After Uber, where the Tax Office may look next: Your client’s website

I work on both sides. I am a registered tax agent for medical and healthcare practices, and for ten years I was a general practice accreditation surveyor with AGPAL. A survey never starts with the paperwork. It starts at the front counter: the fee sign, the phone script, the recall letters, and who controls the appointment book.

After the High Court’s decision in Uber Australia Pty Ltd v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue [2026] HCA 40, auditors will look in the same places, and they may start online. We have received reports of reviews beginning with the practice website: who sets the fees, and whose practice the patient is told they are visiting. Accountants should get there first. Most firms have a GP, specialist, allied health or mortgage broker client, or one relying on contractors. Each now needs to show it runs a genuine independent business.

What the High Court looked at

The majority looked past the labels ([86]) to how the arrangement worked. Uber’s “recommended” fare was in practice the fare ([73]), and the money ran through Uber’s hands ([90]).

That builds on Thomas and Naaz [2023] NSWCA 40, where the doctors had agreed in writing to bulk bill all services and Medicare payments ran through the practice, which kept 30 per cent.

One question, asked many ways

Payroll tax asks whether services are supplied in relation to the practice’s business. The ATO’s TR 2023/4 applies the common law test mainly to the contract terms, extended by section 12(3) of the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act to contracts wholly or principally for labour, where a real right to delegate matters (JMC Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [2023] FCAFC 76). PCG 2023/2 sets out how the ATO approaches classification.

With super at 12 per cent and Payday Super requiring it with each pay from 1 July 2026, a misclassification costs more and surfaces sooner. Even a genuine personal services business that splits income with family faces Part IVA risk under PCG 2025/5. And revenue offices data match: Revenue NSW has told NSW Parliament it uses it, so the tax return you sign can be the first thing an auditor reads.

Fair Work is the wild card. In Weddall & Ors v Rasier Pacific Pty Ltd & Anor, the Federal Court has been asked whether Uber drivers are employees, and judgment is reserved. The claim began in 2021, so it may turn on the contract-based test. For work from 26 August 2024, though, the whole-of-relationship test in section 15AA of the Fair Work Act looks at how the relationship works. That is what a surveyor checks.

The accreditation trap

The new RACGP Standards for general practices (6th edition) are written for “the practice”. Read literally, the practice publishes its billing principles (PP1.A), monitors and adjusts team workload (F7.A) and runs patient reminders (CG6.A). If the service entity does this itself, it looks like Uber is setting the fare. The Standards also allow clinical autonomy (F6.A): the practitioner instructs, and the service entity carries it out. I have seen accreditation manuals undo good service agreements.

The bulk billing trap

Claiming state payroll tax relief often meant disclosing GP arrangements as relevant contracts and paying the tax; in NSW, disclosure is a condition of the rebate. Paying payroll tax does not make a GP an employee, but regulators can rely on it, and it is hard to walk back.

The Commonwealth’s Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program, from 1 November 2025, requires the practice to bulk bill every eligible service and splits a 12.5 per cent incentive between practice and GP. If every doctor switched at once, regulators may see the same collective bulk billing agreement that featured in Thomas and Naaz, unless each doctor’s decision was recorded in writing at the time. Treat these clients as higher risk.

Don’t reach for the payroll

Employing every doctor may be a knee-jerk reaction. Many practices run on thin margins, and PAYG withholding, super, payroll tax and leave could make some unviable. Doctors also lose control of fees, hours and patients.

Most importantly, an employer is vicariously liable for an employee’s negligence in the course of their work (Hollis v Vabu Pty Ltd [2001] HCA 44). That clinical liability, not just tax, is why owners are reluctant to employ practitioners.

Relief is patchy, and GP-only

• Queensland exempts GP wages from 1 December 2024 (QRO).
• NSW rebates contractor GP wages only where clinics bulk bill at least 80 per cent in metropolitan Sydney or 70 per cent elsewhere (Revenue NSW).
• Victoria, South Australia, and the ACT exempt GP wages for bulk-billed or fully funded services (SRO Victoria; RevenueSA PTASA004).
• Tasmania has election commitments, but no legislated exemption; the Northern Territory has only a $2.5 million threshold, and Western Australia lacks the deemed employer provisions found elsewhere.

Private billing, non-GP specialists, dentists and allied health remain exposed.

Here are seven questions to ask before you sign the tax return, to determine if your client is a truly independent business:

1. Can I see the service agreement, and does it match reality?
2. Does each practitioner set their own fees and publish them on their own website?
3. Whose account receives patient fees, and is each practitioner paid only from receipts, carrying bad debts?
4. Are recalls sent on the practitioner’s instruction?
5. Who sets the sessions, and can the practitioner choose their own locum?
6. Has the practice claimed a state GP exemption or joined the bulk billing incentive, and is each doctor’s billing decision in writing?
7. Does the return match where the practitioner works and how they are paid?

The fix is usually a written instruction from each practitioner, their own fee page and a reworded on-hold message, not a payroll. Before you sign, check the website and the front counter.

David Dahm is a chartered accountant, registered tax agent for medical and healthcare practices, former general practice accreditation surveyor and founder of Health and Life.