If you only rent out residential property (a house, a unit, a flat), you generally don’t register for GST: the rent is input taxed, so it carries no GST and doesn’t count toward the $75,000 registration threshold. If you rent out commercial property, the rent does count, so you must register once your GST turnover reaches $75,000, and from then the rent is taxable.
Everything below is as at October 2026, from the ATO’s own pages (linked at the end). Which side of the line a particular property falls on can turn on its facts, so treat this as a map and ask a registered tax agent or the ATO about your own property.
Residential rent: input taxed
The ATO says that if you rent out residential premises for residential accommodation, your rent is input taxed. You don’t include GST in the rent, and you can’t claim GST credits on the costs of the rental, such as agent’s commission or repairs and maintenance. Bonds and security deposits aren’t subject to GST either.
A residential property is one that is suitable for and capable of being occupied as a residence. It includes houses, units and flats. Because the rent is input taxed, it is left out of your GST turnover, so a landlord who only has residential rent and no other taxable or GST-free sales doesn’t have to register. The ATO’s own wording is that you generally won’t be required to register for GST if you only receive residential rent from your property.
Commercial rent: taxable
If you lease out a factory, shop or office and you’re registered or required to be registered for GST, you are liable for GST on the rent you charge, and you can claim GST credits on costs related to leasing the property, such as the GST in the managing agent’s fees.
Commercial rent counts toward your GST turnover. You must register for GST when your GST turnover is $75,000 or more (the ATO’s threshold, $150,000 for a non-profit organisation). The ATO applies two tests, and you reach the threshold if either is met:
- your current GST turnover (this month plus the previous 11 months) is $75,000 or more, or
- your projected GST turnover (this month plus the next 11 months) is likely to be $75,000 or more.
You have 21 days to register once you reach it. GST turnover is your gross business income, not your profit, excluding the GST in your sales and a few other items. Input-taxed sales, including residential rent, are taken out. When working out projected turnover, you also leave out amounts from selling a business asset.
Below $75,000 you can still register voluntarily. The ATO says that if you do, you generally must stay registered for at least 12 months. If you don’t register, your commercial rent isn’t taxable, and your tenant can’t claim GST credits on it.
What counts toward the $75,000
| Counts | Doesn’t count |
|---|---|
| Rent from commercial property (shops, offices, factories) | Rent from residential premises used predominantly for residential accommodation |
| Rent from commercial residential premises (see below) | Sale of existing residential property |
| Your other taxable and GST-free sales from any enterprise you run | Private sales not connected with an enterprise |
The threshold is about your whole enterprise, not one property. If you have commercial rent plus a business that makes taxable sales, add them together.
Mixed-use properties
Some properties are partly residential and partly commercial, such as a shop with a flat behind it. The ATO’s view in its determination on letting residential premises (GSTD 2000/9) is:
- the lease is input taxed to the extent that the premises are residential premises used predominantly for residential accommodation,
- if you’re registered or required to be, the lease is taxable to the extent the premises are not,
- only the portion of the rent that relates to the non-residential part counts toward your registration threshold.
The ATO’s own examples are a house with two rooms converted into a vet’s surgery, and a shop with a small residence at the rear. In both, only the portion of the rent for the surgery or shop counts toward the $75,000. If you’re below it and don’t register, that portion isn’t taxable and the tenant can’t claim credits on it.
A tenant working from home in a house doesn’t change it. The ATO’s example is a freelance writer who sets up a home office in a rented house: the house stays residential, so the rent stays input taxed.
Short-stay accommodation is different
“Residential” and “commercial residential” are different things for GST. Commercial residential premises include hotels, motels, inns, hostels, boarding houses, caravan parks and camping grounds, and leasing them is taxable. The ATO describes them as run in a business-like way, able to take several unrelated guests at once, with central management taking bookings and arranging services.
A single holiday apartment or unit is different. The ATO says it is residential property, even when it sits inside a hotel-style complex, so letting it to guests, or to a manager who runs it as part of a hotel, is input taxed. Where the line falls for a bigger short-stay operation depends on the facts, and the ATO’s ruling GSTR 2012/6 sets out the meaning. If you let several units or rooms to short-stay guests, check this with a registered tax agent or the ATO.
A caution about selling
Selling is different from renting. Selling existing residential premises is input taxed. Selling new residential premises is generally a taxable sale, if you’re carrying on an enterprise. The ATO says residential premises are new if they haven’t been sold as residential premises before, were created by substantial renovation, or replaced demolished buildings, and that they generally stop being new once they’ve been rented out for 5 years. Buying and selling property with the aim of a profit, or developing it to sell, can count as carrying on an enterprise even for a one-off project. If you’re building or renovating to sell, get advice on GST before you start.
A worked example
The Harbour Family Trust owns two properties:
- a commercial unit let to a dental supplies business at $5,500 a month, which is $66,000 a year (GST excluded), and
- a flat let to a tenant at $2,400 a month, which is $28,800 a year.
The flat’s rent is input taxed and doesn’t count. The trust’s GST turnover is $66,000 from the unit alone, which is below $75,000, so the trust isn’t required to register. It could register voluntarily, but then must charge GST on the rent and stay registered for at least 12 months. If it doesn’t register, the unit’s rent has no GST in it and the tenant can’t claim a credit.
At the next rent review the unit goes to $6,500 a month, or $78,000 a year. The trust’s projected GST turnover is now over $75,000, so it has to register within 21 days. From then it charges GST on the unit’s rent. Its lease says the rent is plus GST, so the tenant pays $6,500 plus $650 GST, $7,150 a month (if a lease is silent on GST, the GST can come out of the $6,500 instead, so check the lease). The $650 is one eleventh of $7,150. It reports that GST on its BAS, and it can claim the GST in costs for the unit, such as $30 in a $330 managing agent’s fee. It still can’t claim any GST on costs for the flat.
Questions
Do I need an ABN for a rental property?
It’s a separate question from GST. The ATO’s determination says letting property on a regular or continuous basis can be carrying on an enterprise, which can entitle you to an ABN, and that the ABN and GST questions need to be answered separately.
Does residential rent count toward the $75,000?
No. Residential rent is input taxed and excluded from your GST turnover.
I rent a shop below $75,000 a year. Do I have to charge GST?
Not unless you register. If you’re below the threshold and not registered, the rent isn’t taxable. You can register voluntarily.
Do I get GST credits on repairs to my rental house?
No. Because residential rent is input taxed, the ATO says you can’t claim credits on costs related to the rental, such as repairs, maintenance and agent’s commission.
Where Beans fits
If you hold several properties, possibly in different entities, the records are where it gets untidy. Beans keeps the books as you go: bank lines and receipts are recorded in the right entity’s books as they arrive, across several entities and your personal money, and it only asks when the call is yours to make. It works up the BAS from books that are already done, and the BAS waits for your yes.
Sources (all ato.gov.au, checked 15 October 2026): Residential premises, GST and residential property, GST and property, Commercial property, Commercial residential property, Registering for GST, GSTD 2000/9: if you let out residential premises do you need to get an ABN or register for GST?.
General information, not tax advice.