If you tutor in Australia — at home, online, in a small studio — you will eventually run into GST. The rules are different for a sole-trader tutor than they are for a salon or a clinic, and a lot of what you'll read online is written for businesses with staff. This guide walks you through what actually matters, in plain English, and shows how Reservo handles the paper side so the books stay clean at tax time. ## Do I need an ABN? If you charge clients for tutoring in Australia and your turnover is $75 or more (excluding GST), you need an Australian Business Number (ABN). The ABN is your identifier when dealing with other Australian businesses and the ATO — it goes on every invoice, every tax form, and every BAS. You can apply for an ABN for free at business.gov.au. It is usually issued within minutes for a sole trader. Once you have it, every Tax Invoice you issue must include it. ## When do I need to register for GST? You must register for GST once your GST turnover reaches $75,000 in any rolling twelve-month period. GST turnover includes most sales you make in Australia, regardless of whether you think they're taxable. > Many new tutors assume they only need to register when they "feel ready". The threshold is a hard line — once you cross it, you have **21 days** to register, so keep an eye on projections as you grow. You can also register voluntarily before you hit the threshold. Voluntarily registering lets you claim GST credits on the business purchases you make — your laptop, your tutoring books, your home-office percentage, your internet bill, the lot. The ATO's GST registration page is the right starting point; you can lodge online through the Australian Business Register. ## What is the GST rate? GST in Australia is 10%. If you quote a price GST-inclusive, the GST portion is one eleventh of that amount — not 10%, because 10% of the GST-exclusive amount gives a different number than 10% of the inclusive amount. The inclusive formula is the standard for retail-style pricing. For example: a lesson priced at $110 inclusive contains $10 of GST. A lesson at $55 inclusive contains $5 of GST. When you build your invoice you show both numbers so the customer can see how it breaks down. ## What goes on a Tax Invoice? A document is a Tax Invoice when it contains enough information for both parties to reconcile the sale. For amounts over $75 (inclusive of GST) an Australian Tax Invoice must include: - The words **"Tax Invoice"** prominently - Your business name and **ABN** - The date of issue - A description of what you supplied (for tuition: "Year 7 maths tutoring, 60 min") - The quantity and the price (GST-inclusive is fine) - The GST amount separately - The total amount payable The minimum required below the $75 threshold is much smaller — see the next section. ## The $75 invoice rule (under the threshold) If a taxable sale is $75 or less (GST-inclusive), you can issue a receipt rather than a full Tax Invoice. The receipt only needs enough information to identify the sale: the date, what you supplied, the total, and your ABN. You do not have to break out the GST component on a receipt. > A practical pattern: most one-off tutoring sessions will be priced **above $75 inclusive** — a 60-minute lesson rarely lands below that — so Tax Invoices are your default. Receipts cover ad-hoc micro-charges (rescheduling fees, small add-on materials) that don't reach the threshold. ## How BAS lodgement actually works BAS stands for Business Activity Statement. It is how you report and pay GST (and PAYG instalments, if you have them) to the ATO. As a sole-trader tutor you will lodge BAS: - **Quarterly** as the default — four times a year, due **28 days after the end of each quarter**. - **Monthly** if you elect to (or if your turnover exceeds $20 million, which won't apply). - **Annually** if you elect once-a-year — only certain businesses are eligible, and a small tutoring practice typically isn't. On each BAS you report: - **1A** — Total sales (GST-inclusive) - **1B** — GST on sales (the 1/11 you collected) - **2A** — GST on purchases (the credits you can claim) You lodge through the ATO's Business Portal, via your tax agent, or through a feed from your accounting software. The maths is: GST collected − GST credits = GST owed (typically a small amount once credits are applied). ## What is on every Reservo Tax Invoice Every confirmed booking generates a Tax Invoice PDF that meets the ATO requirements above. Open any invoice from the confirmation page or the dashboard and you'll see: - The heading **"Tax Invoice"** at the top. - Your **business name** and **email** in the header. - Your **ABN** whenever it is on file — this is the field most new tutors forget, and it is the one most likely to cause a rejected BAS reconciliation on the customer side. - **"GST (10%)"** as its own line item, computed as **1/11 of the inclusive total** (the Australian standard for prices advertised GST-inclusive). - The **subtotal** (GST-exclusive) on the line above. - The **total inclusive of GST** at the bottom. - A footer with the unique **invoice number** (the booking id) and a courtesy note that payment was received in full. Because the renderer does the 1/11 split for you, your invoices always reconcile to the cent. There is no spreadsheet at the end of the quarter, no hunting for rounding errors in a calculator — every number in the customer's invoice ties to a row the system has stored, and the same row is available when you sit down with your accountant at EOFY. ## A short checklist for your first BAS - **Match the BAS period** to the dates the Tax Invoices were issued — not the lesson date. The supply happens when the invoice is issued for most tutoring work. - **Sum the GST columns** from every Tax Invoice you issued in that quarter — the "GST (10%)" lines, not the totals. - **Add the credits** for business purchases you made during the same period (books, software, the percentage of your phone and laptop used for tutoring). - **Lodge by the due date** to avoid the ATO's general interest charge. If you can't pay in full, lodging on time still matters — a debt plan is easier to negotiate than a missed lodgement. If this is your first BAS as a tutor, the ATO has a BAS essentials guide for sole traders that walks you through 1A, 1B and 2A line by line. ## How Reservo saves you a Sunday afternoon You set the service price once — GST-inclusive, in cents — and the system does the rest. Every confirmed booking produces: - A Tax Invoice PDF with the right GST split, your name, and your ABN printed on it. - A reminder email 24 hours before the lesson, in the customer's timezone, so the slot doesn't go to waste. - A clean row that you can hand to your accountant or your accounting software at EOFY — no spreadsheet scrambling required. The books stay books, not a Sunday-night project — which is the whole point.