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ATO rules for Uber, DoorDash, Airtasker, Airbnb, and 40+ platforms — ABN requirements, GST thresholds, every deduction you can claim, and how to lodge your tax return.
Last updated: August 2026·Source: ATO Gig Economy and Tax
All gig income must be declared — the ATO already receives your platform earnings — and this guide walks you through the ABN, the GST rules and every deduction across 40+ platforms.
ABN
Required
All gig work. Free at abr.gov.au.
GST Registration
Rideshare: mandatory
Others: $75K threshold
Tax return
Due Oct 31
All gig income must be declared
Yes — all gig work income (Uber, DoorDash, Airtasker, eBay, Airbnb, etc.) must be declared on your Australian tax return as ‘other income’ or business income. The ATO receives annual data reports from major platforms and cross-matches against tax returns. Failure to declare gig income can result in tax shortfall penalties of 25–75% plus interest. Even if you earned just $500 on Airtasker, it must be declared.
Yes — if you're working as an independent contractor through any gig platform, you need an Australian Business Number (ABN). ABN registration is free and takes about 10 minutes at abr.gov.au.
Without an ABN, platforms that pay you must withhold 47% of your payment as “no-ABN withholding” — you can claim this back at tax time, but it's a significant cash flow problem. Most platforms won't activate your account without an ABN anyway.
Having an ABN doesn't change your tax rate or obligations in isolation — it simply registers you as a business entity so the ATO knows you're operating as a contractor.
Most businesses only need to register for GST once their turnover exceeds $75,000 per year. Rideshare drivers are a critical exception.
🚕 Rideshare (Uber, Ola, DiDi)
Must register for GST from your first dollar earned — even one trip. The ATO classifies rideshare as a “taxi service” under the GST Act, which has always required mandatory registration regardless of income. Non-compliance = GST back-calculated on all income + penalties.
🛵 Food delivery + all others
Register for GST only if your total gig turnover exceeds $75,000 in any rolling 12-month period. Applies to: Uber Eats, DoorDash, Amazon Flex, Airtasker, Airbnb, Fiverr, eBay, Etsy, and all other platforms.
Once registered, you must add 10% GST to your invoices (or display prices inclusive), lodge quarterly BAS statements, and remit the net GST collected to the ATO. You can claim back the GST you paid on business expenses (fuel, phone plan, equipment).
Every dollar of deductions reduces your taxable gig income. A delivery driver earning $25,000/year with $6,000 in legitimate deductions only pays tax on $19,000. Here are the main categories:
🚗 Vehicle
Examples: Fuel, insurance, rego, servicing, depreciation
How to claim: Logbook (% of actual costs) or 91c/km (2026-27; 88c for 2025-26) up to 5,000 km
📱 Phone
Examples: Monthly plan cost, data, accessories
How to claim: Business use % of total plan (keep 4-week diary)
🎒 Equipment
Examples: Insulated bags, phone mount, hi-vis, gloves
How to claim: Full cost if used >50% for work; apportionment if mixed
💻 Platform fees
Examples: Commission/service fee deducted by the platform
How to claim: Full amount (already deducted before payment to you)
🅿️ Parking & Tolls
Examples: Parking during deliveries, toll road costs
How to claim: Full cost — keep receipts or use e-tag records
🏠 Home office
Examples: Internet proportion, electricity if you have a dedicated home workspace
How to claim: ATO fixed rate: 67c/hour while working from home
📋 Accountant fees
Examples: Tax return preparation, BAS lodgement, advice
How to claim: Full cost deductible in year paid
🛡️ Income protection
Examples: Insurance premium if policy covers work income
How to claim: Full premium deductible (held outside super)
⚠️ Vehicle expenses — the biggest win for delivery workers
If you do food delivery full-time, the logbook method almost always beats the cents-per-km method. A driver doing 25,000 km/year for work with $12,000 in total car costs at 80% business use = $9,600 deduction. The cents-per-km method maxes out at 5,000 km × 91c = $4,550 in 2026-27 (5,000 × 88c = $4,400 for the 2025-26 return). Keep a logbook for 12 weeks to unlock the larger deduction for 5 years.
Gig workers lodge individual tax returns (not company returns) covering income from July 1 to June 30 each year. Two options:
myTax (free, ATO)
Registered tax agent (~$150–$400)
Income to declare:All amounts received from gig platforms — before the platform's commission. If DoorDash paid you $24,000 after deducting $3,000 in commissions, your gross income is $27,000 and you then claim the $3,000 commission as a deduction. Don't just declare what hit your bank account.
Under the ATO's data-matching program, the following platforms are legally required to report your annual income to the ATO:
Platforms that have since closed still count. Menulog ceased trading on 26 November 2025 and Deliveroo left Australia on 16 November 2022, but both reported driver data for the periods they operated, and a platform shutting down does not withdraw data already given to the ATO. Menulog's final months fall inside FY2025-26 — the return most people are lodging now — so that income still has to be declared. If that was you, the Menulog closure tax guide walks through rebuilding the figures without the app.
