Delivery driver tax in Australia: DoorDash, Uber Eats, Menulog and the rest

You are a contractor, so you need an ABN

Delivery platforms engage drivers as independent contractors, not employees. That means no tax is withheld from your payouts, no super is paid for you, and you are expected to have an ABN and report the income as business income in your tax return. The ABN is free from the Australian Business Register and takes minutes; see do I need an ABN.

If you also have a job, the delivery income sits on top of your wages in the same return. Your employer’s withholding does not cover it.

GST: the threshold applies, unlike rideshare

Rideshare drivers must register for GST from the first fare because rideshare is treated as taxi travel. Delivering food or parcels is not, so a delivery-only driver uses the ordinary rule: register once your GST turnover reaches $75,000 in a rolling 12 months, or when you expect it to. Most delivery drivers are well under that and do not register.

Two exceptions. If you do rideshare as well as delivery, the rideshare rule applies to your whole ABN and the delivery income carries GST too; see Uber and rideshare GST. And you can register voluntarily if you want to claim GST credits on a lot of fuel and vehicle costs, at the price of quarterly BAS lodgements.

What income to declare

All of it: delivery fees, tips, peak-hour and quest bonuses, referral payments, and any incentive the platform paid you. Use the gross figure before the platform’s fees if the platform deducts fees, and claim the fees as an expense. Each platform provides an earnings summary; download them monthly rather than trying to reconstruct a year from bank deposits.

Since 1 July 2024 delivery and task platforms have reported drivers’ income to the ATO under the sharing economy reporting regime. The ATO pre-fills or cross-checks that data against your return. Declaring everything is not optional, but it is also easy, because the numbers are already collected for you.

Deductions: the vehicle

How you claim depends on what you drive.

• Car: either the cents-per-kilometre method (88 cents per kilometre for 2025-26, capped at 5,000 business kilometres, check the ATO for the current rate) or the logbook method, which claims actual running costs at your business-use percentage from a 12-week logbook. Busy drivers pass 5,000 kilometres quickly and usually do better with a logbook.
• Motorbike or scooter: not a car, so cents per kilometre is not available. Claim actual costs (fuel, servicing, rego, insurance, depreciation) at your business percentage, supported by a diary of business use.
• Bicycle or e-bike: actual costs at the business percentage: the bike itself (written off or depreciated), repairs, tyres, lights, a lock, and the charging cost of an e-bike.

Business kilometres are those spent on deliveries or heading to a pickup while logged on. Riding from home to your usual starting area is generally private.

Deductions: everything else

• Insulated delivery bags, phone mounts, chargers, power banks.
• Helmet, gloves, hi-vis and wet-weather gear for riders.
• The business share of your phone plan and data; delivery apps run on it all shift.
• Parking fees while delivering. Parking and speeding fines are never deductible.
• Platform fees and commissions, if they are deducted from your gross.
• Accounting software and tax agent fees.
• Tolls incurred on deliveries.

Keep receipts, or attach them to the bank transaction in your bookkeeping. For a mixed-use item such as the phone, keep a four-week record of business and private use once a year to support the percentage. See private use and business percentage.

How much to set aside

Nothing is withheld, so the tax bill arrives with your return. The rate depends on your total income. If delivery is your only income and you earn under the $18,200 tax-free threshold after expenses, you may owe little or nothing. If you also earn wages, every dollar of delivery profit is taxed at your marginal rate plus the 2% Medicare levy, which for most people with a job means 32 cents in the dollar and can be 39 cents.

A practical habit is to move a fixed share of every payout into a separate account the day it lands. The sole trader tax calculator gives a monthly figure once you enter your expected income, expenses and wages. After your first profitable year the ATO will enter you into PAYG instalments, which collect the tax quarterly instead.

Records that make tax time short

Monthly platform summaries, a logbook or business-use diary for the vehicle, receipts for gear, and a bank account used only for delivery income and expenses. Upload the statement to FlowFi each month and the income and expenses are categorised as you go, with the cents-per-kilometre trips logged alongside. At tax time you hand the summary to your accountant or complete the business schedule yourself.