GST Registration Threshold 2026-27: Do You Have to Register?

The two thresholds and where they come from

Section 23-15 of the GST Act sets a registration turnover threshold of $50 000, or $100 000 for a non-profit body, "or such higher amount as the regulations specify". The GST Regulations 2019 specify the higher amounts that apply today: $75 000 in regulation 23-15.01 and $150 000 in regulation 23-15.02. Section 23-5 then requires you to be registered if you carry on an enterprise and your GST turnover meets the threshold. "Enterprise" is broad: a sole trader, a partnership, a company, a trust, a club. A hobby is not.

Current and projected turnover: meeting either is enough

Section 188-15 defines current GST turnover as the value of the supplies you have made, or are likely to make, in the twelve months ending at the end of the current month. Section 188-20 defines projected GST turnover over the current month and the next eleven. Section 188-10 says you meet the threshold if your projected turnover is at or above it, or if your current turnover is at or above it and the Commissioner is not satisfied that your projected turnover will be below it.

Two practical consequences follow. A new business that signs a contract worth $90 000 over the coming year must register now, before it has earned a cent, because its projection is above $75 000. And a seasonal business that passed $75 000 over the last twelve months but expects much less next year (current $81 000, projected $58 000) is in the grey zone of section 188-10(1)(a): it must register unless the ATO accepts the lower projection. The simulator flags that case separately.

Which sales count, and at what value

The first two rows trip people up. Before registration, a sale is not a taxable supply at all (no GST is charged), so section 188-30 treats its value as eleven-tenths of what it would be if taxable, which is simply the price received. After registration, value is ten-elevenths of the GST-inclusive price. An unregistered plumber who invoices $78 000 in a year has a GST turnover of $78 000, not $70 909.

Four situations, worked through

The consultant who lets a flat stays under the line because residential rent is input-taxed and drops out. The market stall is the opposite: its GST-free produce counts, and pushes it over. The tradie's ute sale is ignored in the projection, which keeps the business below $75 000.

Registering below the threshold

Section 23-10 lets any enterprise register voluntarily. Doing so means charging GST on taxable sales, lodging activity statements and keeping tax invoices, in exchange for claiming credits on business purchases. It tends to pay when your customers are themselves registered businesses (they recover the GST, so your price effectively does not rise) or when you are buying expensive equipment. It tends to cost when you sell to consumers who cannot claim anything back. A voluntarily registered business with turnover under the threshold may also choose to report GST annually under Division 151. The GST for sole traders page puts numbers on that choice.

What changes on the day you register

From your date of effect you add 10% to taxable sales (or absorb it in your price), issue tax invoices to registered customers (they need one to claim a credit on anything over $82.50 including GST), lodge a BAS each quarter (each month once turnover reaches $20 million) and claim the GST in your business purchases. The BAS and GST credits simulator shows what a typical quarter then looks like.