TPAR for tradies: paying subbies and the 28 August report
Who in building and construction has to lodge a taxable payments annual report (TPAR), which subbie payments go in it, the details you need for each contractor, the 28 August due date, how to lodge, non-lodgment advice and penalties.
If your trade business pays subbies, the ATO probably wants to hear about it once a year. The taxable payments annual report (TPAR) lists what you paid each contractor during the financial year. The ATO says it uses TPAR data to find contractors who under-report their income. Here's how it works for building and construction, from the ATO's own pages.
Who has to lodge
The ATO says a business that is primarily in the building and construction industry must lodge a TPAR if it has an ABN and makes payments to contractors or subcontractors for building and construction services. Contractors can be sole traders, companies, partnerships or trusts.
You count as "primarily" building and construction if any of these apply:
- 50% or more of your business income this financial year comes from building and construction services
- 50% or more of your business activity this financial year relates to building and construction services
- 50% or more of your business income last financial year came from building and construction services.
That last test catches people out. The ATO's cabinet maker example earned 60% from cabinet work one year and 40% the next, and still had to lodge for the second year because the year before was over 50%. You need to review it every year.
The ATO also treats subcontracting chains separately. If a builder pays you and you pay another subbie, the builder reports what it paid you, and you report what you paid your subbie, provided your own business is primarily building and construction.
What counts as building and construction services
The ATO definition is broad. It covers work on any part of a building, structure, works, surface or sub-surface, including construction, alteration, assembly, installation, erection, demolition, excavation, finishing, repair, maintenance, site preparation and design. Its list of examples includes erection of frames, concreting, electrical, plumbing, painting, fencing, roofing, scaffolding, surveying, and cabinet making including off-site fabrication for installation at a building site. So a fab shop that subs out steel installation to another crew is squarely inside it.
Two ATO examples are worth knowing:
- Test and tag: paying an electrician to test and tag your tools is not reported, because servicing equipment and tools isn't a building and construction service.
- Plant hire: dry hire (a machine with no operator) is hire of goods and isn't reported. Wet hire (machine plus operator) is a building and construction service, so it is reported.
Which payments go in, and which don't
Report the total paid to each contractor for those services. If an invoice covers both labour and materials, report the whole amount. Amounts are in whole dollars; drop the cents.
The ATO says you don't report:
- payments for materials only
- incidental labour, such as a supplier showing you how to fit the first tap of a batch
- invoices still unpaid at 30 June. Only payments made on or before 30 June count for that year
- labour-hire or on-hire workers
- wages and other PAYG withholding payments to employees. Those go through Single Touch Payroll
- payments within a consolidated group
- private and domestic payments, such as paying a plumber for your own home.
If a contractor doesn't quote an ABN, you may need to withhold tax from the payment. The ATO says to report the amounts withheld in either the TPAR or the PAYG withholding where ABN not quoted annual report, but not both.
Details you need for each contractor
For each contractor you paid, the TPAR needs:
- their ABN, if known. If it changed during the year, include each ABN
- their name (business name or individual's name)
- their address
- for the financial year, in whole dollars: the gross amount paid (including GST and any tax withheld), the total GST paid, and the total tax withheld where no ABN was quoted.
The ATO may also ask for a contractor's phone number, email and bank details if you paid by transfer. It suggests checking each invoice's ABN against your records and confirming details on ABN Lookup.
When it's due
The TPAR is due by 28 August each year and covers payments made in the financial year to 30 June.
How to lodge
The ATO no longer accepts paper TPARs after 28 August 2025, so lodgment is online:
- through SBR-enabled business software, or by uploading a TPAR data file through Online services for business
- without software, through Online services for business (Lodgments, then Taxable payments annual reporting) or Online services for individuals and sole traders via myGov (Tax, Lodgments, then Taxable payments annual report). Both let you save a draft and come back
- through your registered tax or BAS agent.
Lodged one with a mistake? The ATO has a process to amend a lodged TPAR.
Don't need to lodge? Tell the ATO
If you didn't pay contractors for these services, submit a TPAR non-lodgment advice form through ATO online services. One form can cover several years, and you can use it to say you won't need to lodge in future, for example if you've stopped using subbies.
Penalties
In March 2026 the ATO said it will apply penalties to businesses that haven't lodged TPARs for 2025 or earlier years and have been sent three reminder letters. It reported issuing just over $5 million in TPAR penalties the year before. The penalties are aimed at businesses that neither lodge nor submit a non-lodgment advice, so don't ignore the letters.
A simple routine
- Before a new subbie starts, get their ABN, legal name and address, and check the ABN on ABN Lookup.
- Each time you pay, log the date, amount including GST, and whether it was materials only.
- After 30 June, total each subbie's reportable payments in whole dollars and lodge by 28 August, or hand the figures to your BAS agent.
Free tool (they run in your browser):
GST & BAS Quick Calculator – add or remove GST, estimate G1, 1A and 1B for a Simpler BAS, and check the $75,000 registration threshold.
Sources
- ATO – Taxable payments annual report (TPAR)
- ATO – TPAR: building and construction services
- ATO – Payments businesses need to report in their TPAR
- ATO – TPAR contractor details to report
- ATO – Lodge your TPAR
- ATO – TPAR Non-lodgment advice
- ATO small business newsroom – Is your TPAR overdue? Lodge now to avoid penalties (4 March 2026)
Related guides
- QBCC licence, the $3,300 threshold, contracts and deposits
- Simpler BAS: what goes in G1, 1A and 1B
- Do I need to register for GST? The $75,000 rule
- What a tax invoice must show (Australia)
General information only, summarised from the official sources above as at the review date. It isn't legal, tax, WHS or engineering advice. Rules change and your situation may differ, so check the source or ask a professional.