Starting a Chauffeur Business in Australia: GST, Levies and Licensing, State by State
Australia regulates chauffeur work state by state, taxes it federally, and levies it per trip in the two biggest markets. None of it is difficult once laid out in order, but the order matters, because two of the obligations start before your first booking.
1. GST: registered from dollar one
Most Australian small businesses only register for GST at $75,000 turnover. Chauffeur operators do not get that runway. The ATO treats limousine travel like taxi travel: registration is required regardless of turnover, from the first fare. Register before you take a booking, quote fares GST-inclusive, and lodge the activity statements on time. It is the least glamorous item on this list and the most commonly missed.
2. State accreditation
Each state licenses the activity differently, and the terminology never quite lines up:
| State | Regulator | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | Point to Point Transport Commissioner | Booking service provider authorisation; vehicles and drivers meet P2P safety standards |
| VIC | Safe Transport Victoria | Commercial passenger vehicle (CPV) registration for the business, vehicles and drivers |
| QLD | TMR | Booked hire service licence per vehicle; operator and driver authorisation |
| WA | Department of Transport | On-demand booking service authorisation; passenger transport vehicle authorisation |
| SA / TAS / ACT / NT | State transport departments | Accreditation regimes of varying weight; check the current requirements before operating |
The common thread everywhere: the business, the vehicle and the driver each carry an authorisation, and safety duties (fatigue, vehicle standards, record keeping) attach to the operator, not just the driver.
3. The per-trip levies
The two biggest markets add a levy to every trip:
- NSW: a passenger service levy of $1.20 per passenger service transaction, payable by the service provider. Passed on to the passenger it attracts GST and shows up as $1.32 on the fare.
- VIC: a commercial passenger vehicle service levy on every trip originating in Victoria: $1.38 including GST from 1 July 2026, CPI-indexed each year, remitted through the State Revenue Office.
- QLD and others: Queensland levies booked hire and taxi trips too; amounts and mechanics differ and are gazetted periodically. Check the current rate with the state regulator rather than a blog post, this one included.
Two practical implications. Your quoting needs to add the levy on the trips it applies to, automatically, because a dollar-thirty leak on every fare is real money at volume. And your reporting needs to produce the per-trip counts the revenue offices assess against, which is painful from a spreadsheet and trivial from a booking system.
4. Insurance and airports
Comprehensive vehicle insurance rated for hire-and-reward use, public liability cover, and CTP appropriate to the vehicle class are the baseline; corporate clients will ask for the certificates. Airports are their own jurisdiction: most capital-city airports require operators to hold a permit or pay access fees for pickups, with their own waiting rules. Price them into airport work from day one; the pricing guide covers where they sit in the fare.
5. Drivers: contract rates, not wages
The industry’s standard engagement model is the independent contractor: an ABN-holding driver paid an agreed hourly contract rate or a percentage of the fare, invoicing you (or you generating recipient-created invoices for them). Never assume the label settles the law. Classification follows the real arrangement, and both the ATO and Fair Work publish current guidance worth reading before you standardise your driver agreement.
Day-one checklist
ABN and GST registration, state accreditation for business, vehicles and drivers, insurance certificates, levy registration in NSW or VIC, airport permits where you operate, a written driver agreement, and a cancellation and no-show policy you can point to. From there the compliance load is recurring rather than novel: activity statements, levy returns, accreditation renewals.
Vecturo is built AUD-first for exactly this environment: GST-inclusive quoting, airport fees and tolls handled per trip, and the per-trip records that levy returns are assessed against, kept as a side effect of dispatching normally rather than as a Sunday-night reconstruction.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to register for GST to run a chauffeur service in Australia?
Yes. The ATO treats limousine and chauffeur travel the same way as taxi travel for GST purposes: you must register for GST regardless of turnover, from the first fare. The usual $75,000 registration threshold does not apply to this industry. Fares are then quoted and invoiced GST-inclusive.
What is the point-to-point levy in NSW?
NSW charges a passenger service levy of $1.20 per passenger service transaction, payable by the service provider. If the operator passes it on to the passenger it attracts GST, making the amount on the fare $1.32. The current rate is published by the NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner.
What is the trip levy in Victoria?
Victoria charges a commercial passenger vehicle service levy on every taxi, hire-car and rideshare trip originating in the state. From 1 July 2026 the levy is $1.38 including GST per trip, indexed annually. It is collected and remitted by the booking service provider through the State Revenue Office.
Are chauffeur drivers employees or contractors?
In the Australian chauffeur industry drivers are most commonly engaged as independent contractors, paid an agreed hourly contract rate or a percentage of the fare. The classification depends on the actual working arrangement, not the label, so operators should confirm their structure against current ATO and Fair Work guidance.