GST on Overseas Brand Deals: What Melbourne Influencers Get Wrong

Three Types of Income, Three Different Rules

A working content creator typically has three distinct income streams flowing in at once, cash payments from brand deals, gifted product sent for review or promotion, and platform payouts like AdSense or a Creator Fund. Each is treated differently for GST and, in the case of gifted product, differently for income tax as well. Lumping them all into one "brand income" line in Xero is the fastest way to misreport a BAS, and it's the single most common bookkeeping mistake True Tally sees when a Melbourne creator's books come across our desk for the first time.

Cash Brand Deals With Overseas Companies

When the paying brand is based overseas and isn't registered or required to be registered for GST in Australia, the supply of promotional services is generally GST-free under the export rules in the GST Act, meaning no GST is added to the invoice, even though the fee is still fully assessable for income tax. This surprises a lot of creators who assume GST-free means tax-free; it doesn't. It just means the 10 percent doesn't get added on top of the invoice to that particular brand. An ABN is still required to invoice the brand at all, and without one, some overseas payers will withhold tax from the payment under no-ABN withholding rules if they treat the arrangement as an Australian business transaction.

Gifted Product Is Not a Genuine Gift for Tax Purposes

Free product sent by a brand in exchange for a post, a story or a review is treated by the ATO as a non-cash business benefit, assessable income at the market value of the item received, exactly as if the brand had paid cash and the creator had bought the product themselves. This applies whether the item is a $40 skincare set or a $4,000 handbag, and it applies regardless of whether the creator asked for it or the brand sent it unsolicited as part of a seeding campaign. The distinction the ATO draws is whether the product was received in connection with content the creator posts about their business, a genuine personal gift from a friend with no content expectation attached is different, but very little of what a working creator receives from brands falls into that category.

The $75,000 GST Registration Threshold

Once turnover from the creator business, cash deals, the market value of gifted product, and platform payments combined, reaches or is expected to reach $75,000 in a 12-month period, GST registration becomes compulsory. From that point, domestic brand deals with Australian companies generally attract GST, while deals with genuinely overseas brands remain GST-free under the export rules, and the two need to be tracked separately in the BAS rather than reported as one blended figure.

Platform Payments and Foreign Exchange

AdSense, TikTok Creator Fund, Twitch payouts and similar platform income are typically paid by an overseas entity and treated the same way as a direct overseas brand deal for GST purposes, generally GST-free, still assessable for income tax. These payments also need to be converted to AUD at the exchange rate applicable on the date of receipt, not the date the platform's dashboard shows the earnings accruing, and reconciled against the platform's own payment reports each month so nothing gets missed or double-counted when the bank feed shows a lump sum in a foreign currency.

KPIs and Records Worth Keeping

• Cash income by brand and country, separates GST-free overseas deals from taxable domestic ones.
• Gifted product log, item, brand, date received and market value, kept as the item arrives, not reconstructed at tax time.
• Platform payout reconciliation, monthly, against each platform's own earnings report.
• Rolling 12-month turnover, tracked against the $75,000 GST threshold before it's crossed, not after.