TPAR for bookkeepers: what the Taxable payments annual report asks for, and where ABN and GST checks fit

The Taxable payments annual report (TPAR) is how some businesses tell the ATO what they paid contractors during the financial year. For a bookkeeper it usually lands as a job in July and August: pull a year of payments out of the file, group them by contractor, and make sure each contractor's ABN, name and address are right before it's lodged. This page sets out what the ATO says the report covers, and where register checks fit in. It's general information only.

Who lodges a TPAR

The ATO's list of services in the taxable payments reporting system is: building and construction; cleaning; courier and road freight; information technology (IT); and security, investigation or surveillance. A business that provides one of these services and pays contractors to deliver it may need to lodge.

Outside building and construction, the ATO describes a 10% test: if payments received for these services are 10% or more of the business's income for the year, a TPAR is needed; under 10%, it isn't. Courier and road freight are combined for the test. The ATO's "Work out if you need to lodge a TPAR" page walks through the calculation, and there's a non-lodgment advice form for businesses that don't need to lodge.

Contractors can be sole traders, companies, partnerships or trusts, and include subcontractors and consultants.

When it's due

The ATO says a TPAR must be lodged by 28 August each year, for payments made in the financial year to 30 June. Paper lodgments were no longer accepted after 28 August 2025. It's lodged through SBR-enabled business software, Online services for business or for individuals, or by a registered tax or BAS agent through Online services for agents.

What goes in it for each contractor

https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/preparing-lodging-and-paying/reports-and-returns/taxable-payments-annual-reportccording to the ATO, each contractor's entry needs their ABN (if known, and every ABN they used if it changed during the year), their business or individual name, their address, and totals for the year in whole dollars: the gross amount paid including GST and any tax withheld, the total GST paid to them, and any tax withheld because no ABN was quoted.

The ATO lists payments that don't go in, including payments for materials only, labour that is incidental to a supply of materials, invoices still unpaid at 30 June, labour-hire arrangements, payments to employees (those go through PAYG withholding or Single Touch Payroll), payments within a consolidated group, and private or domestic payments. Where an invoice includes both labour and materials, the ATO says to report the total.

Where a contractor didn't quote an ABN and an amount was withheld, the ATO says the withholding is reported either in the TPAR or on the PAYG payment summary for withholding where ABN not quoted (NAT 3448), not both.

Why the ABN and GST details matter

The report identifies each contractor by ABN and name, so those two fields carry the most weight. A typo in an ABN, a contractor whose ABN was cancelled part-way through the year, or a contact saved under a trading name the register doesn't show are the usual reasons a contractor's line needs a second look.

The GST column is a second reason to look. If a contractor's GST registration ended during the year, the GST amounts on their later invoices may not line up with the register, and it's better to find that in July than after lodgment.

The ATO's own advice on its contractor details page is to check that the ABN on each invoice matches the ABN on file, create a new contractor record when it doesn't, and confirm the contractor's ABN, name and GST registration on ABN Lookup or in the ATO app.

Checking a whole contractor list at once

https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/preparing-lodging-and-paying/reports-and-returns/taxable-payments-annual-reportBN Lookup is one ABN at a time. For a builder or cleaning business with forty subbies, that's an afternoon. Export the contractor contacts from Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks and upload the file to ClearABN instead: each row gets the ABN checksum and a register lookup for status, entity and business names, and GST registration, and the first 25 rows of each file are free.

Rows come back flagged when the ABN is missing, fails the checksum, is cancelled, isn't on the register, has no current GST registration, or the name doesn't closely match. Add a bill date column and each row is also checked against the register on that date, which helps with a contractor whose status changed during the year.

You also get a dated PDF of what the register showed, which is a tidy thing to keep on the client file next to the lodged report.

General information only

This page summarises the ATO's published guidance in plain terms. It is general information only, not tax advice, and it doesn't cover every case. Whether a business needs to lodge, and what goes in its report, depends on its circumstances: read the ATO pages below or ask a registered tax or BAS agent. ClearABN reports what the Australian Business Register shows; it doesn't decide anything about a TPAR.

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Official sources

ClearABN shows Australian Business Register facts and the result of an ABN checksum. It does not provide tax, legal or financial advice. Links go to the ATO and the Australian Business Register so you can read their pages yourself.