Platform work is contracting, not employment. You need an ABN, nothing is withheld from what the platform pays you, and no superannuation is paid on it.
Why is platform work treated as contracting?
Because the platform pays you for completed jobs rather than for your time, and does not control your hours the way an employer does. Uber, DoorDash, Menulog and the rest engage riders and drivers as independent contractors, a genuine classification here rather than the disguised employment you see in cafes and farms.
So you need an ABN before you can be onboarded, you set aside your own tax, you receive an annual platform statement rather than an income statement, and you can deduct the costs of doing the work. You also receive no superannuation, no award rate and no workers compensation.
What is the GST rule that catches almost everyone?
Ordinary ABN work only requires GST registration once turnover passes $75,000 in a financial year. Rideshare does not follow that rule. Passenger transport services, which includes Uber, Ola, Didi and their equivalents, require GST registration from the first fare.
Food delivery is different. Uber Eats, DoorDash and Menulog sit under the standard $75,000 threshold, so a rider doing delivery only usually has no GST obligation. The distinction follows the work rather than the app: add passenger rides to a delivery week and the rideshare registration requirement is triggered.
Registration brings a Business Activity Statement obligation, usually quarterly, and it persists until you cancel it. A driver who registered and then ignored the statements can face backdated liability for the GST component of every fare taken.
What can you deduct against platform income?
Everything genuinely incurred in doing the work, and for driving that is a large list because the vehicle is the business.
- Fuel, servicing, registration, insurance and depreciation, apportioned to work kilometres
- Interest on a vehicle loan, at the same apportionment
- Mobile phone and data for the app
- Tolls and parking incurred while working
- Vehicle cleaning
- Delivery equipment: bag, helmet, bike maintenance and repairs for couriers
- Platform commissions and service fees
Vehicle costs can be claimed on a cents per kilometre basis or by actual costs supported by a logbook. The logbook method usually produces a larger deduction for anyone driving serious hours, and it is also the method that fails most often for lack of records. Our guide to vehicle logbooks sets out what one has to contain.
Does the ATO already know what you earned?
Yes. Platforms report annual earnings directly to the ATO under the Sharing Economy Reporting Regime, so the income figure exists in ATO systems before you lodge anything.
That makes under reporting platform income the least effective omission available. It also makes multi apping simpler than it looks: every platform reports separately, and a return covering three platforms is matched against three reports.
How does multi apping work for tax?
As one business, not three. Running Uber Eats, DoorDash and Menulog at once is a single sole trader enterprise: one ABN, income summed across platforms, expenses pooled, one set of business items in the return.
Expenses need no allocation between apps, because the bike or car serves the enterprise rather than any one platform. One spreadsheet with date, platform, gross earnings and kilometres carries everything downstream.
Why does this go wrong so often for working holiday makers?
Because nothing is withheld and nothing prompts you. Someone earning $25,000 through delivery in a year has had no tax taken at any point, and the working holiday rate of 15% on that income is still owed, payable in a single amount at lodgement.
Someone who also had ordinary wages is usually better off, because the PAYG withheld from those wages frequently absorbs the tax on the platform income. Someone who did platform work only, and set nothing aside, gets a bill.
How was your platform year made up?
Platform work is straightforward once the registrations are right. What you owe depends on how the year was made up.
- Whether you drove passengers or delivered food, which decides the GST question entirely.
- Whether you also had wages, since the withholding from those often covers the platform tax.
- Whether a logbook exists, which decides how much of the vehicle cost is claimable.
- How much you set aside as you went.
- Whether you registered for GST and lodged the activity statements that came with it.
- Whether the ABN and any GST registration were cancelled when you stopped.
The combined position is worked out in the working holiday tax return, and you can estimate your tax refund to see whether your year lands as a refund or an amount owing.