The rideshare difference (read this first)
If you drive passengers — UberX, DiDi, Ola, Bolt — the tax rules are not the same as delivering food. The moment you accept your first paying trip, you are required to have an ABN and be registered for GST. There is no $75,000 turnover threshold for rideshare.
This comes from section 144-5 of the GST Act, which requires anyone supplying "taxi travel" to be registered for GST regardless of turnover. The Federal Court confirmed that ride-sourcing counts as taxi travel in Uber B.V. v Commissioner of Taxation [2017] FCA 110, holding that UberX trips fall squarely within that rule.
Food-only delivery is different: Uber Eats, DoorDash and Menulog use the ordinary $75,000 threshold — you only register for GST once your delivery turnover reaches it. But if you do both rides and food on the same ABN, the rideshare rule wins: you must be registered from dollar one, and all of your income — the food-delivery side included — flows through your BAS.
No ABN yet? Start with the free ABN application guide before your first shift.
Quarterly BAS: your new admin rhythm
Once you are registered for GST, you lodge a Business Activity Statement (BAS) every quarter. The standard ATO due dates are:
| Quarter | Period | BAS due |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | Jul – Sep | 28 October |
| Q2 | Oct – Dec | 28 February |
| Q3 | Jan – Mar | 28 April |
| Q4 | Apr – Jun | 28 July |
Lodging through a registered tax agent's electronic program generally gives you roughly a 4-week extension on each of those dates.
Miss the deadline and the ATO can apply a Failure to Lodge (FTL) penalty: one penalty unit for every 28 days the statement is late, capped at 5 penalty units for a small business. A penalty unit is currently about $330, so the cap works out to up to around $1,650 per statement — plus General Interest Charge on any GST you owed. Lodging on time, or through an agent, avoids all of it.
Your income: the Uber Tax Summary
Uber issues a monthly and an annual Tax Summary. It breaks your earnings into gross fares, the service fee (Uber's commission), booking fees, tolls, and the GST collected on each. The annual version is published around mid-July each year, and the ATO accepts it as the source document for both your quarterly BAS and your annual tax return.
Here is the trap that catches new drivers: your GST is 1/11 of gross fares — the full fare the passenger paid — not 1/11 of the net amount that lands in your bank after Uber takes its cut. You then claim GST credits back on the service fee and your other business costs, which reduces the net GST you hand over, but the starting point is always gross fares. Get this backwards and your BAS will be wrong every quarter.
What you can claim
Your car is your biggest cost. Two methods — you pick one each year:
| Method | What you claim | Cap | Records needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cents per km | 88¢ per km (FY2025-26 rate) × work-related km | 5,000 work km/yr | Reasonable estimate of how you reached the km figure |
| Logbook method | Actual running costs × work-use % (fuel, rego, insurance, servicing, repairs, depreciation, interest) | No cap | 12-week logbook + receipts |
A full-time driver covers far more than 5,000 work km a year, so the cents-per-km cap leaves a lot of genuine cost unclaimed. The logbook method has no cap and reflects a full-time driver's real running costs much more closely — the trade-off is record-keeping. A logbook covers any 12-week period and stays valid for 5 years, so it is a one-off effort for several years of returns.
Deductions that are specific to carrying passengers (food-delivery drivers don't have these):
- Water, mints, tissues and phone chargers you provide for passengers
- Car cleaning and car washes to keep the vehicle presentable for riders
- Platform service fees / commission — shown on your Tax Summary
- Phone and data at your genuine work-use %
- Tolls incurred while carrying a passenger — but if Uber already reimbursed the toll on your Tax Summary, you can't claim it a second time
- Registration, insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation — but only inside the logbook method, at your work-use %
The idea that ties all of this together is work-use %. Almost nothing about a rideshare car is 100% business — you drive it privately too. The logbook is how you work out the honest percentage that is genuinely for passengers, you apply that percentage to your costs, and you keep the records for 5 years in case the ATO asks.
What you can't claim: fines (speeding, parking), personal trips even with the app on, your normal commute, meals while driving, and the private-use share of any car cost.
Your annual tax return
BAS is not your income tax return — it is separate. At the end of the year, during the 1 July – 31 October tax season, you lodge an individual return that includes a business schedule (Business and Professional Items) for your rideshare activity:
Net profit = gross fares − service fees − deductions, which flows into your individual return.
If you also have a PAYG day job, that salary is reported on the same return — your rideshare profit is simply added on top and taxed together. FY2025-26 covers 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026.
How much tax will you actually pay?
There is no flat "Uber tax". Your net rideshare profit is added to any other income and taxed at Australia's resident marginal rates for FY2025-26 — the more you earn overall, the higher the rate on the top slice. GST is separate: it is money you collected on the ATO's behalf, not part of your taxable income, so set aside a portion of every fare for both your income tax and your GST.
Want to see the numbers for your own driving before you lodge? Try our free Uber driver profit & tax calculator — plug in your fares and costs to estimate profit and set-aside.
Getting it done
Rideshare returns combine three things myTax does not handle for you: the sole-trader business schedule, GST reconciliation from your Tax Summary, and the logbook apportionment. That combination is where DIY drivers most often go wrong.
Need a professional? Browse every TPB-registered tax agent near you in the AusTax directory, or post a request and matching practices will contact you — free.
Delivering food instead of, or as well as, driving passengers? See the Uber Eats driver tax guide and the DoorDash driver tax guide for how the $75,000 threshold changes things on the delivery side.
Need Help With Your Tax Return?
Complex situation? a registered tax agent (see the directory) Our partner agents review every detail for accuracy and compliance.
*Disclaimer: This is general information only and does not constitute personal tax advice. Consult a registered tax agent for advice tailored to your specific situation. Always verify against the latest ATO guidelines at ato.gov.au.*
This is general information only, not personal tax advice. Rideshare and sharing-economy tax rules change, and GST registration is easy to get wrong in your first year — confirm your situation with a TPB Registered Tax Agent before you lodge.