Do I Need to Register for GST? Australian Gig Work
Rideshare drivers must register from their first dollar. Delivery riders get the $75,000 threshold. If you do both, one rule quietly overrides the other — check which applies to you.
Quick answer: Australian gig workers face two different GST tests, and which applies depends on whether you carry paying passengers. RIDE-SOURCING — carrying passengers via UberX, DiDi, Ola or Bolt — is treated as taxi travel for GST purposes, so the $75,000 GST turnover threshold DOES NOT APPLY: you must have an ABN and be registered for GST from your first dollar of fares, however few hours you drive. FOOD AND PARCEL DELIVERY — Uber Eats, DoorDash, Menulog, Amazon Flex — is not taxi travel because no passenger is carried, so the ordinary $75,000 GST turnover threshold applies and registration is voluntary below it. THE TRAP: GST registration operates at the ENTITY level, not per activity. A driver who does any ride-sourcing at all must register, and once registered GST applies to ALL their taxable supplies — so delivery income that on its own would sit under $75,000 is pulled into the GST system as well. One rideshare shift a week brings an entire year of delivery earnings into GST. GST is one eleventh of the GST-inclusive fare ($10 on a $110 fare, not $11), offset by GST credits on the business-use share of fuel, servicing, insurance, platform commission and phone. GST turnover is measured on the GROSS fare the customer pays, not the net payout after platform commission — a frequent cause of people believing they are under the threshold. Registration is required within 21 days of becoming aware turnover has reached or will exceed $75,000, and the test is forward-looking as well as backward-looking. An ABN is required for all gig work regardless of GST. Residential rent is input taxed and does not count toward GST turnover. Sources: ATO ride-sourcing guidance; A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 s 144-5 and s 23-5.
Last reviewed 2 August 2026 by the Richify AI editorial team.
The test turns on whether you carry paying passengers — not on which platform pays you.
Gross fares and delivery fees the customer pays — before the platform’s commission, not your net payout.
Used to show how much delivery income the entity-level rule pulls into GST.
You must register — and it captures your delivery income too
Because you carry passengers, ride-sourcing forces registration from the first dollar regardless of turnover. The part people miss is that GST registration applies to you as an ENTITY, not to each activity: once registered, GST applies to all your taxable supplies. So the roughly $36,000 of delivery income in your $48,000 total — which on its own would have been well under the $75,000 threshold — is now inside the GST system as well, adding about $3,273 of GST you would not otherwise have owed.
This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in Australian gig tax. If you drive one rideshare shift a week alongside full-time delivery, that one shift brings the entire year of delivery earnings into GST.
GST on turnover
$4,364
One eleventh, before credits
Threshold
None
Taxi travel — register from $1
Caught by the entity rule
$3,273
GST on delivery income you'd otherwise not owe
Why does rideshare have no GST threshold?
Because the GST law treats it as taxi travel. The A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 carves out taxi travel from the ordinary registration turnover threshold, so anyone supplying it must be registered regardless of how little they earn. The carve-out predates the rideshare platforms and was written for conventional taxis, but the ATO applies it to ride-sourcing on the same basis: you are transporting passengers for a fare. The practical consequence is unusual in Australian tax — there is no small-supplier relief at all. A student who drives four hours on a Saturday night and earns $3,000 across a year has exactly the same GST registration obligation as a full-time operator, and must have registered before the first fare rather than at any later point.
Why delivery is treated differently
Delivering food or parcels is not taxi travel, because no passenger is being transported. That single distinction moves delivery riders out of the no-threshold rule and back into the ordinary regime that applies to almost every other small business: register once GST turnover reaches $75,000 in a rolling 12-month period, and before then it is your choice. It is why an Uber Eats rider and an UberX driver working for the same company on the same night have entirely different obligations. Two details are worth holding onto. GST turnover is measured on the gross fee the customer pays, not the amount the platform deposits after commission, so drivers who think in net terms routinely underestimate where they sit. And the $75,000 test covers your combined business turnover, not just one platform — delivery for three apps is added together, as is any other enterprise you run.
