Working holiday visas 417 & 462
An ABN does not change your job. It changes your tax return.
Untaxed income, business expenses, a GST position, and one question underneath all three: were you a contractor at all.
Replies in about an hour.
The split
What changes on your return once you have an ABN?
Four things, and they compound.
Nothing was withheld, so the tax is still owed
Wages arrive with tax already taken out. Invoices do not, and the tax on invoiced income is settled once at the end of the year. In a mixed year the payslip half looks like a refund and the invoice half does not.
Deductions become business expenses, and the rules differ
As an employee you claim work related expenses. As a sole trader you deduct the costs of running the business, a wider category with tighter records behind it.
GST is a position, not a formality
Most working holiday makers never approach the $75,000 turnover line, so most should not be registered. Rideshare is the exception. Getting the position wrong means BAS obligations you did not need, or ones you missed.
Whether you were a contractor at all
This is the one that decides the other three. Whether you were really contracting turns on control, not paperwork. An ABN over work that was always employment is the most common reason a backpacker return has to be reworked.
Should you register an ABN because an employer asked you to?
Not before somebody has looked at the job. An ABN over work that is really employment stops your superannuation and your tax withholding, drops workers compensation cover and puts you outside minimum wage and penalty rates. All of it becomes your cost. It is common in farm work, hospitality, cleaning and on building sites.
The test is control, not paperwork. Who decides when you work, who directs how it is done, who supplies the equipment, and who carries the risk if the job goes badly. If the answers point at them, an ABN is the wrong instrument.
Send us the job before you register. What the work involves, who supplies what, and how you will be paid. We will tell you which of the two it is.
The work
What we do about it
Registration itself is free and takes minutes. Everything that decides what it costs you happens either side of it.
We check you need one before you get one
Plenty of people register an ABN for a job that was always employment. That is a conversation, not a form.
We register it against the work you actually do
The business activity you declare follows you into GST, deductions and the return.
We tell you what to put aside
Roughly what the invoiced income will cost you at tax time, so the bill is not a surprise.
We tell you what to keep
Which records support a deduction for your line of work, and which receipts you can stop hoarding.
We take the GST position deliberately
Registered because the rules require it, or not registered because they do not. Never by accident.
We put both halves on one return
Payslip income and invoiced income belong on the same return, reconciled against the same year.
You will never log into myGov, link an ID, or work out which form is which. We deal with the ATO directly.
No ABN yet and no tax file number either? The TFN comes first, because an ABN application is matched against it.
Our guarantee
If your refund is less than our fee, we refund the difference, so you are never out of pocket.
The fee is flat and never a percentage of what comes back.
Tell us what the work looks like
Who you would be invoicing, what you would be doing, and who supplies the equipment. That is enough to tell you whether an ABN belongs in this at all.
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Working holiday tax is the only thing we do.
Which means we see the same ABN arrangements over and over: the farm contract, the delivery platform, the site that pays everyone as a subcontractor.
ABN questions people ask before they message us
Can I just do this myself?
You can, and if your whole year was payslips it is straightforward.
An ABN is what stops it being straightforward: where the line falls between wages and invoiced income, whether you were a contractor at all, which costs come off the invoiced side, and whether you had to register for GST. Those are judgements about your year, not fields to fill in.
How does an ABN change my working holiday tax return?
Wages reach you with tax already withheld and an income statement your employer files with the ATO, so that half largely reconciles itself.
Income invoiced under an ABN arrives untaxed, is declared as business income, and is reduced only by expenses you can evidence. Add the GST position and the question of whether the arrangement was really contracting. Both halves still land on one return.
My employer says I need an ABN for a normal shift job. Is that right?
Usually not, and it is worth pushing back before you register. If they set your roster, tell you how the work is done, provide the tools and can send you home early, you are being treated as an employee, whatever the paperwork says.
An ABN moves the cost onto you: no tax withheld, no superannuation, no workers compensation cover, no minimum wage or penalty rates. Send us the job details before you agree to anything.
Do I need to register for GST on a working holiday visa?
Only if your turnover reaches $75,000 in a year, which most working holiday makers do not come close to, or if you drive rideshare. Anyone providing taxi travel or ride sourcing, Uber included, must register for GST from the first fare however little they earn.
Food delivery riders and couriers are not caught by that rule and fall back on the $75,000 threshold. Registration brings quarterly business activity statements with it.
Can I have both a TFN and an ABN?
Yes, and most working holiday makers who contract end up with both. The tax file number covers you as an employee, the ABN as a sole trader.
They do not go on separate returns: one return covers the financial year and reports both. You need the tax file number first, because an ABN application is matched against it.
What can I claim as business expenses under an ABN?
The costs of earning the income, apportioned honestly where something is used privately as well.
For a delivery rider that means kilometres recorded properly, bike or vehicle running costs, phone and data, insurance, equipment and the commission a platform took. For a subcontractor on a site it is tools, protective gear and travel between jobs.
It never includes the trip to Australia, ordinary commuting from home to one workplace, or anything you cannot show a record for.
What happens to my ABN when I leave Australia?
You cancel it once you have stopped trading, because an active ABN tells the ATO you are still running a business and may still have obligations.
Cancelling does not affect the return for the year you did work, which still has to be lodged, or your ability to claim superannuation from employment income in the same period. If you are leaving soon, tell us early, because the order of cancelling, lodging and claiming super matters.
Guides
More on contracting, expenses and GST
Employee or contractor
The test the ATO applies, and what it costs to be on the wrong side of it.
ABN deductions and business expenses
What a sole trader can deduct, by the kind of work, and the records behind each one.
GST and your ABN
The $75,000 threshold, the rideshare exception, and what registering commits you to.
Both halves land on one return
Payslip income and invoiced income belong on the same tax return for the same year.
How the return works →