Australia is proposing to require gig & sharing electronic marketplaces and platforms report on their third-party Goods and Services (GST) transactions and payments. The draft legislation was passed by the House of Representatives on 18 October 2021.
This follows similar requirements in Europe, including the EU’s DAC 7 marketplace legislation for 2023. Follow common indirect tax gig & sharing economy issues.
Electronic Distribution Platform reporting
Reporting to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) would become mandatory for both resident and non-resident Electronic Distribution Platforms (EDP). This would cover GST, other taxes and related information. This would include background on platforms’ sellers, transactions, tax estimates, payments and bank account details.
Phased rollout 2022-23
The reporting requirements would be rolled out in two phases:
- July 2022: overnight accommodation and ride-sharing taxi services
- July 2023: All other areas of the gig & sharing economies. See definition of gig and sharing economies for tax
Exemptions from new reporting rules
There will be a number of exemptions from the reporting requirements for this new rules, including:
- EDPs providing mere advertising or listing sites
- EDPs acting as seller or provider of service
- Sales of ownership of goods and assets
- Transactions subject to withholding tax regimes
- Financial services
- Real estate sales
Correctly assessing Australian GST can be complex for marketplace reporting or returns. VAT Calc’s single platform VAT Filer can correctly complete any country reporting requirements or filings with verified VAT or GST transactional data from our VAT Calculator or VAT Auditor integrated tools.
EU review of VAT and platform economy
The EU is also reviewing VAT treatment for the platform economy, which includes the gig and sharing economies. And the DAC 7 EU marketplace reporting requirements come into effect on 1 January 2023.
Overlap with OECD gig and sharing economy
The OECD has performed extensive work on VAT issues for the gig and sharing economies. The EU’s focus should be broader, although the OECD has now extended to goods and ride sharing.