The mistake that costs the most: mixing the two
GST registration attaches to you as an entity, not to each activity you perform. That is easy to state and expensive to overlook. If you drive passengers at all, you are required to register from your first fare — and from the moment you are registered, GST applies to every taxable supply you make, not only to the fares that triggered the obligation. Your Uber Eats income, your DoorDash income, your Amazon Flex income all become subject to GST, even though on their own they would have been comfortably under $75,000 and required nothing. A rider earning $60,000 from delivery who picks up occasional rideshare shifts does not simply add GST on the rideshare portion; they bring the whole $60,000 into the system. The reverse is worth knowing too: the credits come with it, so the business-use share of GST on fuel, servicing, tyres, insurance, platform commission, phone and car cleaning becomes claimable across all of that activity, which softens the outcome without reversing it.
Assumptions and limits of this checker
Labelled so you can judge the output. (1) It applies the ride-sourcing/taxi-travel rule and the $75,000 registration turnover threshold as they stand at August 2026. (2) The GST figure is a gross estimate at one eleventh of turnover and does not subtract the GST credits you can claim on business expenses — your actual net BAS liability will be lower, often materially so for drivers with high vehicle costs. (3) It does not calculate income tax, the tax-free threshold, PAYG instalments, or deductions such as the cents-per-kilometre or logbook methods. (4) It assumes your activities are taxable supplies; input-taxed activities such as residential rent are excluded from GST turnover and are not modelled. (5) The rideshare/delivery split in the “both” scenario is your own estimate and is used only to illustrate how much delivery income the entity-level rule captures. (6) It does not address whether you are an employee rather than a contractor, which some platforms and jurisdictions continue to litigate. This is general educational information, not tax advice — confirm your position with the ATO or a registered tax agent.
Sources
- ATO — “Ride-sourcing” and “Ride-sourcing: Registrations”: ride-sourcing is taxi travel, so GST registration is required regardless of turnover.
- ATO — “Getting taxi service and ride-sourcing provider GST registration and income right” (small business focus areas).
- A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 — s 144-5 (taxi travel: registration required irrespective of turnover) and s 23-5 / s 23-15 (registration turnover threshold, $75,000).
- ATO — “Sharing economy and tax”: GST turnover measured on gross supplies; 21-day registration requirement; residential rent input taxed.
Last updated: 2 August 2026.
General educational information only — not tax, legal or financial advice, and it does not consider your circumstances. GST obligations depend on your specific activities and turnover. Confirm with the ATO or a registered tax agent before registering or lodging.
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There are two different GST tests for gig work in Australia, and which one applies depends on what you carry, not which app you drive for:
- Ride-sourcing has no threshold — carrying paying passengers is “taxi travel” for GST purposes, so the $75,000 turnover threshold does not apply. You must be registered before your first fare.
- Delivery uses the ordinary $75,000 test — food and parcel delivery is not taxi travel, so registration is voluntary below $75,000 of GST turnover.
- Registration is entity-level, not per activity — so if you do any ride-sourcing at all, you must register, and GST then applies to all your taxable supplies, including delivery income that would otherwise have been under the threshold.
- GST is one eleventh, and credits offset it — $10 on a $110 fare, reduced by the GST on the business-use share of fuel, servicing, insurance, platform commission and phone.
Sources: ATO — “Ride-sourcing”, “Ride-sourcing: Registrations”, and “Getting taxi service and ride-sourcing provider GST registration and income right”; A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999, s 144-5 (taxi travel) and s 23-5 (registration turnover threshold).
How to use this calculator
- Choose what you actually do — the test turns on whether you carry paying passengers, not on which app you use or who pays you.
- Enter your expected GST turnover for the next 12 months. Use the gross fares and delivery fees customers pay, before the platform takes its commission.
- Read the verdict. Ride-sourcing has no threshold at all; delivery and other gig work use the $75,000 test.
- If you do both, read the entity-level warning carefully — it is the point most drivers get wrong and it changes what you owe on your delivery income.
- Check the estimated GST on your turnover, remembering you can offset it with GST credits on the business-use share of your expenses.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Do Uber drivers have to register for GST in Australia?
