Most working holiday makers with an ABN never touch GST. Registration is compulsory once turnover reaches $75,000 in a twelve month period, and almost nobody on a 417 or 462 visa gets near that.
What does the $75,000 threshold actually measure?
Gross turnover from your business activities over any rolling twelve month period, before expenses. Not profit, and not wages you earn on a TFN, so a year of cafe work plus a little freelance income sits nowhere near the threshold even if the combined total looks large.
The test is forward looking as well as backward looking. You must register within 21 days of the month your turnover reaches $75,000, or of the point you reasonably expect it to. That expectation rarely arises on a working holiday, because the visa limits how long the enterprise can run.
- Under $75,000 of ABN turnover: registration is optional for most activities
- $75,000 or more: registration is compulsory within 21 days
- Employment income paid through payroll never counts towards the threshold
- Turnover is gross, so fuel, tools and platform fees do not reduce it
Who has to register regardless of income?
Anyone providing taxi travel or ride sourcing, meaning carrying paying passengers. Drive for Uber, DiDi, Ola or a taxi network and the threshold does not apply: GST registration is required from your first trip, even if you only ever do a handful.
Food delivery is the distinction people get wrong. Delivering meals for Uber Eats, DoorDash or Menulog is not passenger transport, so the ordinary $75,000 threshold applies and most delivery riders never need to register. Drivers doing both are caught by the passenger side and must register for everything.
- Passengers for a fare: GST from the first dollar, no threshold
- Food and parcel delivery only: ordinary $75,000 threshold applies
- Both in the same ABN: registration required, covering all of it
What happens if you are not registered?
Nothing, which is the point. You issue invoices without GST, lodge no Business Activity Statements, and your only obligation under the ABN is to declare the income on your tax return and pay income tax on the net figure at the working holiday maker rate of 15% on the first $45,000.
Staying unregistered below the threshold is compliant rather than a shortcut, and it is the ordinary position for most backpackers with an ABN.
What does registering actually commit you to?
Collecting 10% on top of what you charge, holding it, and handing it to the ATO on a schedule. The 10% is never your money, and it is reported on a Business Activity Statement quarterly for most people.
Registration also lets you claim back the GST you paid on genuine business purchases. Where the costs are fuel and a phone plan, those credits rarely justify four BAS lodgements a year and the record keeping behind them.
- Charge 10% on invoices and keep it separate from your own money
- Lodge a BAS quarterly, or monthly at higher turnover
- Claim credits for GST paid on genuine business expenses
- Cancel the registration when the enterprise ends, and lodge any outstanding BAS
What is the most common GST mistake backpackers make?
Registering when there was no need to. People tick the GST box during an ABN application because it looks professional, and the obligation is real: BAS lodgements start immediately and keep falling due whether or not any income arrives.
The registration can be cancelled from the date the enterprise ended, or from the date it began where it should never have existed, and outstanding statements are lodged as nil where that is true. How much work it takes depends on how long it ran unnoticed, because each quarter that passed is a separate lodgement.