Working out your ride-sourcing income and GST

You must keep records of the income you earn from ride-sourcing, your ride-sourcing expenses, GST you collect from your passengers and GST you pay through expenses, and the calculations you used to work each one out.

• Your income is everything the platform has charged your passenger on behalf of your ride-sourcing business and any other payments such as bonuses or miscellaneous payments the platform has paid you.
• Using the income spreadsheet:
  • Gross Income is the full amount of income received from the platform (as indicated in the platform statements) – the total goes at G1 in your BAS.
  • GST = Gross income divided by 11. This total goes at 1A in your BAS.
  • Net income = Gross income – GST. This total is recorded in your annual tax return.

Working out your ride-sourcing deductions and GST

• To work out the deductions from your platform statement, record every expense charged to your passenger on behalf of your ride-sourcing business and the expenses the platform has charged you for their service.
• Using the deductions spreadsheet:
  • All expenses are recorded under Receipt Total
  • Expenses with GST included are also recorded under Gross Expense
  • GST = Gross expense divided by 11
  • The Net expense column records the expense exclusive of GST
  • The Net expense = Receipt total - GST.
• There are two different ways you can claim car expenses:
  • the cents per kilometre method
  • the logbook method.
• If you are not using your ride-sourcing vehicle 100% for business you will need to apportion your car related expenses and other ride-sourcing expenses and the GST on these.
• Record your apportioned GST in ‘Final GST’ and your apportioned Net expenses in ‘Final Net Expense’.
• Record the Final GST amount at 1B in your BAS.
• Record the Final net expense amount in your annual tax return.

Reporting GST 

• If you buy a new car for ride-sourcing there is a car limit of $68,108 (for the 2023-2024 financial year). This means if your car cost $70,000 you can only claim GST on $68,108 which is 1/11th of $68,108 = $6,191. This is recorded at 1B in your BAS for the BAS reporting period that the car was bought.
• If you are not using your car 100% for ride-sourcing you will need to apportion the GST on your car related expenses and other ride-sourcing expenses.
• If you sell your ride-sourcing vehicle that you bought and claimed GST on its purchase price – you will record the sale amount at G1 in your BAS and record the GST you collected on its sale at 1A in your BAS.