Yes — from the first dollar. Ride-sourcing is treated as taxi travel for GST purposes, and the $75,000 GST turnover threshold that applies to most small businesses does not apply to taxi travel. If you carry paying passengers through UberX, DiDi, Ola, Bolt or any similar platform, you must have an ABN and be registered for GST before you take your first fare, even if you only drive a few hours a month and earn a few hundred dollars a year.
Do Uber Eats and DoorDash drivers have to register for GST?
Not until $75,000. Food and parcel delivery is not taxi travel because you are not carrying passengers, so the ordinary GST registration turnover threshold applies. If your GST turnover from delivery and any other business activity stays under $75,000 in a rolling 12-month period, registration is voluntary. You still need an ABN and you still declare the income on your tax return — the $75,000 test is about GST only, not about income tax.
What if I do both rideshare and food delivery?
Then you must register, and this is the point that catches most people out. GST registration applies to you as an entity, not to each activity separately. Because your ride-sourcing requires registration from the first dollar, you become a registered entity — and once registered, GST applies to all of your taxable supplies, including the delivery income that on its own would have been below the $75,000 threshold. One UberX shift a week is enough to bring an entire year of Uber Eats earnings into the GST system.
How much GST do I actually pay on a fare?
GST is one eleventh of the GST-inclusive amount, not 10% of it. On a $110 fare the GST is $10, not $11. Against that you can claim GST credits on the business-use share of your expenses — fuel, servicing, insurance, platform commission, phone, car cleaning — so the net amount you remit is the GST on your fares minus the GST on those costs. For many part-time drivers the credits meaningfully reduce the bill, which is why voluntary registration is sometimes worth considering even below the threshold.
What is GST turnover and does it include the platform's commission?
GST turnover is your gross business income excluding GST, and for ride-sourcing and delivery it is measured on the full fare or delivery fee the customer pays — not the amount that lands in your bank account after the platform takes its cut. This matters because a driver who thinks in terms of net payouts can be well past $75,000 of turnover while believing they are under it. The platform's commission is a business expense you claim, not a reduction in your turnover.
When do I have to register once I cross the threshold?
Within 21 days of becoming aware that your GST turnover has reached or will exceed $75,000. The test is forward-looking as well as backward-looking: it is not only whether you have already earned $75,000 in the past 12 months, but whether you reasonably expect to over the next 12. If you can see a busy period coming that will take you over, the obligation is triggered by that expectation, not by waiting for the money to arrive.
Should I register voluntarily if I am under $75,000?
It depends on your expenses. Registering means charging GST on your delivery fees and lodging a business activity statement, but it also lets you claim GST credits on the business-use portion of your costs — and if you buy a car, that includes the GST on the purchase price up to the car limit. A delivery rider with high vehicle costs and low turnover can come out ahead; a courier on a bicycle with almost no GST-bearing expenses generally will not. Model it before opting in, because deregistering later has its own consequences.
Do I need an ABN as well as GST registration?
Yes, and the ABN comes first — you cannot register for GST without one. Everyone earning gig income in Australia needs an ABN because you are carrying on an enterprise, regardless of how small the amounts are and regardless of whether GST registration is required. The two are separate: an ABN is universal for gig work, while GST registration is compulsory only for ride-sourcing or once you pass $75,000.
How often do I have to lodge a BAS once registered?
Quarterly by default for turnover under $20 million, with the option to lodge monthly. Businesses that register voluntarily while under the $75,000 threshold may be able to elect annual lodgement. The practical implication for drivers is to set aside the GST as it is earned rather than treating the whole fare as income — a rough rule is to move one eleventh of each fare aside, then reduce that by the GST credits you expect to claim on expenses.
Is renting out a room or a car park the same as ride-sourcing for GST?
No. Residential rent is input taxed, not taxable, so it does not count toward your GST turnover and does not create a GST liability. Ride-sourcing is a taxable supply of taxi travel with no threshold; other sharing-economy activities such as renting equipment or car parking are ordinary taxable supplies subject to the standard $75,000 test. The activities are tested differently, so a mix of them needs to be looked at line by line rather than lumped together.
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Further Reading
Know What You Owe Before the BAS Lands
Set aside GST as you earn it instead of finding out at quarter end. Richify tracks your gig income and expenses alongside everything else you own, so the money for the BAS is already accounted for. Free, no ads.
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