BASs were lodged with the ATO on 21 June 2021, and therefore the ATO did not need to pay the taxpayer a refund.

The operation of the GST Act means that, unless an extension of time to lodge a BAS has been granted prior to the expiry of 4 years after the day on which it was required to be given to the ATO, the entitlement to input tax credits immediately ceases.

The ATO has no discretion to get around this.