If you omit gig income and the ATO's data says you earned it, you'll receive an amended assessment with penalties of 25% (careless) to 75% (deliberate)of the shortfall amount, plus the ATO's general interest charge (currently ~7.8%/year). A $5,000 omitted tax obligation could become $8,750+ in total liability.
Keep all business records for 5 years from the date you lodge your return (or 5 years from when you prepare the record, whichever is later). This includes:
Store digitally — the ATO accepts scanned receipts and digital records. Apps like Richify or spreadsheets work. Don't rely on memory at tax time.
Gig income is taxed at the same FY2026-27 rates as a salary — but nothing is withheld, so the bill arrives at tax time. What full-year gig earnings owe, computed with the same engine as our calculators (sole trader, no other income, standard Medicare levy, before deductions):
| Weekly gig income | Annual | Tax + Medicare | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500/week | $26,000 | $470 | 1.8% |
| $1,200/week | $62,400 | $10,658 | 17.1% |
| $2,000/week | $104,000 | $23,800 | 22.9% |
So $1,200 a week of gig income owes roughly $10,700 for the year— about $205 of every week's pay — before deductions bring it down. A practical rule: set aside 20–30% of every payout, and remember your marginal rate is what deductions save you at (30% between $45,000 and $135,000). If gig work tops up a salary, it stacks on TOP of that salary and is taxed from your marginal rate, not from zero.
This is the most-confused rule in Australian gig tax, because two different thresholds get blended into one. $75,000 is the GST registration threshold, not an ABN threshold. An ABN has no income floor: if you work as an independent contractor through a platform, you need one from your first dollar — without it, platforms must withhold 47% as no-ABN withholding, and registration is free at abr.gov.au. GST is the separate question: only register under $75,000 if you drive rideshare (mandatory from the first dollar under the taxi rule). Earn $20,000 delivering food? ABN yes, GST no.
Use Richify's free AU gig tax calculator — enter your platform, income, and deductions to get your exact ATO tax estimate with Medicare levy and HECS-HELP. The rules genuinely differ by platform, so pick yours: Uber rideshare drivers must register for GST from the first dollar, while food delivery only registers at $75,000 turnover. MadPaws pet-sitting income and Depop reselling are assessable too, and each carries its own deduction set.
DoorDash Driver Tax Australia →
Platform-specific guide: income, deductions, GST, and tax return.
Uber Eats Driver Tax Australia →
Uber Eats-specific: how payments work, deductions, and lodgement.
Super for Gig Workers →
Contractors aren't entitled to employer super — how to self-fund it.
AU Gig Tax Calculator →
40+ platforms, ATO 2025-26 brackets, Medicare, HECS-HELP.
Yes — all gig work income (Uber, DoorDash, Airtasker, eBay, Airbnb, etc.) must be declared on your Australian tax return as 'other income' or business income. The ATO receives annual data reports from major platforms and cross-matches against tax returns.
Failure to declare gig income can result in tax shortfall penalties of 25–75% plus interest. Even if you earned just $500 on Airtasker, it must be declared.
This is the question that decides whether you declare the income at all, and the most common misconception about it is that there is a dollar threshold. There is not.
The ATO does not care how much you earned — it looks at HOW you operate. The main indicators of a business are: you intend to make a profit (even if you are currently making a loss), your activity is repeated and regular rather than occasional, and you run it in a business-like way — separate account, records, advertising, a plan.
No single factor decides it; the ATO weighs them together. Two consequences people get wrong in opposite directions.
A genuine hobby is not taxable and you do not need an ABN, even if you occasionally sell something. But a substantial one-off amount does not make you a business, and equally, earning only a few hundred dollars does not keep you a hobby if you are clearly operating commercially.
Driving for a rideshare or delivery platform is essentially always a business, not a hobby, because it is regular, systematic and profit-directed from the first shift.
If the side hustle is a business rather than a hobby, every dollar of it is assessable income and goes on your tax return alongside your salary — there is no separate small-income exemption and no tax-free threshold for it, because your day job has already used your $18,200. That means side-hustle income is taxed at your MARGINAL rate from the first dollar: on a $70,000 salary, an extra $5,000 of gig income is taxed at 32% (30% plus the 2% Medicare levy), not at the rate an equivalent standalone income would attract.
Nothing is withheld for you, so budget for it as you earn. On the other side, you can deduct the expenses that genuinely relate to earning it, and if the side hustle makes a loss those losses may be usable — though non-commercial loss rules can defer them if the activity is small.
Platforms report your earnings to the ATO under the sharing economy reporting regime, so it is prefilled or cross-matched either way.
Historically no, because independent contractors sit outside the award and minimum-wage system — but that changed for one group very recently. The Fair Work Commission's Interim On-Demand Delivery Employee-like Worker Minimum Standards Order took effect on 17 August 2026 and sets the first legally enforceable minimum standards for gig DELIVERY workers engaged through digital platforms to deliver food, drink, alcohol and groceries.
