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Australia · registration test

Do you need to register for GST?

Put your own turnover in and get a yes or no, with the section that decides it. The threshold is $75,000 — $150,000 for a non-profit body — and the two turnover tests do not both work the way most pages say they do.

Checked against the Act

Checked against the legislation — how we check.

What kind of body is it?

Sole trader, partnership, company and trust all use the same threshold. Only non-profit bodies differ.

This month and the previous 11 — current GST turnover, section 188-15.

This month and the next 11 — projected GST turnover, section 188-20. Both figures exclude GST, and leave out input taxed supplies.

Do you have to register?

Yes

Your projected turnover — this month and the next 11 — is at or above the threshold, so registration is required under section 188-20.

How it is tested

Threshold$75,000
Turnover measured the higher figure$88,000
Headroom before it applies$0

Your turnover against the registration threshold

This applies the turnover threshold. It does not lodge anything, and it does not decide whether what you sell is taxable, GST-free or input taxed. General information, not tax advice.

The threshold, and which instrument it actually lives in

$75,000, or $150,000 for a non-profit body. Almost every page covering this attributes those figures to the GST Act, and that is the wrong instrument.

Section 23-15 of the Act sets the threshold at $50,000 — $100,000 for a non-profit body — “or such higher amount as the regulations specify”. The regulations then specify it: regulation 23-15.01 gives $75,000, and regulation 23-15.02 gives $150,000. The number in the Act is not the number you use.

That is not pedantry, because it changes how often the figure should be re-checked. A threshold living in regulations can be changed by the Governor-General on the Executive Council’s advice, without an Act of Parliament and without the attention one attracts. It is why the figure on this page carries a date rather than being treated as a constant.

Two tests, and the one most pages get wrong

There are two turnover figures, and they look backwards and forwards from the same month.

  • Current GST turnover — this month and the previous 11 (section 188-15).
  • Projected GST turnover — this month and the next 11 (section 188-20).

The common summary is “either test is enough”. That is not what section 188-10 says, and the difference decides real cases. You meet the threshold if your projected turnover is at or above it — that limb is unconditional. You also meet it if your current turnover is at or above it and the Commissioner is not satisfied that your projected turnover is below it.

So the two limbs are not symmetrical. A year ahead at or above the threshold compels registration whatever the past twelve months looked like. A past twelve months above it, with a genuinely lower year ahead, does not automatically — it turns on whether the lower projection holds up. The one-off contract that inflated a single year is the ordinary case, and a page that says “either test” sends that business to register when it may not have to.

Both figures are built from the value of your supplies, meaning GST-exclusive, and both leave out input taxed supplies, anything not for consideration, and anything not connected with an enterprise you carry on.

21 days, from the day you were required

Section 25-1 gives you 21 days to apply after becoming required to be registered. The date that matters is when you became required, not when you noticed — and if you register late, you are liable for GST on sales made from that earlier date whether or not you charged it to anyone. That is the expensive failure here: the tax comes out of money already banked, because the customers were never invoiced for it.

This is the practical argument for watching the projected figure rather than the historical one. The backward-looking number tells you the threshold was crossed; the forward-looking one tells you it is coming.

Taxi and limousine travel: no threshold at all

Section 144-5 removes the threshold entirely for one group: if you supply taxi travel in carrying on your enterprise, you are required to be registered, and “it does not matter whether your GST turnover meets the registration turnover threshold”. From the first dollar. Section 195-1 defines taxi travel as travel that involves transporting passengers, by taxi or limousine, for fares.

Whether ride-sourcing falls inside that definition was decided by the Federal Court, not by the Act. This site quotes statute rather than paraphrasing case law it has not read, so the honest answer here is that the Act’s words are above and the question of how they apply to a ride-sourcing driver is not settled by them. It is named as a known gap rather than guessed at.

Registering when you do not have to

Below the threshold it is a choice, and the trade runs in both directions. Registering lets you claim GST credits on what you buy, which favours a business carrying real equipment or stock costs. It also adds 10% to your prices — invisible to business customers, who claim it straight back, and a flat 10% increase to consumers, who cannot. Two businesses on identical turnover can reach opposite answers purely on who they sell to.

Registration also brings activity statements with it. If you want to see what the 10% actually does to a price either way, the GST calculator adds it, removes it and works back from the tax; the BAS calculator shows what then goes in each box on the statement.

Frequently asked questions

I am a sole trader. Is the threshold different?
No, and that is worth saying plainly because it is asked constantly. The registration turnover threshold is a property of the turnover, not of the structure — a sole trader, a partnership, a company and a trust all register at the same $75,000. What changes with structure is the paperwork around it, not the trigger. The one figure that genuinely differs is for non-profit bodies, at $150,000. So "do I need to register as a sole trader" has the same answer as "do I need to register", and anyone telling you sole traders have their own threshold is describing something that does not exist.
How do I know if I am already registered?
Look it up rather than guessing — an ABN can exist without a GST registration attached to it, which is exactly how people end up charging GST they were never registered to charge, or not claiming credits they were entitled to. The Australian Business Register publishes registration status against every ABN, including the date GST registration started, and it is free to search. This page does not look it up for you: it answers whether you are required to be registered, which is a different question from whether you are.
I went over the threshold last year but this year will be quieter.
Then the answer is not automatic, and this is the part most pages flatten. Section 188-10 says you meet the threshold if your current turnover is at or above it AND the Commissioner is not satisfied your projected turnover is below it — or if your projected turnover is at or above it on its own. So a genuinely quieter year ahead can keep you under, but "genuinely" is doing the work: it turns on whether the lower projection stands up, not on you preferring it. A one-off contract that inflated a single year is the ordinary case here.
What happens if I register late?
You are liable for the GST on sales made from the date you were required to be registered, whether or not you charged it to anyone. That is the expensive part: the tax comes out of money you have already banked and spent, because your customers were never invoiced for it. The law gives you 21 days from becoming required, under section 25-1, and the point of watching the projected figure is that it tells you the date is coming before it arrives rather than after.
Should I register before I have to?
It depends on who you sell to, and the trade is real in both directions. Registering lets you claim GST credits on what you buy, which suits a business with heavy equipment or stock costs. It also means adding 10% to your prices — invisible to business customers who claim it straight back, but a straight 10% rise to consumers who cannot. So a trade selling to builders is in a different position from one selling to households, on identical turnover. There is also the paperwork: registration brings activity statements with it, on whatever cycle applies.
What this page does not do
It applies the turnover threshold. It does not lodge anything, does not tell you whether what you sell is taxable, GST-free or input taxed, and does not work out your turnover for you — that figure excludes input taxed supplies, anything not for consideration, and anything not connected with your enterprise, and it is built from GST-exclusive values. It also cannot tell you whether ride-sourcing counts as taxi travel; that was settled by the Federal Court rather than by the Act, and this site does not state as statute what is not in the statute.

Sources

Checked 2026-09-02. The threshold sits in the regulations rather than the Act, so it can change without one — how that is monitored is on the methodology page.