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Do you know what counts as business income?

Last updated 12 July 2022

You may receive your business income in the form of:

  • cash and digital payments, such as EFTPOS, online, credit or debit card transactions, and through platforms such as PayPal, WeChat or Alipay
  • vouchers or coupons, such as state government stimulus vouchers.

When calculating your business's assessable income, it’s important that you include all income from your everyday business activities in your tax return, for example, from:

  • business investments
  • online and overseas business activities
  • personal services you provide (personal services income)
  • the sharing economy, such as ride-sourcing.

It’s also important to include other business income that’s not part of your everyday business activities, for example:

  • assessable government grants and payments, such as JobKeeper
  • the value of trading stock you have
  • payments from insurance claims.

You don’t need to include payments that aren’t assessable income, for example:

  • non-assessable non-exempt government grants
  • gifts or inheritance
  • GST you’ve collected
  • money you’ve borrowed or contributed as the business owner.

You need to keep accurate and complete records to prove the income you report and the expenses you claim as deductions.

Remember, registered tax agents can help you with your tax.

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