The ‘gigs up’ with a new sharing economy reporting regime

Treasury has released draft legislation introducing the long-awaited third party reporting regime (proposed to apply from 1 July 2022).

The new regime will initially require ride-sharing and short term accommodation online platform operators to report transactions they facilitate directly to the ATO.

This measure was first announced in the 2020 MYEFO (following a recommendation from the Black Economy Taskforce established in 2016).

It  is intended to extend to all other types of sharing (‘gig’) economy online platforms such as food delivery and task services from 1 July 2023.

Under this new proposed regime, the identity of participants and payments they receive will be reported to the ATO (twice a year) to identify entities who may not be meeting their tax obligations.

Ref: Treasury website, Implementing a reporting regime for sharing economy platform providers, 6 July 2021