A freelance creative is entitled to an ABN as a sole trader when they are carrying on an enterprise: genuine, ongoing business activity, rather than a hobby or work done as an employee. Applying through the Australian Business Register (ABR) costs nothing. Turnover does not decide entitlement. GST registration is a separate question with its own threshold.
Most of the confusion around the ABN sole trader question comes from mixing those two tests together. An ABN (Australian Business Number) is the identifier the government, clients and suppliers use to recognise your business. A sole trader is the simplest structure available: one person owns the business, carries legal responsibility for everything including its debts, and can employ other people.
That simplicity suits most creatives starting out. The application itself is short. The harder part is knowing whether your photography, gigs or illustration work counts as an enterprise in the first place, and what the number changes once it lands in your inbox.
Some online guides claim an ABN only becomes "required" once your turnover passes the GST threshold. That is wrong, and it trips people up in both directions. Entitlement to an ABN depends on whether you are carrying on an enterprise. GST registration depends on turnover. A designer earning a modest amount from regular, businesslike commissions can be entitled to an ABN from day one, and a person with a large one-off windfall from selling their personal guitar collection is not running an enterprise at all.
The rule that catches creatives most often is the employee carve-out. If you have been engaged to do work as an employee, that work does not belong under an ABN. Plenty of creatives run two lanes at once: a salaried role at an agency, a school or a venue, plus freelance jobs on the side. Both incomes can exist together. The salaried work stays under your tax file number (TFN) with tax withheld by your employer. Only the freelance work, done for your own clients on your own terms, sits under the ABN.
Where this goes wrong is when an employer asks a staff member to "just invoice us with an ABN" for work that looks and feels like employment. Whether a worker is an employee or a contractor is a legal question with consequences for tax, super and workplace rights, and anyone unsure about their arrangement can get advice from a lawyer or the Arts Law Centre of Australia.
This is where creative income gets genuinely murky, and where generic guides go quiet. A busker playing every Saturday, a potter selling through an online store, a band selling merch and downloads, a writer who wins the occasional prize: some of these are businesses and some are hobbies, and the line depends on how the activity is run rather than what kind of art it is.
The ATO publishes its own guidance on telling a hobby from a business, and that guidance is the authority. In practice, the questions worth asking about creative work look like this. Is the aim to make a profit, even if the profit has not arrived yet? Does the work happen regularly and repeatedly, or once in a blue moon? Is it run on a scale and in a manner that resembles other people in the same field, with quotes, invoices, a rate card and records? Would an outsider looking at the setup see a working creative practice, or a pastime that occasionally pays for itself?
A musician who books gigs every month, keeps a gig diary, invoices venues and markets their act is running something that looks like a business, even in a year where gear costs swallowed the fees. Someone who sells a handful of prints a year to friends, with no plan to grow it and no records, is far closer to a hobby. Losses on their own do not decide the matter. Many legitimate creative businesses run at a loss in their early years. Whether those losses can be offset against salary or other income is governed by separate rules, and that is a conversation to have with a registered tax agent before assuming the answer.
An ABN is a statement about how you work, not a reward for how much you earn.
Prizes, grants and sponsorships deserve their own mention. Their tax treatment can depend heavily on whether the recipient is in business, which is one more reason to settle the hobby or business question properly before registering rather than after.
The online application through the ABR is short, and it does not need a paid intermediary. Some services charge a fee simply to fill in the same government form on your behalf. Before starting, it helps to have the following ready:
Your TFN also comes into it. An ABN does not replace a TFN; as a sole trader you keep using your TFN for your individual tax return, and your business income is reported there.
Once you submit, there are three possible outcomes. A complete application can produce an ABN immediately. A refused application produces a refusal number and a follow-up letter explaining why. An application that needs a closer look produces a reference number while the ATO reviews it, and the ATO may get in touch for more information during that period.
The timeframes and basics below all come from the government's business portal (business.gov.au).
| Item | What the official guidance says |
|---|---|
| ABN format | A unique 11-digit identifier |
| Cost to apply through the ABR | Free |
| Complete application | Outcome straight away |
| Refused application | A follow-up letter explains the reason |
| Application under review | The ATO reviews it and may contact you for more information |
| Changes to your business details | Update within the required timeframe after becoming aware of the change; business.gov.au sets out the current deadline |
| Applying for a business name online | Around 10 to 15 minutes |
| Business name renewal | ASIC emails a renewal notice before it is due |
| GST registration once you know you will exceed the threshold | Within a set period after becoming aware; business.gov.au sets out the current deadline |
Trading under your own personal name, exactly as it appears, generally does not require a registered business name. Add anything to it, such as "Photography", "Studio" or "Sound", or trade as a band or brand name, and business name registration generally comes into play.