It flows from the Closing Loopholes reforms, which created an "employee-like worker" category for contractors on digital platforms who have at least two of: low bargaining power, pay at or below a comparable employee's, substantial reliance on the platform for income, or conditions resembling employment. Importantly this is EMPLOYMENT law, not tax law, and it does not make you an employee — you remain a contractor for ATO purposes, still need an ABN, and still lodge as a sole trader.
Rideshare and non-delivery gig work is not covered by this interim order.
Yes — if you're working as an independent contractor through any gig platform (Uber, DoorDash, Airtasker, Airbnb, Fiverr, Upwork), you should hold an Australian Business Number (ABN). ABN registration is free and takes about 10 minutes at abr.gov.au.
Most platforms require an ABN before they pay you. Without an ABN, other businesses that pay you must withhold 47% of your payment (the top marginal rate) as 'no-ABN withholding' — you can claim this back at tax time but it's a cash flow hit.
It depends on your work type. For rideshare drivers (Uber, Ola, DiDi): YES, you must register for GST from your very first dollar earned — the ATO classifies rideshare as a 'taxi service' which requires mandatory GST registration regardless of income.
For all other gig work (food delivery, Airtasker, Airbnb, Fiverr, eBay): you must register for GST only if your total gig income exceeds $75,000 in a 12-month period. If unsure, err toward registering — it's free and avoids penalties.
Two methods: (1) Cents per km method — 91c per km for 2026-27 (the year you are in now) and 88c per km for 2025-26 (the return being lodged), for up to 5,000 km per year. No logbook needed; you estimate business use from records. (2) Logbook method — keep a logbook for 12 continuous weeks showing business vs personal use.
Apply that percentage to all car running costs (fuel, insurance, registration, servicing, depreciation). The logbook method is better for high-mileage delivery drivers.
For Uber/DoorDash full-time workers doing 30,000+ km/year, the logbook method typically gives a much larger deduction.
Delivery drivers (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Amazon Flex) can claim: vehicle expenses (logbook or cents per km), insulated delivery bags ($30–$200), phone plan (business use percentage), phone mount ($15–$80), protective clothing/gloves/hi-vis vest, parking fees incurred during deliveries, toll road costs during deliveries, platform fees/commissions deducted by the app, any income protection insurance, and accountant fees. You cannot claim: personal clothing, fines, home-to-work travel (before your first delivery), or the cost of the phone handset unless you use it predominantly for work.
Gig workers lodge as individuals (not as a company). Use myTax at my.gov.au (free, pre-filled with platform data) or hire a registered tax agent (typical cost $150–$400).
Report gig income under 'Business income and expenses' if you run a regular gig operation, or 'Other income' for casual/occasional gig work. List deductions in the relevant work-related expense categories.
Tax return due: October 31 if you lodge yourself; tax agents typically have extensions to May 15. Pay any tax owing by November 21.
Yes — Airbnb rental income must be declared on your Australian tax return. The ATO receives data directly from Airbnb.
You can claim deductions for the proportion of the property used for short-term rental: cleaning fees, Airbnb service fee, linen costs, depreciation on furnishings, property repairs, and a proportion of council rates and utilities. If you're renting out a spare room while living in the property, you can only claim deductions on that room's proportion of expenses.
Capital gains implications apply on sale if the property was used as an Airbnb.
If you're GST-registered (mandatory for rideshare, optional once you hit $75K for others), you must lodge a Business Activity Statement (BAS) quarterly. BAS due dates: Q1 (July–September): October 28; Q2 (October–December): February 28; Q3 (January–March): April 28; Q4 (April–June): July 28.
On your BAS, report the GST you collected from customers (G1 total sales) and the GST you paid on business expenses (G10 capital acquisitions or G11 other expenses). Net amount = what you remit or get back from the ATO.
The ATO operates a mandatory data-matching program where major platforms — Uber, DoorDash, Airbnb, Airtasker, Upwork, Fiverr, Etsy, eBay, and others — are required to report payment data to the ATO annually. This means the ATO already has a record of what you earned before you lodge your return.
If your declared income doesn't match the platform data, you'll receive a notice of discrepancy or an audit. Don't omit gig income — the penalties for tax evasion range from 25% (careless) to 75% (deliberate) of the shortfall, plus interest.
Yes — but only the business-use portion. If you use your phone 60% for work (navigation, accepting orders, communicating with customers) and 40% personally, you can claim 60% of your monthly plan cost and accessories.
To calculate business use: keep a diary for 4 weeks showing work vs personal use of your phone, then apply that percentage for the full year. You can also claim 60% of any phone accessories used primarily for work (phone mount, charger).
Note: you can't claim the original cost of the handset unless your employer requires you to provide it — but gig workers are contractors so this rarely applies.
Log income from multiple platforms, estimate your quarterly tax obligation, and get ATO-aligned gig deduction prompts from Felix, your AI CFO. Free on iOS and Android.
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