$75,000: Australia's GST Registration Threshold [2026 Full Guide]

Australian businesses must register for GST once their turnover reaches $75,000 a year, current or projected, according to the Australian Taxation Office. Non-profit organizations get a higher bar, $150,000, and taxi, limousine and ride-sourcing drivers must register no matter how little they earn. Miss the 21-day registration window after crossing the line and the ATO can charge GST on sales you never collected it on, plus penalties. Here is exactly how the threshold works, who it exempts, and whether it is about to change.

What is Australia’s GST registration threshold?

$75,000 in GST turnover a year, for most businesses and sole traders. You reach the threshold, and must register, if either your current GST turnover (this month plus the previous 11 months) totals $75,000 or more, or your projected GST turnover (this month plus the next 11 months) is likely to reach $75,000 or more, according to the ATO’s registration guidance. The figure has stayed at $75,000 since GST was introduced on 1 July 2000, unlike income tax brackets and most other Australian tax settings, which are adjusted periodically.

Registration is compulsory once you hit that number, not optional. The ATO’s own framing is direct: “Not every business or enterprise needs to be registered for GST, but penalties may apply if you fail to register when required to do so.” If your turnover is genuinely below $75,000 and you do not fall into one of the mandatory categories below, registering is a choice, covered further down.

Figure 1: Australia’s GST registration turnover threshold by business type. Source: Australian Taxation Office, Registering for GST.

How is GST turnover actually calculated?

Two different 12-month windows, and you only need to trip one of them. Current GST turnover looks backward: your gross business income for the current month plus the previous 11 months. Projected GST turnover looks forward: the current month plus the next 11 months. The ATO requires you to register if either measure reaches $75,000, so a business with steadily rising sales can trigger the requirement on the forward-looking test well before its trailing 12-month total gets there.

Two categories of income are explicitly excluded from projected turnover: proceeds from selling a business asset, such as disposing of a capital asset, and any sale made solely because you are winding down or substantially shrinking the enterprise. That carve-out exists so a one-off asset sale on the way out of business does not accidentally trigger a GST registration obligation for an operation that is closing anyway. The ATO also notes that even if your current turnover is at or above $75,000, you are not required to register if your projected turnover is genuinely below it, so the test looks at trajectory, not just a single trailing snapshot.

Is the threshold different for non-profit organizations?

Yes. Non-profit organizations must register once their GST turnover reaches $150,000 a year, double the standard $75,000 figure, according to the ATO. The same current-versus-projected 12-month test applies, just against the higher number. That gap exists to keep smaller charities, clubs and community groups out of quarterly Business Activity Statement obligations for longer, on the reasoning that many non-profits run on volunteer administrative capacity that a $75,000-turnover commercial business would not have to account for.

Whatever threshold applies, the population that ends up registered skews small. There were 2,729,648 actively trading, GST-remitting businesses in Australia as of 30 June 2025, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Counts of Australian Businesses data. Of those, 994,178 were employing businesses and the remaining 1,735,470, close to two-thirds, operated without employees, meaning most of the entities tracking their turnover against these thresholds are sole traders and small operators, not large employers.

Figure 2: Australia’s 2.73 million GST-registered businesses, split by employment status, 30 June 2025. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses.

Which businesses must register regardless of turnover?

Taxi, limousine and ride-sourcing drivers, full stop, with no turnover floor at all. The ATO requires GST registration for anyone who provides taxi or limousine travel for passengers, which explicitly includes ride-sourcing platforms such as Uber, Ola and DiDi, whether the driver owns the vehicle outright or leases or rents it. A driver earning $8,000 a year from weekend rideshare trips is just as required to register as one earning $80,000, since the $75,000 threshold simply does not apply to this category.

The other mandatory-registration trigger, separate from turnover entirely, is wanting to claim fuel tax credits for a business or enterprise: doing so requires GST registration regardless of income level. Outside taxi/limousine/ride-sourcing work and fuel tax credit claims, registration below $75,000 (or $150,000 for non-profits) is optional, and generally, once you choose to register voluntarily, you have to stay registered for at least 12 months.

How long do you have to register once you cross the threshold?

21 days. Once your GST turnover reaches, or you reasonably expect it to reach, the relevant threshold, the ATO requires registration within 21 days of that point, whether you register proactively or the ATO identifies the obligation later. If you are not registered, the ATO’s own guidance is to check every month whether you have reached or are likely to exceed the threshold, precisely because the clock starts running from the moment the test is met, not from when you get around to noticing it.

Figure 3: The registration window once GST turnover reaches or is projected to reach the threshold. Source: Australian Taxation Office, Registering for GST.

What happens if you don’t register on time?

You can end up owing GST you never collected, plus penalties and interest. If you were required to register and did not, the ATO can require you to pay GST on sales made from the date you should have registered, even if you did not include GST in the price you charged customers at the time, according to the ATO’s own guidance on late or missed registration. Penalties and interest can apply on top of that backdated liability. For a business running on thin margins, that combination, GST owed on revenue where the GST was never actually collected from the customer, is the most expensive version of getting this wrong, and it is entirely avoidable by tracking turnover against the threshold monthly and generating ATO-compliant tax invoices as a matter of course once registered.

Should you register voluntarily below the threshold?

It is allowed, and many small operators do it anyway, mainly to claim GST credits on business purchases and to look established to GST-registered clients who expect a tax invoice. Registering for GST before you are legally required to lets a business claim input tax credits, the GST it pays on its own supplies and equipment, and issue standard tax invoices rather than the more limited documentation an unregistered supplier provides. The trade-off is administrative: once voluntarily registered, you generally have to stay registered for at least 12 months and lodge Business Activity Statements on schedule, even in a quiet trading period.

