ATO Contractor Pre-Fill
TPAR Reconciliation — 2026 Return

Because from tax time 2026 the ATO pre-fills contractor income into individual returns for the first time, using Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) data from payers in construction, cleaning, courier and food delivery, road freight, IT, and security. The pre-filled figure is the GROSS amount the payer reported — including GST where it was charged, and before any platform fees or expenses were taken out. For rideshare especially, platforms report gross fares, so the figure can be thousands of dollars more than what reached your bank. The pre-fill is a starting point the ATO expects you to verify against your own records, not a bill: you still deduct your business expenses to arrive at the taxable profit.

No. You owe tax on your net business profit: the pre-filled gross amount, less GST if you are registered (income is reported excluding GST), less the platform's service fees or commission where the reported figure is gross of them, less your vehicle claim (88 cents per work kilometre for the 2025-26 return, capped at 5,000 km, or the logbook method), less other business costs — phone work-share, delivery bags, tolls and parking, insurance, accounting fees. The tax on that profit is then set by your marginal bracket on top of your other income, plus the 2% Medicare levy. A $15,000 pre-filled figure can easily resolve to a taxable profit near $10,000 and tax near $3,000 for someone on a mid-range salary.

Most TPAR information is processed and matched after 28 August 2026, because payers' TPAR reports for 2025-26 are themselves due by that date. The ATO's explicit guidance is not to lodge early: if you lodge in July or early August the contractor data may not have arrived yet, and you risk reporting incomplete income and having to amend later. Waiting until after 28 August gives the most complete pre-fill; the self-lodgment deadline is 31 October 2026, so there is ample time to lodge after the data lands and still be comfortably early.

The gross amount a payer reports under TPAR includes GST where it was charged, but the pre-fill places income into your return excluding GST — GST is settled through your BAS, not your income tax return. Whether you must be registered depends on the work: rideshare drivers must register for GST from the first dollar because ride-sourcing is treated as taxi travel, while delivery-only drivers and most other contractors only need to register once turnover reaches $75,000. If you are registered, roughly 1/11th of a GST-inclusive gross figure is GST you remit on your BAS (less credits on expenses), and only the remainder is assessable income.

The platform's service fee or commission, where the reported figure is gross of it — this is the single biggest deduction for rideshare drivers. Vehicle costs by either method: cents-per-km at 88c for the 2025-26 return (capped at 5,000 work kilometres, $4,400 maximum, covering ALL running costs so nothing else can be claimed for the same car), or a 12-week logbook applying your work-use percentage to actual costs, which usually wins for regular drivers. Then the work share of your phone plan, delivery bags and cradles, tolls and parking on work trips, platform-required insurance, and accounting fees. Keep records for all of it — pre-fill changes what the ATO already knows about your income, not the evidence you need for deductions.

Usually not immediately. A loss from a business activity is subject to the non-commercial loss rules: unless you pass one of the tests (for most people, at least $20,000 of assessable income from the activity in the year, with your total adjusted income under $250,000), the loss is deferred and carried forward to offset future profits from the same activity, rather than reducing your salary tax this year. A small side hustle that books a paper loss after cents-per-km rarely passes the tests. If the calculator shows a loss, treat the deferred outcome as the default and take specific advice before offsetting it against other income.