Australia’s High Court has dismissed Uber Australia’s challenge to New South Wales payroll-tax assessments, holding that fares remitted to drivers can be treated as taxable wages under the state’s contractor provisions.
The unanimous result leaves intact the New South Wales Court of Appeal’s conclusion that Uber was an employer for payroll-tax purposes during the 2015 to 2020 financial years. The case turned on the statutory treatment of “relevant contracts”, not on whether drivers were employees at common law.
Uber’s standard-form driver agreements required a driver who accepted a trip to transport the rider to the nominated destination. Chief Justice Stephen Gageler said that obligation meant the driver supplied a driving service to Uber under the contract, even though the rider received the physical benefit of the journey. The Court also rejected the argument that the service was merely ancillary to the use of the driver’s vehicle.
The Court further held that the remitted fares were paid “for or in relation to” the driving work. Uber collected the rider’s payment, retained its service fee and passed the balance to the driver. That payment structure was enough to engage the deeming rules in the Payroll Tax Act 2007 (NSW).
The assessments at issue covered approximately A$81 million in payroll tax and interest, according to the case materials. The appeal was dismissed with costs. The judgment gives the contractor provisions a direct application to a major platform model and confirms that contractual form alone will not keep gig-economy payments outside the payroll-tax base.
The High Court’s judgment in Uber Australia Pty Ltd v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue [2026] HCA 40 is available here.
