| Disclaimer This edited version will be removed from the Database after 30 September 2025. If you believe the issues detailed in this edited version warrant retention in an alternative form, email publicguidance@ato.gov.au This edited version has been archived due to the length of time since original publication. It should not be regarded as indicative of the ATO's current views. The law may have changed since original publication, and views in the edited version may also be affected by subsequent precedents and new approaches to the application of the law. You cannot rely on this record in your tax affairs. It is not binding and provides you with no protection (including from any underpaid tax, penalty or interest). In addition, this record is not an authority for the purposes of establishing a reasonably arguable position for you to apply to your own circumstances. For more information on the status of edited versions of private advice and reasons we publish them, see PS LA 2008/4. |
Edited version of private ruling
Authorisation Number: 1011482148351
This edited version of your ruling will be published in the public Register of private binding rulings after 28 days from the issue date of the ruling. The attached private rulings fact sheet has more information.
Please check this edited version to be sure that there are no details remaining that you think may allow you to be identified. Contact us at the address given in the fact sheet if you have any concerns.
Ruling
Subject: GST and supply of umpiring services
Question
Are the umpiring services that you invoice a specified sporting organisation on behalf of your members subject to goods and services tax (GST)?
Answer
No, the umpiring services that you invoice a specified sporting organisation on behalf of your members are not subject to GST.
Relevant facts
Your members are paid a match fee for each match they umpire. The amount paid varies from league to league, and is also dependent on what grade is umpired and other relevant match factors.
Your members provide their services to the specified sporting organisations in your locality.
You act as the billing agent for your members for the purpose of invoicing the specified sporting organisations to which members provide their umpiring services.
Invoices are sent separately for members' match fees on behalf of your members. You also invoice the specified sporting organisations for their contributions to specified expenses.
You distribute the money collected from the specified sporting organisation to each individual umpire.
You also provide administration services to the specified sporting organisations not the players or the clubs. You simply supply umpires for the specified sporting organisations' competitions.
Your members do not receive any allowance and benefits other than their match fee (umpiring fee) and other specified allowance.
No contract (written or verbal) exists between you and individual specified sporting organisation. You (acting on behalf of your members) and the specified sporting organisations negotiate annually to determine the quantum of the match fee paid to each category of umpire.
The match payments are not intended to, nor do they usually, cover expenses. The purpose of the payment is to encourage members of the community to participate in local sporting activities by subsidising that participation. Individual umpire contents that the primary motivation for their involvement in umpiring is a love of the specified sports and a desire to contribute to the communities in which the game is played.
The Australian Taxation Office has ruled in the specified Class Ruling that the match fee and specified allowance received by members of the specified sporting entity are not assessable income as the umpiring activities of the members are considered to constitute a pastime or hobby.
Reasons for decision
Summary
The umpiring services for which you invoice a specified sporting organisation on behalf of your members are not subject to GST.
Detailed reasoning
Taxable supply is defined in section 9-5 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (GST Act) which states:
You make a taxable supply if:
(a) you make the supply for *consideration; and
(b) the supply is made in the course or furtherance of an *enterprise that you *carry on; and
(c) the supply is *connected with Australia; and
(d) you are *registered, or *required to be registered.
However, the supply is not a *taxable supply to the extent that it is * GST-free or *input taxed.
(An asterisk denotes a defined term in section 195-1 of the GST Act.)
For a supply to be a taxable supply, all the requirements of section 9-5 of the GST Act must be satisfied and the supply must not be a GST-free supply or an input taxed supply.
There are no provisions in the GST legislations that make your supply a GST-free supply or an input taxed supply.
To determine whether a supply is a taxable supply, we must first determine whether the umpires are carrying on an enterprise.
We refer to the specified Class Ruling issued to you which provides that the umpires are not carrying on an enterprise when they provide their services at specified sports' competitions. Their activities constitute a pastime or hobby. Accordingly paragraph 9-5(b) of the GST Act is not satisfied.
Since not all the requirements of section 9-5 of the GST Act have been satisfied, your members are not making taxable supplies when supplying their umpiring services.
Under the principles of the general law of agency, the principal is bound by the acts of an agent as a result of the authority given to the agent.
You act as an agent for your members for the purpose of invoicing the specified sporting organisation to which your members provide their umpiring services. As your members, the principals, are not carrying on an enterprise, there is no GST payable on the umpire fees when you invoice the specified sporting organisation on behalf of the principals, being your members.
For more information about the agency relations and the application of the law, you can access the Public Ruling Goods and Services Tax Ruling GSTR 2000/37 by visiting our website www.ato.gov.au >Law rulings and policy>Rulings and ATO view>Public rulings & determinations>Indirect taxes>Goods and services tax rulings