How do you actually register for GST?

You need an Australian Business Number (ABN) first, then you can register through Online services for business, by phone on 13 28 66, or through a registered tax or BAS agent, according to the ATO. Once registered, the ATO confirms your registration details in writing, including the effective date, and from that point you are required to lodge a Business Activity Statement on whatever cycle you have been assigned. Registration only needs to happen once per entity, even if that entity runs more than one business.

That paperwork adds up to real money at the national level. Net GST cash collections have climbed every year since FY2022-23, from roughly $81.3 billion that year to $84.9 billion in FY2023-24 and $90.2 billion in FY2024-25, according to the ATO’s GST Administration Annual Performance Reports, all of it flowing through the tax invoices that registered businesses issue and remit against.

Figure 4: Australia’s net GST cash collections have grown every year since FY2022-23, all of it flowing through registered businesses’ tax invoices. Source: Australian Taxation Office, GST Administration Annual Performance Report, 2023-24 and 2024-25 editions.

Is the $75,000 threshold about to change?

Possibly, but not yet. The Parliamentary Budget Office published a policy costing in April 2025 pricing a proposal to lift the mandatory GST registration threshold from $75,000 to $250,000 for both standard businesses and non-profit organizations, with a modeled start date of 1 July 2025. The PBO’s analysis found that most currently registered businesses would likely stay registered even if the threshold rose, since voluntary registration lets a business keep claiming GST credits and issuing standard tax invoices to other GST-registered clients. It is a costing of a proposal from a parliamentarian, not enacted law, and it does not affect the mandatory taxi, limousine and ride-sourcing registration rule either way. As of this guide’s publication, the threshold remains $75,000, and there is no confirmed date for any change.

Figure 5: Australia’s current $75,000 GST registration threshold against the $250,000 figure a Parliamentary Budget Office costing modeled in April 2025, a proposal not yet adopted. Source: Parliamentary Budget Office, GST Threshold Change costing.

Category	Turnover threshold	Registration deadline
Standard business or enterprise	$75,000 (current or projected)	Within 21 days of reaching the threshold
Non-profit organization	$150,000 (current or projected)	Within 21 days of reaching the threshold
Taxi, limousine & ride-sourcing driver	$0, any turnover	Before providing the service
Voluntary registration	No minimum	Any time; generally 12+ months once registered

Table 1: Who must register for GST in Australia, and by when. Source: Australian Taxation Office, Registering for GST.

The Bottom Line

The $75,000 threshold has anchored Australia’s GST system since the tax began in July 2000, and it still does the same job today: it decides which businesses carry Business Activity Statement obligations and which don’t, with a lower $150,000 bar for non-profits and zero exemption at all for taxi, limousine and ride-sourcing drivers. The mechanics matter as much as the number. Because the ATO tests both trailing and forward-looking turnover, a fast-growing business can trip the requirement before its historical revenue shows it, and the 21-day registration clock starts the moment either test is met, not when you notice. A Parliamentary Budget Office costing floated raising the bar to $250,000 in April 2025, but that remains an unadopted proposal, not current law. For any business tracking toward the threshold, or already past it, getting GST onto every invoice correctly from day one, through an invoice generator built around the ATO’s own format, removes the single most common way this goes wrong. For the compliance picture once you are registered, see Australia’s full GST numbers for 2026, and for how late payment interacts with the same invoicing chain, Australian late payment data covers that ground in full. A companion guide on the separate question of whether a specific business actually needs to register is on the way.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Australia’s GST registration threshold? $75,000 in current or projected annual GST turnover for most businesses and sole traders, according to the Australian Taxation Office. Non-profit organizations have a higher threshold of $150,000. The figure has not changed since GST was introduced on 1 July 2000.

Do taxi and rideshare drivers have to register for GST even if they earn under $75,000? Yes. The ATO requires anyone who provides taxi, limousine or ride-sourcing travel, including Uber, Ola and DiDi drivers, to register for GST regardless of turnover, whether they own the vehicle or lease or rent it. This is the one category with no turnover exemption at all.

How many days do I have to register for GST once I cross the threshold? 21 days from the date your current or projected GST turnover reaches the relevant threshold, according to the ATO. Missing that window means you may have to pay GST on sales made since the date you were required to register, even if you did not charge it, plus penalties and interest.

Could Australia’s GST registration threshold rise to $250,000? It might, but it has not yet. The Parliamentary Budget Office costed a proposal in April 2025 to lift the mandatory threshold from $75,000 to $250,000 for both businesses and non-profits, with a proposed start date of 1 July 2025. As of this guide’s publication, that proposal has not been adopted and the threshold remains $75,000.

Sources and References

1. Australian Taxation Office: Registering for GST, registration threshold, turnover calculation, mandatory categories, and the 21-day registration window.
2. Parliamentary Budget Office: GST Threshold Change, Policy Costing, published April 2025, the costed proposal to raise the threshold to $250,000.
3. VATabout: Australia’s GST Registration Threshold May Rise to $250K, PBO Policy Costing Report, summary of the PBO costing’s figures and proposed effective date.
4. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Counts of Australian Businesses, Including Entries and Exits, GST-registered business counts by employment status, 30 June 2025.
5. Australian Taxation Office: GST Administration Annual Performance Report 2024-25, GST Revenue Performance, net GST cash collections by year.
6. Australian Taxation Office: Ride-Sourcing, GST registration requirements for ride-sourcing drivers including Uber, Ola and DiDi.

Note: All figures verified as of October 2026.