The order matters: an ABN comes first, and only then can you register a business name with ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission). Business names are registered nationally, so there is no separate state or territory registration to chase, whether you work from Penrith, Perth or Hobart. Once registered, the name needs to appear wherever you do business, including on invoices and quotes, and the registration needs renewing or ASIC may cancel it.
One misconception is worth correcting firmly. Registering a business name does not give you exclusive rights to it. Protecting a band name or studio brand is trade mark territory, and that is a question for a lawyer or the Arts Law Centre of Australia.
GST registration is a separate step, and an ABN is a prerequisite for registering online. GST (goods and services tax) is a 10% tax on most goods and services sold in Australia (the rate that has applied since 1 July 2000), and registration is compulsory once your GST turnover reaches $75,000, the threshold that has applied since 1 July 2007 (business.gov.au). A new business that expects to reach that figure in its first year is also expected to register. Ride-sourcing and taxi drivers, and anyone claiming fuel tax credits, must register regardless of turnover. For everyone else below the threshold, registration is optional.
GST turnover means income, not profit. As a simplified illustration using round hypothetical numbers: a videographer who bills $80,000 in a year and spends $40,000 on gear, travel and subcontractors makes about $40,000 in profit, yet their GST turnover is the full $80,000, which is over the $75,000 threshold that has applied since 1 July 2007. Real outcomes depend on individual circumstances, including which income counts towards GST turnover.
Registering voluntarily is a real choice with real obligations. A registered sole trader includes GST in their prices, can claim GST credits on business purchases, and lodges a BAS (business activity statement, the form used to report GST and certain other amounts to the ATO). Another simplified illustration: a registered photographer charging a hypothetical $2,000 for a shoot adds $200 GST (10%, the rate that has applied since 1 July 2000) and invoices $2,200, then passes that $200 to the ATO through the BAS, less any GST credits on eligible business costs. Whether voluntary registration makes sense depends on who your clients are and what you spend, and a registered tax agent can model it for your situation.
A creative who is not registered still has a duty here: their invoices must make clear that GST has not been included.
Getting the number is a small administrative moment that shifts how your freelance income works for the rest of the year. Once it lands:
The flip side of payers no longer withholding tax is that nobody is setting money aside on your behalf. Freelance income arrives gross, and the tax on it falls due when your individual return is assessed. Once business income appears in a lodged return, the ATO may also place you into PAYG instalments, which are regular prepayments towards the following year's tax. Lumpy creative income makes this the point where surprise bills tend to appear, and planning for tax across the year, rather than only at 30 June, can make those bills easier to manage.
Records matter from the first invoice. A separate bank account is not a legal requirement for a sole trader, but keeping business and personal money apart makes bookkeeping, deductions and any ATO query far simpler, and software such as Xero can track it.
The ABN also carries ongoing housekeeping. Changes to your details need updating within the required timeframe noted in the table above. If the business grows and you move from sole trader to a company or partnership, the sole trader ABN is cancelled and a new one is applied for under the new structure. The same cancellation applies if you close the business, sell it, or stop running it in Australia. Choosing the right moment to restructure depends on income, risk and plans, which makes it a natural point to get professional input.
This article is general information only, reflects the rules at the time of writing, and does not take your personal circumstances into account.
If your ABN paperwork feels more like feedback than music, give the Amplify 11 team a call on (02) 4715 1000 or drop a line to [email protected]. We'll help get your numbers in tune so you can get back to the main set.
Generally, yes. A sole trader has one ABN for their business, and it can cover several related activities, such as gigging, teaching lessons and selling merch, or photography alongside video work. The application asks you to describe your main activity, but that description does not limit you to a single type of work. A registered tax agent can confirm how your mix of activities is treated for tax and GST purposes.
If you supply work to a business without quoting an ABN, the payer may be required to withhold tax from the payment. Any amount withheld is not lost: it is generally reported to the ATO and credited against your tax when you lodge your individual tax return. If your application is under review, let the client know the reference number so they understand an ABN is on its way.
No. Individuals can complete the online application through the Australian Business Register themselves. A registered tax agent can lodge it on your behalf if you prefer, and many creatives find it useful to talk through the hobby or business question and GST before applying, since those decisions shape how the rest of the year runs. The application itself is straightforward for most sole traders.
An ABN on its own does not change your tax rates. As a sole trader, your business profit is added to any other income, such as a salary, and taxed at individual rates through your individual tax return. Running a business may let you claim deductions for eligible business expenses, but the final result depends entirely on your circumstances, income and records.
Sign up to receive relevant advice for your business.
