Business activity, in general, refers to the overall actions which a given business or corporation might take in the course of carrying out its goals. Business activity might cover a number of different elements of business, such as buying some form of asset or property, selling some form of asset or property, investing in another company or property, and renting out property.
Business activity is a very general term and refers to no specific element of these activities. The activities which any given business performs on a day-to-day basis make up that business’ business activity.
Most businesses must keep records of some kind of all of their business activity, as it is important that businesses be able to identify their costs and their revenue sources. This means that accounting for business activity is one of the most important functions of any given business. Furthermore, in many countries, such an accounting of business activity must be submitted to the Government for review and determination of taxes.
For example, a business activity statement must be submitted to the Government in Australia by every business. A business activity statement states the overall income of the business through its business activity. The purpose of this business activity statement is to facilitate the determination of appropriate taxes for the company based on its business activity.
Many nations require some similar form of a business activity statement for their tax departments with a full accounting of the various kinds of business activity undertaken by that business.
