ato logo
Search Suggestion:

TPAR for cleaning services – Easier to read information

Easier to read information about Taxable payments annual reporting (TPAR) for cleaning services businesses.

Last updated 11 August 2021

This information will help you work out if you need to complete a Taxable payments annual report (TPAR).

If your business provides cleaning services you may have to fill in a TPAR and send it to us. This is called lodging a TPAR.

How to use this document

This information is written in a way that is easy to read.

This document has been written by the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

When you see the words ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’ it means the ATO.

This easier to read document is a summary of a longer document about cleaning services.

What is a TPAR?

A TPAR is a Taxable payments annual report.

It is about payments businesses make to contractors or subcontractors who provide services for them.

The TPAR must be lodged by 28 August each year.

Why TPARs are important

Payments reported in a TPAR help us make sure that contractors pay the right amount of tax.

Our government uses tax money to pay for services like:

  • hospitals and schools
  • public transport and roads
  • unemployment benefits and pensions.

How we use the information in a TPAR

We use the information in TPARs to put income information into the online tax returns of contractors.

We also use it to help contractors work out if they have:

  • put all their income in their tax return
  • lodged all the tax returns or activity statements they need to
  • to register for goods and services tax (GST)
  • put the right Australian business number (ABN) on their invoices.

Do you need to lodge a TPAR?

You will need to lodge a TPAR if your business matches these 3 rules. Your business:

  • provides cleaning services to other people or businesses
  • pays contractors to provide these cleaning services on your behalf. This means the contractor provided the cleaning service for your business.
  • has an ABN.

If cleaning services are only part of what your business does you may still need to lodge a TPAR.

You need to work out how much of your business income came from cleaning services.

Add up all the money your business was paid for providing cleaning services for the financial year. A financial year is from 1 July to 30 June.

Include payments for services provided by both employees and contractors.

Work out the total amount of your business income for the year.

You must lodge a TPAR if you meet these 2 rules:

  • 10% or more of your total business income was for providing cleaning services.
  • You paid contractors to provide these cleaning services.

We have some examples to help you work out if you need to lodge.

What are cleaning services?

Examples of cleaning services can include cleaning:

  • the inside and outside of building (except sandblasting)
  • the inside and outside of motor vehicles and other vehicles (like trains, planes, boats)
  • carpets, chimneys, gutters
  • industrial machinery and equipment
  • road and street sweeping
  • swimming pools and spas
  • parks, including playground equipment and public toilets.

The cleaning services can be done at:

  • homes
  • other buildings
  • public places
  • events (like sport games, concerts, exhibitions).

If you are not sure if your business is providing a cleaning service, read the Need help section.

Payments to report in your TPAR

You need to report information about invoices you have paid for cleaning contractors.

Include invoices:

  • paid between 1 July and 30 June
  • that include both labour and materials.

Do not include invoices for materials only.

Do not record payments to your employees.

For a full list of payment information you need to report, see Payments and details you need to report.

Use our online tool to work out if someone is an employee or a contractor.

What information to report in your TPAR

The information you need should be on the invoices your contractors give you.

For each contractor you need to report the:

  • ABN
  • name (business name or individual name)
  • address
  • phone number
  • email address
  • bank account details
  • total amount from all invoices in the year
  • total GST from all invoices in the year.

If a contractor does not have an ABN you also need to report the tax you withheld from them and paid to the ATO.

Keep good records

If you keep good records it will be easier to lodge your TPAR.

You should always record the payments you make to contractors.

For each contractor you pay record their:

  • first and last name
  • ABN
  • address
  • phone number.

For each payment you make to a contractor record the:

  • date
  • invoice number
  • details of the service of materials they provided
  • tax you held if they did not give you their ABN
  • GST amount paid to them
  • total amount paid to them. This includes GST.

Check the ABN

When you get the first invoice from a new contractor, use ABN LookupExternal Link to make sure the information is right.

Each time you get a new invoice from a contractor, check that the ABN is the same as in your records.

If it not the same use ABN LookupExternal Link to check the new ABN. If it does not match the contractor, phone them to see if they made a mistake.

How to lodge a TPAR

There are a few ways you can lodge a TPAR:

You can also can get a tax or BAS agent to lodge your TPAR. You need to make sure they are a registered agentExternal Link.

Business software

Check if your business software can prepare and lodge a TPAR online.

The software may be able to either:

  • lodge a TPAR straight to us
  • prepare a file for you. You lodge this file with us through the File transfer function in Online services for business.

You can ask your software provider for more information.

Online services for business

You can use Online services for business to lodge your TPAR.

To use Online services for business you will need a myGovID.

Find out how to set up your myGovID and link it to your business.

Log in to Online services for business. From the menu select Lodgments, then select Taxable payments annual report.

ATO online services

Sole traders can use ATO online services through myGov to lodge their TPAR.

To use ATO online services you will need a myGov account linked to the ATO.

Find out how to set up a myGov account and link it to the ATO.

Log in to ATO online services. From the menu select Tax, then select Lodgments, then select Taxable payments annual report.

Paper form

If you can't lodge online you must use our paper form.

You can't download the form from our website. You must order it from us.

You can enter information for up to 9 contractors on the form. If you paid more contractors you need to order more forms.

You can't make photocopies of the form because we will not be able to process them.

You can:

Need help?

If you need help you can use these resources:

Speak to us

You can phone us on 13 28 66.

If you want to speak in a language other than English, phone the Translating and Interpreting service on 13 14 50. Tell them:

  • you want to speak to us
  • the language you want to speak in.

If you have difficulty hearing or speaking to people who use a phone, you can contact us through the National Relay Service (NRS). You need to:

QC66598